Very Small Scale for a starter

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Flsurfdog

Member
Joined
May 5, 2009
Messages
15
Reaction score
1
Location
Orlando
So I've been thinking about getting into this for quite a long time now, and was pretty happy to find this forum. I'm a grad student and live in a pretty damn small apartment with little room for storage. (I don't really have room for 5 gallon buckets, nor do I have 5 gallon pots to put on the stove....outside is not an option either :(

I'd like to do full grain mashing because I don't really like the idea of extracts (Open to being corrected on this).

I was wondering if home brewing can be done on a small scale.....like fermenting in a 2L Coke bottle?

Not so much should it, but can it be done? :)

TIA
Mike

PS...I have another question but that's another topic
 
If you are good with math, you can downsize everything to a 2L batch.
I bet you can have a pretty decent efficiency if you mix it well.. use oven to insulate during mashing.... so many options.

Now, bust out that excel sheet and downsize every recipe.
 
I think doing batches any smaller than 3 gallons isn't really worth the effort. You would probably end up with 3-4 bottles when its all said and done. Plus, it takes about the same amount of time to ferment age and bottle condition 2L as 3 or 5 gallons.

I have considered the idea of a very mini AG brewery to do mini test batches. Take one of those small water coolers and fit it with a bulkhead and braid. I don't think I would actually do it for the reasons I mentioned above.

That being said, small apartment brewing can and is done by a lot of people here. I live in a 1BR apartment on the 12th floor. I use a 5 gallon cooler mash tun and do full boils with a turkey fryer setup. I'm lucky though since I have a balcony. If you scaled down to 3 gallon batches, you could proabably do full boils on the stove if you insulated the pot.
 
I have brewed 1 gallon experimental batches previously, so I disagree about it 'not being worth it'. A volume this small works especially well when brewing historic recipes and the Durden Park book's recipes are all based on 1 gallon.

That being said, 3 gallons is a perfect size and I know quite a few members here who use 3 gallons as their standard full-boil batch size.
 
Back
Top