Maybe going to 3 gallon batches

Well I am the only one drinking my homebrew and I think 5 gallons is to much for me to drink by myself and still drink beers like IPAs and wheats young when they are at their best. My wife doesn't drink and all my friends are diehard BMC drinkers. So I guess I am on here asking if going to 3 gallon batches is worth it or stay with 5 gallons and jus buy a lot of bottles?

I've done the same thing to some degree. I don't always do a 5 gallon batch. Some people think its a waste of effort but I've done smaller batches and been able to experiment a bit more and it's worked well for me. The only downside I found was when i made a good small batch and went through it too quickly and then wished I'd made more......

-Andy

you could drop your extras off at my house

1ratdog said:

you could drop your extras off at my house

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If you lived close by I would.

I did the same thing for mostly the same reasons.... I was doing 5 gal mini mash brews but now I've moved to (mostly) 2.5 gal BIAB brews.

I mostly keg, and my keg fridge only holds 3 kegs (I own 5). I was finding that I couldn't make it through one keg quick enough to move to the next.

2.5gal BIAB was a win-win-win for me.

1. I moved into all grain essentially - giving me so many more options for what I wanted to brew.

2. I found that now I can make my way through my own beer at my own time, in a normal amount of time. So now instead of saying "man, I really don't want to have ANOTHER Oktoberfest! I want to move onto that Patiersbier sitting in a keg in the closet!" I now say "Man! I can't believe that IPA went so quick - it was sooooo good!"

3. I used to buy kits from AHS and NB for the most part. Now I find myself taking 5gal all grain recipes from this site and from a few books, cutting everything in half, and brewing some amazing beer - and instead of buying my stuff from across country for 1 brew, I can drive down the street to pick up what I need. (Full Disclosure: I still buy a TON from AHS and NB, but I buy like 8 brews at a time now from them. When I'm just looking to brew something quick I pick it up locally).

4. One more nicety, it's slightly cheaper for me to do BIAB than it was for extract.

5. I get to brew more often!!! I like brewing almost as much as I like drinking, and I LOVE having 5-10 different types of homebrew available at any given time (currently have 6 brews at some level of fermentation, 2 kegged, and bits and pieces of about 6 bottled brews).

So, in short, it's cheaper, it's more fun, I have more options, I make better beer, and I can go through it quicker!

Something else I forgot to add.... I get to experiment without worrying about hating tying up a keg for months.

Let me explain.... About a year ago I had the idea of making a Maple Syrup Nut Brown, sounded delicious to me. After researching a bit I read that Maple Syrup basically ferments out completely and doesn't leave any flavor. A few people suggested using Fenugreek seeds to impart some maple flavor..... made sense to me... So I bought the Nut Brown kit from NB, brewed 5 gal per directions, and added the fenugreek seeds to secondary. I eventually kegged the beer..... turned out kind of bad I can see where people suggest fenugreek gives some maple flavor, but it also gave a.... bad.... flavor..... So now, I've spent 2 months waiting on this beer, kegging this beer, and it's bad - what do I do? That was a year ago.... that beer is still in a keg, and I probably still have 4 gal in the keg. I don't want to dump it - I've aged it now, I've re-raised the temp and lowered it (hoping it might clean itself more), I've added some straight maple syrup to it.... still not that good. I plan on making a bottle gun and bottling it soon and letting it sit a while, but still, it's used up one of my kegs for a year now!

Had I done 2.5 gal instead I likely would've pushed through and drank it by now...

It's the same story for me as some of the previous posters. I did one extract batch and didn't like the taste, so moved immediately to all-grain BIAB. For lighter session beers (up to around a 10 lb grain bill) I can actually do a full 5 gallon BIAB batch if I get creative in my use of pots, but most of the time I go with 2.5 or 3 gallon batches just for ease of brewing inside.

My wife is more of a wine drinker, so I end up drinking most of the beer. I don't mind only brewing 3 gallons at a time. I get to try more varieties of beer that way! You definitely get bummed once in a while when you hit that last bottle from 3 gallons but want another 2 gallons worth (I'm almost to that point with a caramel amber ale). When that happens it's just time to brew again though. No biggie. Personally, I say go for the smaller batches and enjoy the variety. Why get bored with one style because you're drinking it alone when you can simply scale down your batches and get many more types on tap?

Joedub said:

Well I am the only one drinking my homebrew and I think 5 gallons is to much for me to drink by myself and still drink beers like IPAs and wheats young when they are at their best. My wife doesn't drink and all my friends are diehard BMC drinkers. So I guess I am on here asking if going to 3 gallon batches is worth it or stay with 5 gallons and jus buy a lot of bottles?

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Pretty much all I do anymore is 3 gallon batches. I am the only one drinking except for the occasional visitor.

I started doing all grain batches early in the year and have done 12 batches since then. The only one I wish would go away is the single 5 gallon batch I did. Mind you, it isn't bad, I am just tired of it. I finally decided to bottle what was left so I could use that keg for my Oatmeal Stout. It took about 10 bombers, so about 2 gallons.....yup, 3 gallons would have been perfect.

The only thing I want is some reasonably priced 3 gallon kegs (sigh). I feel like I am wasting too much CO2 purging the head space from my 5 gallon corny's.

Any batch I really like is easily replicated so I never really feel like I should have done 5 gallons. I have re done 2 batches now, an Irish Red and an American Wit (started as a Blue Moon clone).

I also re-use the Coors Light Home Draft kegs, so 2 of them is what I need for a 3 gallon batch.

It is not really any more or less work to do 3 gallons (or 2.5 or even 1) at a time, you just need to adjust the existing 5 gallon batches and most software has a scale function. I personally use BrewTarget.

Slainte!!

I love a Small Batch thread!
After my last extract brew (#9) I was deciding to go all-grain. Had to look at a new kettle, MLT, chiller... I did a mini-mash batch, and that was pretty good.
So, I decided the get a 5g cooler and convert it and make 2.5g batches. At first I was doing no-sparge batches, and that was nice, because I could brew in about 3:15 hours. I made a 20' CFC, built a small brew stand, bought a propane burner, and I also have six 3g Beter Bottles. I love it. For some of my bigger beers I have had to sparge, so I bought another 5g cooler as an HLT, and I brew in under four hours. I can still brew after work on a week night.

One thing I changed was to go from 2.5g to 3g batches. It seems like it isn't much, but sometimes I was losing some wort to boiloff or spillage, and this way I can fill the fermenter nearly to the top. It barely costs any more than 2.5g.

I get two bombers and about 20-22 12oz bottles. That's enough for me. I brew a lot of different stlyes. I brew experiments (same malt bill, different yeast...). I brew about once or twice a week now. I started brewing in April 2009, and I just brewed batch #55 yesterday.

I do have to admit that I wish I had a few more of some of the better beers I brewed.
Ah, but my beer is exclusive. My motto is "Handcrafted Beer By The Case."

I actually just did a 2.5 gallon Irish Red BiaB tonight. I have the same issue with being the only one in my house that drinks it. Occasionally I do get people to come over and try my brews, but they are stuck on BMC. Well they say they don't drink BMC, cuz they drink some of the supposed craft beers. Then I tell them that it is actually BMC, just brewed under a different name and they get mad at me. Oh well I say, more beer for me. Next I am looking at a Dead Guy clone as a 2.5 gallon recipe in another week or so.

Going to the smaller batches takes about the same time, but I can bottle a batch and not have to worry about where to put all the bottle without SWMBO getting annoyed, or I can keg it and it will kick a lot sooner. I currently only have two kegs, so 5 gallon batches take almost forever to get drank. Smaller batches equals more different brews sooner.

-Stanley

I've been brewing for 6 months and I drink maybe 2 cases a beer a month if I'm really drinking. I've been doing 3 gallon brew in a bag for a while now which lets me brew twice a month and with drinking some commercial beers and the occasional extract brew my pipeline is getting pretty big. 3 gallon is nice because I don't really need any extra equipment over extract batches I can still use my same brew pot with a five dollar bag to mash in. I can do full boils on my crappy electric stove. I don't need a chiller and I ferment in five gallon buckets that I get for free from Sam's Club. The buckets that I brew in fit in the Mini fridge that I got for free off of Craig's list I just need to wire up my eBay temp controller and I'm all set. BeerSmith is great for scaling recipes by the way.

I have all the equipment for 5 gallon all grain and I have brewed them but like I said it is just to much beer laying around. So its official I am going to try some 3 gallon batches. It will probably force me to start harvesting yeast so I can save money on yeast.

Get new friends with better taste....wait does that sound right?

I'm in the same boat. I'm switching to 3 gallon batches because I just can't get rid of the beer fast enough. I'm thinking of using 5 gal white buckets from Lowe's to ferment in. Can I still use my 5 gal carboys for secondary, or is that too much headspace?

any other issues with switching to a smaller recipe?

b-boy said:

I'm in the same boat. I'm switching to 3 gallon batches because I just can't get rid of the beer fast enough. I'm thinking of using 5 gal white buckets from Lowe's to ferment in. Can I still use my 5 gal carboys for secondary, or is that too much headspace?

any other issues with switching to a smaller recipe?

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I ferment all of my 3 gallon batches in 5 gallon glass carboys. A secondary is not necessary for most batches. Do a search for "no secondary" to find more information about this topic.

3 gallon carboys are also available. I have 3 that I use for dry hopping or adding fruit. Although for dry hopping I frequently just add it to the first fermenter and then keg it straight from there.

This is exactly what I have done too. Towards the end of each keg I am wishing it was empty and I was moving onto my next batch.

My wife doesn't drink it either, and my friends are BMC drinkers too.