Good 3 Gallon carboy size recipe?

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kjames3

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Just starting out and am looking for a good starter recipe and working with a 3 gal carboy, any help would be appreciated
 
Beersmith is your friend. If you can afford it at all, I'd suggest it. There's probably free software that can scale recipes too, though I don't know any offhand. I do half batches due to size constraints, and I just take whatever recipe is formulated for 5 or 10 gallons and scale it with Beersmith. I target just over 2.5 gallons in my 3 gallon Better Bottle plastic carboy, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how vigorous I expect fermentation to be.
 
Beersmith is great - but if you have basic math skills, you can convert the recipes with pen and paper in about a solid minute. The only difference is the yeast, which doesn't change a whole lot. Knock off a chunk for a gallon recipe, but 3-5 gallons can do the whole bit. Some people get down to the billions of yeast particles per millimeter - and that's great - but this rough estimate hasn't failed me yet.
 
Most 5 gallon batches seem to use a 5g packet of yeast, so using about 3/5 of a packet for 3 gallons should work. I did this with my first batch - just kinda eyeballed it to use a "little over half" of the yeast, and it was all good.
 
Most 5 gallon batches seem to use a 5g packet of yeast, so using about 3/5 of a packet for 3 gallons should work. I did this with my first batch - just kinda eyeballed it to use a "little over half" of the yeast, and it was all good.

Normally, a 5 gram package is used for 1-6 gallons of cider.
 
Thats what I was curious about mostly was scaling down the yeast, thanks alot guys
 
1g yeast / gallon juice is my rule of thumb. Over-pitching will result in a yeast over saturation that crowds the yeast and forces competition and limits healthy reproduction which may result in off flavors. Under pitching results in too long a lag/growth phase which increases the chance of infection as well as forces the yeast to reproduce in your juice which can also hurt healthy reproduction and also give off flavors.
 
wasnt trying to save yeast, just didnt know if too much would have adverse effects. Started this with no brewing experience whatsoever. Ended up doing a 3gal batch and a 5gal batch. The smaller one has completed fermenting after 8 days. according to the hydrometer it has 8.5% by vol. next question would be, Should I pasteurize the finished product before bottling? and if so how would i go about that?
 
I'll take a stab at your question there but assume you either found the answer or bottled anyway.

You don't need to pasteurize beer :) as long as your sanitation was good from the start, you've done pretty much all you can to avoid infection. Just make sure those bottles are santized really well and the priming sugar is boiled and bottle away!
 
My first couple batches were 3 gallons.
Fresh pressed Farm Cider + 5g packet of your choice (Lalvin 71b-1122) milder and a little sweeter result than EC-1188.
Add 3 cups of sugar for a higher alcohol content.(your choice of sugars)
Favorite batch was 1.5 cups dark brown sugar and 1.5 cups of molasses.
1/2 cup priming sugar for bottling.
(Also added 6Tbsp Xylitol for a little sweetness)
OG 1.074, FG 0.998. Nice amber color, slightly sweet sparkling cider.
 
the reason people talk about pasteurizing cider is to halt fermentation, not to keep it from going bad. If you ferment out dry (the yeast eat all the sugar they can) then there is no need to pasteurize. If you are bottling before fermentation is COMPLETELY done, you need to kill the yeast in some fashion.
 
CG, that might have been my issue with my ciders.....both batches are "drinkable" if you try really hard but I was sad that they haven't been getting much better. Might have wanted to kill the little yeasties off.

Anyone used a Munton's kit to brew a 3 or 2.5 gallon batch? My LHBS went out of business and was giving these hopped extract kits away for free. So, I can make a 5 gal with it if I wanted to add more extract, but I just want to see how it works with a smaller amount. the extract kit is supposed to be 1.8kg and I wasn't sure how get the right amount of extract/water ratio. Anyone know?
 
LeBreton said:
1g yeast / gallon juice is my rule of thumb. Over-pitching will result in a yeast over saturation that crowds the yeast and forces competition and limits healthy reproduction which may result in off flavors. Under pitching results in too long a lag/growth phase which increases the chance of infection as well as forces the yeast to reproduce in your juice which can also hurt healthy reproduction and also give off flavors.

This isn't true. Yeast will multiply up to a colony size where the food is able to sustain them. Overpitching is only detrimental when your yeast supply is limited in the packaging.

I don't know where people get the ideas where double the yeast will speed up a process or will cause a yeasty taste in the final product. It's just simply not true.
 
I don't know where people get the ideas where double the yeast will speed up a process or will cause a yeasty taste in the final product. It's just simply not true.

x2 to this.
The yeast packets even say 1-5 gallons right on the back.
I am more inclined to believe the manufacturers when it comes to proper yeast usage.
I have used 5g of yeast for 6.5 gallon batches of cider and for 1gallon batches of wine. No ill effects or lengthy lag time either way.
 
Just starting out and am looking for a good starter recipe and working with a 3 gal carboy, any help would be appreciated

You can scale down, or up, ANY recipe. Here's a good place to look for recipes:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/

You might try Ed Wort's apfelwein recipe, I don't think it gets any easier than that:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

My favourite is Brandon O's graf. It's a little more involved, but still really easy & VERY TASTY:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/

Hope that helps. Regards, GF. :mug:
 
This isn't true. Yeast will multiply up to a colony size where the food is able to sustain them. Overpitching is only detrimental when your yeast supply is limited in the packaging.

I don't know where people get the ideas where double the yeast will speed up a process or will cause a yeasty taste in the final product. It's just simply not true.

Just to play devil's advocate: If the amount of yeast pitched doesn't matter, then why do brewers make such a big deal about making a starter?

Just because you can ferment a five gallon batch with a few grains of yeast, it doesn't mean you should.
 
GinKings said:
Just to play devil's advocate: If the amount of yeast pitched doesn't matter, then why do brewers make such a big deal about making a starter?

Just because you can ferment a five gallon batch with a few grains of yeast, it doesn't mean you should.

My post was about over pitching, not under pitching. Under pitching is known to have ill effects (colony doesn't take off fast enough and infection sets in etc)
 
Brewers probably use a starter to either continue brewing from the same strain of yeast for consistency from batch to batch and probably for the fact that the brews they are doing are much much larger than 5 gallons. If you had a huge vat of beer to ferment you would not want to take any chances getting that yeast started in a hurry.
 
Brewers probably use a starter to either continue brewing from the same strain of yeast for consistency from batch to batch and probably for the fact that the brews they are doing are much much larger than 5 gallons. If you had a huge vat of beer to ferment you would not want to take any chances getting that yeast started in a hurry.

Most brewers make starters because they feel there are not enough yeast cells in one vial/pack of yeast for a 5 gallon batch (especially in higher gravity worts) and that is preferable to pitching multiple vials/packs.

There are calculators such as http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html that give you optimal starter size or number of vials to pitch.
 
This isn't true. Yeast will multiply up to a colony size where the food is able to sustain them. Overpitching is only detrimental when your yeast supply is limited in the packaging.

You are absolutely correct that yeast is self regulating. In fact, that is my entire point. The yeast in cider is always trying to reach population equilibrium. Start too far away from that equilibrium on either end and you may experience some negatives.

When you underpitch yeast they rapidly reproduce to reach the ideal population. This will result in a longer growth phase than normal. The problem is that apple juice is a high acid and low nutrient home for yeast and is not the ideal home for yeast reproduction. Too much reproduction in this somewhat hostile environment will cause yeast mutations. This is why starters are used and underpitching is not advised.

Too much yeast causes competition and some cells die off as the population stabilizes. The problem can also be though of through the lens of a lack of nutrients in relation to the yeast (something all cidermakers are familiar with.) We all know this can result in problems such as H2S (rotten eggs) and off flavors.

Neither is the end of the world but both over and under pitching should be minimized. Just like extreme temps should be avoided, but some temperature fluctuation is fine there is a pretty big window for healthy yeast colony size.

I don't know where people get the ideas where double the yeast will speed up a process or will cause a yeasty taste in the final product. It's just simply not true.

I don't know either, and didn't say (or see anyone mention) this in the thread.
 
To the OP:
If you take quality juice, and add dextrose, and add a decent yeast, and allow it to ferment using good techniques, if you have a product that doesnt taste good you just need more time.
If you think your juice is the factor, then experiement with using acid blend and tannin .
 
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