Why 6 gallons? Can I brew less?

Hi all.

I'm an absolute beginner and I'm trying to learn a bit before my first brew.

Question:
All the kits I've found, all the ready-made malts and most recepies are aimed at brewing 6 gallons (us gallons).
Is there a bio-chem-physical reason for that amount of beer?
Can I try and only brew, say, 1 gallon?

I've already noticed that - although the process is fairly simple - there are a number of details to pay attention to.
I'd hate to brew that much beer only to discover that I scr***d something in the process and have to throw it away. It would break my heart ... not to mention the cost and the space it takes right at start, of course.

Am I being too careful (some could say 'chicken')?
Any suggestions?

All of the kits I have made have been 5 gallon kits. What manufacturer of kits are you using for your brews?

What area are you from? You may wish to edit you profile to note that so you can get more information from members here. I am also new to the forum and wish you well and Welcome.

Salute!

Thanks for answering.

I have yet to buy the hardware and start brewing, but I searched in eBay and google.

Take a look at this example. It's just one of many.

THe kits are for 5 or 5.5 gallon batches, but many of us also brew 2.5 gallon batches as well...

Us the search with the keywords "small batch brewing" or "2.5 gallon batches" an you will find plenty of info...there's at least one thread on it a week on here...

Do yourself a favor and just say 'to hell with the 5 gallon batches!'

You seriously need 10 gallon batches! You will find that after all of your hard work, stressful moments, shameless postwhoring of 'is my beer ruined' and lots of unnecessary worrying - your beer will be fine. In fact, it will end up being one of the tastiest brews you have had. SO tasty in fact that you and all of your friends will be drinking them and before you know it you will be dry. (With nothing in the primary and nothing in the bottles)

Dont fear the 5 gallon batch. It goes MUCH quicker than you would expect. But dont listen to me... Im just a silly ol beer pedo.

(Rev would be proud of me - I havent touched my other bottles that are still conditioning yet)
'Yet' is the operative word here....
-Me

This is a good reason...

Italy, guys. He's probably looking at 23 liter kits.

First, brewing beer from an extract kit is dead simple. (There's a quote around here about how the homebrewer has to make it complicated.)

Second, you can always make half of a kit, or less. Brew Your Own (***********) had an article a few months back about making beer a gallon at a time.

Third, the toughest part of making smaller batches will be dividing a kit. Liquid extract is viscous, sticky and messy. The amount of hops in a typical recipe is 20-100 grams, so you would need a fairly accurate scale to split the hops 6 ways.

Finally, just splitting a kit in half isn't a big deal, so why don't you try that?

I'm a beginner, and my first two batches have been all-grain, 4-liter batches. It's really easy, even in a small kitchen, using normal kitchen equipment. I used an all-grain recipe designed for a 5-gallon batch, then divided by 5 (1 gallon = 4 liters).

There is a sticky thread at the top of this page that explains this method really well.

Well, you certainly *could* brew smaller batches, and some do, but if you are worried about screwing it up, you shouldn't be. Firstly, I recommend doing a practice run with water only. That way you can do the actual transfers of liquid without ruining a batch and you can fix any problem that pop up.

After that, doing an actual batch is dead simple. Also, I do recommend using Dry Malt Extract instead of liquid, for two main reasons:

1. Dry extract is less likely to have a problem with being old and stale, and taste better.
2. You can more easily split the batch into half sizes.

Seriously, though, if you are going to do it, it's hardly more expensive to by equipment for full batches to start with. Here's the process:

Heat water in large stainless or aluminum kettle
Add half portion of extract into water, stirring it in. (turn off heat while adding liquid extract).
At boil, add starting hops for bitterness and watch for boil-over.
add additional hops as required by schedule
at 15 minutes left in boil, add remaining extract
just before, or right at end of boil add final hops and/or irish moss (if you use it)
cool wort as quickly as possible using ice bath, immersion chiller, or other method
strain wort into primary fermenter and add yeast when wort is at 65-70 degrees F
place airlock
RDWHAHB

It's really very simple once you gather the equipment and try it out. It's really hard to go wrong.

That said, the one-gallon batch is for fun only. I drink way more than I produce

it really is no more work to come out with 5G than it is one. It's actually less work because you don't have to split the batch and figure out your hop schedule. it's not as easy as just splitting it in half to do Hop Utilization. Plus, it's VERY hard to mess up beer, and once it's ready, you will be very upset that you only have 1G (~9 bottles).

I'd rather have to pour out 50 bottles of contaminated beer than drink 10 bottles of an awesome brew only to realize I only made 10 bottles worth!!!


You'll be surprised how easy it is to get started and how hard it is to mess something up. My first post last month had a lot of worried questions and everyone here basically told me to calm down and have a home brew I killed my yeast off within the first few seconds of brewing and 48 hours later when I realized what I had done, I was STILL able to repitch my yeast and obtain fermentation.
I was also really worried that I had contaminated something, but so far my beer has tasted great (it's in bottles right now, but pre-bottling it tasted great).

I've had yeast problems, siphoning issues, my capper broke, and my kitchen was a mess...all with my first brewing experience. But everything seems to be turning out okay. Just think of brewing like making a new recipe for dinner. A lot of ingredients go in a pot, mix together and you get an end result. For example, I love to make chili. I started with the most basic chili recipe and have added more and more ingredients over time to get what I think is awesome chili! I'm assuming that it's like that with brewing beer. You start out simple and adjust your recipes as you go until you have awesome beer!


But I guess if you're wanting to start small...you could pick up a Mr. Beer kit. I think those things are less than 2 gallons.

bennychico11 said:

But I guess if you're wanting to start small...you could pick up a Mr. Beer kit. I think those things are less than 2 gallons.

Click to expand...

They can actually hold a 2.5 gallon batch of beer. I know since I use them in some of my small batch brewing. About 45-50 percent of my brewing is in 2.5 gallon batches. That's why I know there's a lot of info and recipes, and hints and tips for doing them on here, I've posted quite a lot of it.

It may not be many of your cups of tea, but it is mine, and several others on here. I don't think of any aspect of this HOBBY as work...whether I'm making 5 gallons of 2.5, I'm still making beer and I am having fun...

I do quite a lot of them, for several reasons....to test recipes. To make things that I know I won't want to drink 5 gallons of. To do small partigyles (two, 2.5 gallon batches can be done easlily out of a 5 gallon cooler.) And also because I can do full volume boils on my electric stove with only needing a five gallon pot. And to help teach Mr Beer users how to make kick ass beers in their old brown kegs. You can also lager in a Mr Beer kegger, or squat 3 gal water bottle in a standard fridge without needing a second dedicated, and still leave room for the milk and beer, which is good for me since I live in a loft with little extra space.

It's also a good way to get introduced to AG without a huge expenditure of equipment. You can make a low to moderate grav 2.5 gallon batch of all grain in a 2-3 gallon unmodified cooler. (10 bucks @ Walmarts) And you can get surprisingly good efficiency from the unmodified cooler, with a folding steamer and a grainbag...

I put a whole tutorial on THAT subject in the mr beer thread...And hopefully soon in BYO.

Plus you can brew 2.5 gallons of AG for about 9-10 bucks (Not counting yeast)...1 ounce of hops goes a looooong way in a 2.5 gallon recipe.


This summer I had 4 or 5 different small batches going plus 3-4 regular 5 gallon batches of my 'haus standards" (My Amber, My Dead Guy Clone, My Brown Ale, and My Ginger Orange Dortmunder.) I had a Hellova variety of beer.

I use 3 gallon water bottles for the majority of my 2.5 gallon batches. But you CAN use a 5 gallon as a primary...If your recipe calls for a lot of fermentables and therefore may be really active, doing it in a 5 gallon prevents the need to use a blowoff tube.

I've not noticed a problem in any of the small batches I've made with HOP UTILIZATION...but then again I use beersmith's scaling feature...but I always double check the ibu's...I make a note of it @ 5 gallons...and if it's not the same at 2.5 I tweak til I get it...same with gravity and color...

It's not off that much...

It's not really all that difficult...if it's a 1.060 SG beer with 25 Ibus and 20srms at 5 gallons then it should STILL be 1.060, 25, 20 at 2.5 gallons as well...

BUT I know from experience with tweaking small batches, it is easier to calculate the hop quanities in grams rather that ounces...if it comes out as .3875 ounces that MAY be kinda hard to measure, even on my digital scale...but converted to grams it's fine.

.3875 ounces = 10.9854402 grams...so I'd round it to 11 grams...

(But like I said, there's a ton of info in here if you want to do it..heck this post was simply a cut an paste of 2 of the answers I've given in some of the treads.)

david_42 said:

Italy, guys. He's probably looking at 23 liter kits.

Click to expand...

Exactly!

Isn't S.I. a breeze?...