Small Beer Kits?

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Insomniac

Insomniac

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I've only just started brewing and have been playing around with meads so far, but at some point I was hoping to have a try at a beer.

I figured I'd start simple with a kit of some sorts, but I only have 5L fermenters so was hoping to either find a 5L kit or one that is in a powder form so I can only use enough of it for my jar and keep the rest for a later batch.

Do any such kits exist or are they all liquids in a can? I was hoping to make a wheat beer.

Cheers!
 
Mr Beer has small kits, but i would just buy dme,steeping grains hops and yeast.If your into looking into recipes or kit recipes.You could also split up a kit. You want some headspace also otherwise you may need a blow off tube. you could buy a small bag of wheat extract,liquid can,or even grains to mash.Wheat beers are pretty simple and good with just a few ingredients.
 
That's my plan for the future. As soon as my last 5 gallons of stout are out of the fermenter I'm switching to 1 gallon batches. I don't drink a lot perhaps one or two a day so it takes me for ever to go thru 2 cases.

I think I like the idea of one gallon, producing about 10 bottles at a time. Gives me a wider range of beer in the fridge.
 
C-Rider said:
That's my plan for the future. As soon as my last 5 gallons of stout are out of the fermenter I'm switching to 1 gallon batches. I don't drink a lot perhaps one or two a day so it takes me for ever to go thru 2 cases.

I think I like the idea of one gallon, producing about 10 bottles at a time. Gives me a wider range of beer in the fridge.
Click to expand...

You may want to get a 2-3 gallon bucket, i started out with one gallon only ended up with 8 beers really.I have a 2 gallon fermenter wich i can third batches get 16 beers.Right now brewing every week i have a pretty big stockpile.One gallon may disapoint because by the time they start tasting really good.You may only have a few left.The amount of work will not get you much stocked away, but the variety is nice where you can pick between older batches to drink and leave you newer ones sit longer.
Ideally i would like to now just brew half batches every two weeks and will end up doing that because i just have too much stocked away really.The more time between brewing the more you wait,really.
You could also split 2 gallons and use differnt dryhops and yeast.Or make two differnet batches at once.Doubleing the variety.
 
jonmohno said:
You may want to get a 2-3 gallon bucket, i started out with one gallon only ended up with 8 beers really.I have a 2 gallon fermenter wich i can third batches get 16 beers.Right now brewing every week i have a pretty big stockpile.One gallon may disapoint because by the time they start tasting really good.You may only have a few left.The amount of work will not get you much stocked away, but the variety is nice where you can pick between older batches to drink and leave you newer ones sit longer.
Ideally i would like to now just brew half batches every two weeks and will end up doing that because i just have too much stocked away really.The more time between brewing the more you wait,really.
You could also split 2 gallons and use differnt dryhops and yeast.Or make two differnet batches at once.Doubleing the variety.
Click to expand...

I have one 2 gallon bucket now. I think I've done enough w/5 gallon batches that I won't be doing all that testing while the beer is conditioning. If I hit on one brew that I really like I can then do a full 5 gallons.

Just read about BIAB all grain brewing and I may try that also on the small scale.

Thanks for the comments.
 
Ok, little confused still, assuming the full beer kits aren't going to work, is Spary malt a replacement for malt extract or for sugar?
The name suggests the former but the description suggests the latter...

I'm looking at this: http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/ingre...muntons-foil-pack-spraymalt-wheat-500grm.html

Would enough of that replace something like this?
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/ingredients/ingredientsmalts/brupaks-malt-extract-wheat-1-5kg.html

And while im here, if that would be a good replacement, how much sparay malt would be needed to replace it? and what other ingredients would I need to make wheat beer, is it just a case of more different types of spray malts and some hops?
 
Spray malt is just the process used to produce DME. It isn't called spray malt,it's Spray Dried Malt Extract,or "DME" for short. I think you use something like 20% more DME as LME. I use both.
Anyway,you could use wheat DME with some pilsen light DME & hops like Crystal,Haulertau,Mt Hood,Czech Saaz,that sort. Then a yeast like US-05,or an authentic wheat yeast like the Bavarian weise yeasts from white labs & wyeast.
 

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