Want to make smaller size batch!

I am a poor college student who doesn't have a lot of money for ingredients. I got a 5 gallon kit and it works great. Instead of making 5 gallon batches each time, i was wondering if there is any special things that i need to think about doing before doing it. Like would i use the same about of ingredients for 1 or 2 gallon batch as i would for a 5 gallon batch our would i need to use the ingredients proportionally. Would i also need to use a smaller fermenter?

Yes, you'll scale the recipe down. Divide by 5 for a 1 gal batch (assuming you're using extracts).

Smaller fermenter would be best, but your bucket will still work.

The reason most people use 5 gallons is that it's a good compromise between work and results - i.e. it takes about the same effort to make a 1 gal batch as a 5 gal.

Also, I brew all-grain and my last batch (a standard bitter) cost me $11.47 for a 5 gal. batch. 7 lbs grain, 1oz high alpha hops, dry yeast. It's very doable if you put your mind to it. Play around here http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/brew-builder (my local store); change batch size to 1 gal if you like.

Maybe get some friends involved and split the cost of a 5-gal batch? In my college days I'd have to really look hard for someone who didn't drink.

Thanks this was a lot of help

Doing smaller batches may actually be more expensive in the long run unless you are harvesting yeast. You will need to buy yeast every time you make beer. Probably tacks on $8-9 for dry yeast and much much more for liquid yeast.

We actually started brewing with 1-gallon all-grain batches. The grain bill is typically around 2.5 lbs. We generally use 2.5 qts of mash water, 1 gal to sparge, for a total boil of around 5 qts. If you take a 5-gal recipe and figure out the % of each type of malt you can construct a 2-3 lb grain recipe with the same proportions. Transposing hops is usually as simple as dividing by 5. And it is a great batch size for creating your own brews. brooklynbrewshop.com sells all-grain 1-gal kits for $15 but you can assemble your own for much less. We ferment in a 1 gal glass jug ($10 at the brew shop). We fill 7 Grolsch swing tops with each gallon. It was a low-overhead way to get started because it required no equipment that we did not already have in the kitchen. That said, within 4 months we started assembling our 5-gal equipment and never looked back!

I'm an all grain brewer who brews 5 or 10g batches, but over the winter I brewed 5 all grain 1g batches of light lagers to show BMC drinking friends it's possible to homebrew better lagers than Miller Lite, and tested out different recipes for each batch. It was fun, but not something I plan on repeating. Like others said, it's easy to do, but it's nearly as much work as a 5 gallon batch except you can boil inside and don't have to mill as much grain. Obviously it takes less time to get water up to temp/boil too. I'd say just save up for 5 gallon batches, but if you want to do 1g batches, you can buy jug wine, choke it down, and use the jug as a fermenter for about the same price as one at the LHBS. If you can afford enough for 2-3g at a time and split it between a few jugs you could save some time and not have to save up for the full 5g ingredients.

You should probably make 10 gallon batches. No one in college has enough beer. You need to be prepared.