Stupid idea

hello all,

First let me say I am a brand spankin new beer brewer. I have done win and mead before and am about ready to jump into beer. I am choosing to go all grain from the start.

I have a stupid question. I think I have a basic understanding of the recipes and such. Will be better once I do my first batch in about a month. But my general question is this. I see recipes all over the place for 5 gallon batches and up. That's fine. WHAT IF. What if someone would like to maybe make a smaller batch, say 2 or 3 gallons. I am thinking along the lines of doing this stove top during the dead of winter. I do not have a garage to do the brewing in and I don't necessarily need 5 gallons all the time. So I was thinking about ways to do smaller all grain batches on my stove top? Possible? I could certainly bring a smaller batch to boil on a stove in a 4 gallon pot so to speak. I just would like to know if it is possible. I am sure we could do the math on the recipes fairly close but I wonder about using liquid yeast, or any yeast for that fact.

I would be curious to know any thoughts as I am not smart enough to think this through yet being a newbie and all. Again, just a stupid idea I am thinking about so please be kind in your responses

Iceman

Check this out by DeathBrewer
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

Very simple and easy to clean. It's essentially the Brew-In-A-Bag technique with a Sparge step. It's what I currently use and I couldn't be happier with the outcome of my beer.

Also, I typically do 1-5 gallon batches also. I love to experiment and if I screw up, there isn't much beer to throw out. Haven't screwed up yet, however I am crossing my fingers.

lots of people do small batches. it's good for experimental recipes, stovetop brewing, or if you like to brew but don't drink that much.

I personally don't get to brew as often as I like, so when I do, I like to make sure that I can make enough beer to last. That means 5 gallon batches. But I am hopefully going to do a 3 gallon batch that I'll try to convert to N/A for my bro-in-law who is recently sober.

I say go for it.

Pick up a copy of BeerSmith, it can do all the math for you!

I second picking up Beersmith or Promash software. It is much easier than calculator method. I've made calculating mistakes and haven't noticed until my grains have arrived.

Just put in original recipe in, hit the scale button, type in the amount you want the recipe to be in gallons and PRESTO!!

Word of advice. When working with scaled down recipes, I have found it easier and quicker to work with hops in grams than oz. Scaling down oz. numbers can be a bear to work with.

I do half batches all the time. I agree about using the grams for ease of scaling. Fortunately my scale measures in oz and grams. I LOVE using Deathbrewer's stove-top all grain method for these half-batches on my stove. VERY good procedure.

It's not a stupid idea, at least 70% of my brewing is 2.5 gallon batches. I put a ton of info on the web about it. You can find the info here

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/half-batches-160483/#post2259511

Also, this article might be helpful to read:
http://byo.com/component/resource/article/1410-small-scale-brewing

+5 on the Stovetop 2.5 AG brews. That's all I do! So easy to do, simple/straight forward process, and fairly good efficiency!

Since I bottle, I'd personally rather have more variety of brew sittin around than 2 full cases of just 1 style that will take me weeks to finish.

Brewing smaller batches also gets me brewing more often, which helps you improve your process with your specific equipment.

I didn't know that this many people did 2.5 gallon batches, but I am another one of them. It's a great simple way to do AG and be able to brew more often.

When you do a smaller batch from a bigger batch recipe, how do you guys handle recipes that end in 1/2 gallons? I see some recipes say ending boil volume 5.5 gallons. Do you enter 5.5 gallons in the software or 5 gallons because the yeast cake will absorb 1/2 a gallon?

Thanks.

I have been only doing 2 and 3 gallon batches for the last couple of months.
I find it a lot easier - especially with high gravity beers. I don't have to worry about the size of my equipment.
As for scaling down the recipes: I use BrewTarget and have that scale it down for me. 1/2 gallon measurements are no problem because it does all of the math for me. Plus - I can add a little more or less to experiment anyway - because it's a small batch anyway.