considering going to 2.5 gallon batches

Well heres where im at

I love beer, love good beer, but i dont drink a whole lot, i like to have to have 1 or 2 at the most good beers in the evening, not really a "session" drinker.

I also love to brew, in fact i think i love it to much lol. I have zero friends around here who enjoy craft beer, so if i continue to brew 5 gallon batches im going to stuck with a ton of beer that will not be drunk for years, in other words, wasted. So, i am considering switching to 2.5 gallon batches.

i guess i have a few questions about this, first off i assume my 5 gallon fermenters will work fine correct?

second would be ingrediants, i assume grain and hops i would just cut the recipe directly in half right? water would remain proportionate to the grain bill i would assume. The real problem in my mind is the yeast, would it be ok just to pitch 5 gallon batch yeast packets? I am under the impression that overpitching yeast wont hurt anything?

Anyways, if anyoen does 2.5 gallon batches, fill me in on any info you can share, and thank you!

I'm not sure about your direct questions, but I saw a thread with 2.5 gallon jars the other day

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/2-1-2-gallon-montana-jar-fermenter-200328/

Of course you could probably only do 2 gallon batches in those.

I think the easiest way to scale down ingredients is to use one of the various software recipe brewing tools available.

Ingredients in half, with the exception of yeast. use mrmalty.com and pitch the correct amount of yeast for each beer.

I did 2.5 gallon batches for awhile. I wanted to brew more often and I had a space limitation on what I could bottle condition. I got the 3 gallon Better Bottles to do my batches in. Minimizes potential oxygen exposure and they were easier to move around.

In terms of ingredients I found that grains/extract were cut in half and the hops were close but not exactly half. This may have had more to do that I was moving to a full boil so the hop utilization was better.

I sometimes use my MrBeer for 2.5 gal batches. Just cut everything in half. Pitch all the yeast, no worries.

No problem with the 5 gallon fermenters. Once the CO2 starts forming, headspace doesn't matter. Since you'll be doubling the yeast cells per gallon, that should happen even faster.

I don't drink much myself and since we can't transport homebrew in Oregon any more, I can't take the excess to club meetings. Hope that changes in January.

I brew every weekend -2.5 gallon batches. I suggest free icing buckets from the local grocery bakery for half-batch ferments. They are 4 gallon buckets and have perfect headspace for 2.5 - 3 gallons. Just drill the lid 1/2" & instal a grommet (Lowe's/Home Depot have the grommet.)

All ingredients 50% assuming you do full boil at both full & half batch. Half batch is great if it meets you beer supply requirements and works well on stove top. Enjoy!

Edit: 5 gal carboys are fine but the 4 gallon buckets are such a breeze to clean. . .and free. . .and plentiful

I also use the free icing buckets from the bakery departments. They are 3.5 gallon around here. I'm going to probably brew 2.5 batches all winter. Easier on my stove top, and I get to brew more often.

Keep in mind the waste factor with the 2.5 gallon batches. I tend to leave the same amount in the bottom of the primary/secondary no matter the size of the batch to keep trub and what not from getting into the keg.
Your process may be different, but just keep in mind the waste factor when doing 2.5 gallon batches.
Small batches are great, but I seem to always end up with less beer than I expected, even when splitting 5 gallon batches into 2 buckets.
Give it a shot. It is not like you have anything to loose considering it might not get consumed anyways.

+1 Brewing smaller batches allows me to go AG, and doesn't leave me with a closet full of beer I can't drink fast enough. I know my dubbel will be okay in "the closet" for a long time, I took extra care when bottling and also used the oxygen absorbing caps.

However, I too love brewing, really enjoyed brewing my first AG (a 3.5 ga. batch) and thinking that 2.5 gallons would be even easier on my bargain basement gas range.

I brew what I like to drink, and what I know my friends would probably like. My boyfriend is a BMC guy who will drink one of my homebrews on occasion - but in general he's a BL guy. So yeah, lots of extra beer sitting around - not so good.

Brewing what I can drink in a month (and brewing once a month) is fine with me.

Ty all for the info, question, for you guys doing 2.5 gallon AG batches, what type of equipment are you using? IE mash tuns etc.

Revvy uses a small MLT, and all. He details his process at: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/2-5-gallon-batches-187638/.

Personally, I'm going to try doing it via the brew in a bag method.

Converted a 25 quart mini (rectangular) cooler w/a cpvc manifold. 7 pound grain bill gives me a 6"-7" grain bed after the grains swell. The cooler will handle max 10lb but 6-8lb seems to work best. Not saying it's the best option but so far it's been a near perfect match for half batch/stove top.

5 gallon stainless pot on an electric range with a canning element. I can push the pot to 4.25 gallon capacity and end up with 3 gallons at bottling time. Made a 3/8" copper chiller, coil diameter is 8" and it works very well in the 5 gallon pot. Also made a 5" diameter pre-chiller that sits in a tall 3 quart pitcher of water - a frozen 12oz water bottle just slips inside the pre-chiller coil. I keep a few 12 oz. bottles frozen, drop a frozen one inside the pre-chiller and the melty one goes back to the freezer. Gets me from boil to mid-60s pretty quick.

Basically I'm using half-pint versions of the standard rectangular cooler/tun, chiller, & fermenter (4 gallon icing buckets for fermenters.) YMMV but for my little kitchen rig those sized components are working well together.