Brewing Small Batches

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aksea102

aksea102

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There was a recent post with regards to brewing small batches in order to experiment with different recipes. As a newbie brewer, I find this idea brilliant! It was something I hadn't thought of yet and something I look forward to trying. There were many replies to the thread that covered various containers to use for fermenters, and where to get them. I still have one question though, and I believe the poster had the same one...
What are the hazards of fermenting small batches in 5 gallon glass carboys? Say I scale down a 5gal recipe to equal 3gal, and use my 5gal carboy to ferment. Obviously there will be a fair amount of headspace in the carboy. What effect will this headspace have on my beer??
Thanks!
 
aksea102 said:
There was a recent post with regards to brewing small batches in order to experiment with different recipes. As a newbie brewer, I find this idea brilliant! It was something I hadn't thought of yet and something I look forward to trying. There were many replies to the thread that covered various containers to use for fermenters, and where to get them. I still have one question though, and I believe the poster had the same one...
What are the hazards of fermenting small batches in 5 gallon glass carboys? Say I scale down a 5gal recipe to equal 3gal, and use my 5gal carboy to ferment. Obviously there will be a fair amount of headspace in the carboy. What effect will this headspace have on my beer??
Thanks!
Click to expand...

3 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy is no biggie. When I went all grain, I only had capacity to boil 4-5 gallons. So I would end up with 3 gallons of wort. I primaried in my 6.5 gallon carboy and had no bad effects.

The issue is secondary-ing in a 5 gallon carboy. There's not quite as much
co2 being produced to blanket your beer and prevent oxidation. But, unless your in secondary for something like 6 months, I wouldn't worry about that.
 
If you're just using it as a primary, headspace won't be a problem, as the co2 from your yeasties will form a protective blanket and prevent oxidization. Opinions vary as to whether enough co2 is produced during secondary to form the same blanket, but if you just do a long primary you're fine.
 
This is good stuff. The head space issue has always concerned me, but I rarely ever go to a secondary. I may just whip up a couple smaller 2-3 gallon batches this weekend in my 4 gallons. Maybe I will even get adventurous and try my hand at an all-grain.
 
I do small ones all the time. My only complaint is you get no less trub so if you do a half batch you get less than a full case so you may want to shoot for 3 gallons.
 
My electric stove sucks and it takes waaay to long to bring more than 2 gallons of water to a boil, so I've been making 2.5 gallon batches. I've kept my last 2 batches in the primary for at least 3 weeks and didn't use a secondary. So far, so good! You can keep batches in primary for several weeks and just not bother with a secondary...some seasoned brewing vets still make great beer without ever using one.
 

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