Small space, small batch?

Hey guys! So, I got the Mr. Beer premium kit as a present and recently finished my first pale ale. The beer turned out fine, but way too simplistic and definitely not enough flavor for this crafty snob. I was wondering if anyone could help in my quest for more information on small batch brewing. I looked around the forum, but since my questions seem to be a little more specific I figured I would just start my own thread!

I live in a townhouse without a basement, and with the temp fluctuation, pets, and lack of storage space, I'm limited to a small space in a half bath to ferment. The 2 gallon size of the Mr. Beer works, but I want to move on to bigger and better.

Given a small space and a large desire to limit the smell of the kreausen, what do you guys prefer? Bucket or carboy, airlock or bubbler, single container fermenter/conditioner or double? Also, I have toyed with the idea of doing only small batches (1 gallon) so I can keep playing with ratios and recipes. Any suggestions for this? Thanks so much guys, and I'm looking forward to wasting a lot of time here!!

I would just do standard 5 gallon batches. You can put the carboy in a water bath/bucket for fementation temp control. A single carboy is enough to get you going for now. No need to secondary for most beers. I wouldn't worry about the smell too much. Most beers only push out the CO2 during the first few days of fermentation...after that it just sits there for 2-3 weeks conditioning. Welcome aboard!!

read the threads & stickys . brewing to size and lack of space, I would stay with the Mr beer 2+ gallon. If you go to a 6 gal. ferm. bucket you can you get to try complete recipes& make pretty good beer. The temperature fluctuation can be controlled. the yeast you use has a range of temperature it likes. With a bucket I start with a blow off tube and switch to an air lock after primary fermentation is done just to avoid a mess. Keep pets away! dogs and cats are attracted to the smell and the noise of the air lock or blow off tube. Search this and other sites for answers, ideas, and have fun . Wecome and Cheers

I started with the Brooklyn Brewery 1 gal kit. While it is nice to be able to experiment there are three downsides to this... 1) It still takes a long time to brew and you get about 7-9 bottles of beer 2) Your costs are more expensive per gal because you still are buying the same amount of yeast 3) You have to deal with scaling a recipie by 1/5 each time you brew

I live in a tiny appartment in Boston, but 1 gal was just too small. Now I do 2.5 gal batches using a 3 gallon carboy. I really like the size as you can still experiment with only making 22-25 bottles per batch. Also its alot easier to handle 2.5 gal batches and you can usually do a full boil on a kitchen stove. Also if you go AG all of your equipment is slightly smaller.

I only secondary if I am dryhopping or making a fruit beer. I use a blowoff tube to start and then switch to an airlock. I dont think that one or the other will change the smell of the krausen as your beer will still produce the same amount of C02 during fermentation and it has to get out somehow.