Brewing Smaller batches

[turketron]

I've brewed a couple of successful extract batches from ingredient kits so far and I'm looking to try something a little more involved for my next batches. I live in a fairly small apartment at the moment so I don't have the space or equipment for any all-grain or full boils, so I was thinking if I did some smaller batches I would be able to make at least a partial mash. Plus, if an experiment yielded something entirely undrinkable I wouldn't be wasting a full 5 gallon batch. Before I jump in I had a couple of questions:

If I used my same 5gal fermenting bucket for a batch of only a couple of gallons would the extra air space cause problems during fermentation? Or would I be better off running to Home Depot and picking up a couple of smaller buckets?

Also, how does pitching the yeast change with smaller batches? I'm assuming if I pitch a full pack of yeast intended for a 5 gallon batch I would be overpitching in a 1 or 2 gallon batch.

Thanks!

 

[Tinga]

lots of LHBS sell little gallon glass jugs for about 5 bucks a piece or better bottle does make a nice 3 gallon FV. I would think you might be alright with a five gallon HD bucket though.

I would think if you are making smaller batches you could easily do BIAB all grain batches in a small 2 gallon water cooler type thing (think lemonade stand and soccer mom).

 

[Calichusetts]

pitching a half-pack of yeast without rehydrating...I do it for 1 gallon batches all the time and I'm sure it would be fine for slightly larger. Maybe rehydrate a half pack if its a 2 1/2.

My beer takes off like a beast. It wasn't until my first lager that I didn't see krausen not only in the blow off tube, but usually filling up and overflowing a 22oz bottle with 30% sanitizer

 

[Skelator]

I made the same switch youre thinking of. I did 5 gallon batches, using extract and topping off with water. I didnt like how my ipa's were turning out so i switched to 3 gallon batches (end product). I've done a few so far and the ipa's have turned out much better than when i was topping off with water. Also, i found it hard to get through all 5 gallons of beer by myself.

a 5 gallon bucket will be fine. Your beer will create c02 and that'll push all the oxygen out of the fermenter through the airlock. However, i'd steer clear of transferring to a 5 gallon vessel for secondary. Your beer will make minimal c02 and possibly not push out all the oxygen (or blanket itself enough). For this, i got a 3 gallon carboy for 30 bucks. I suggest you do the same (be it BB, bucket, carboy, water jug) if you plan to age, dryhop, or use fruit/vanilla/cocoa, etc.

Use the Mr Malty calculator, edit the batch size and the calc will adjust accordingly.

 

[cmmartin]

I've done 2.5 gallon batches in a regular 5 gal. fermenting bucket with no problems. As for the yeast, to be honest, I don't really think pitching the regular 5 gallon portion in a 2 gallon batch would hurt anything. You can over-pitch, but I think that would take much more than what you are adding. I would think that pitching a 5 gal designed amount would just result in less yeast grow and if it is something like an IPA or pale ale where a clean yeast is used, you would have less yeast "flavor" contributing to your final taste. This is what you want when you are showcasing hops or a grain bill in certain styles. If your doing a beer that yeast is crucial to flavor/style, maybe cut the 5 gal portion in half like Cali suggested.

 

[cmmartin]

a 5 gallon bucket will be fine. Your beer will create c02 and that'll push all the oxygen out of the fermenter through the airlock. However, i'd steer clear of transferring to a 5 gallon vessel for secondary. Your beer will make minimal c02 and possibly not push out all the oxygen (or blanket itself enough). For this, i got a 3 gallon carboy for 30 bucks. I suggest you do the same (be it bb, bucket, carboy, water jug) if you plan to age, dryhop, or use fruit/vanilla/cocoa, etc.

+1

 

[BrewinHooligan]

For a cheap alternative, check out some local bakeries/delis. They will often give away buckets that are food safe in the 3 gallon range which is good for a 2.5 gallon lower abv brew, or 2 gallon higher abv brew

 

[Revvy]

I do small batch stovetop AG beers all the time. In fact today I am doing them using nothing but a 2 gallon cooler, a pot that holds 4 gallons a mr beer fermenter , and ONLY the grains, hops and yeast I have on hand (I keep all my brewing supplies at my GF, since she has a yard and I live in a condo,) but I still can do batches here with limited supplies.

When I was finished I was going to post a thread about it today... But I'll post some info here for you.

I am going to do a stovetop small batch kitchen sink brewing challenge. I keep my gear and grain at my girlfriends, but unpacking a box this week I found a hand full of grains. I also have a tiny bit of hops and yeast. I also have a 2 gallon cooler (which @ 1 quart/# of grain can mash 6#s of grains) I have a 5 gallon pot (that I only comfortably use it up to 3.5 gallons) my old Mr Beer keg and a 3 gallon better bottle. So my goal is to make 2-2.5 gallon batches with limited materials.

What I have on hand for ingredients are;
2.25oz Debittered Black Malt.
8 & 1/8 ounces flaked wheat.
6.5 oz flaked corn.
6# 10 oz 2-row
1.5# Dark Amber home toasted 2-row
.5# Toasted Amber 2-row
A box of quick oats, that I roasted a pound of for 40 minutes at 375
Hops
1/2 oz styrian goldings
1 oz Sterling
1oz Columbus
Us 04 and 05 yeast.
If I want I can always toast more of the 2 row....

Half pound of home toasted malt. Smells amazing.

Mashing the frst recipe now. "Kitchen Sink" Toasty Oaty Mild
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.037 SG
Estimated Color: 13.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.3 IBUs
Ingredients:
Amt Name
2 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1 lbs Home Toasted Amber (65.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Home Toasted Oats,
1.0 oz Debittered Black
2.0 oz Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM)
0.22 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [13.90 %] IBUs
0.5 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04)

Using the braid from my regular tun in a 2 gallon cooler

Counter Top Ghetto Tier (A little foot stool, my 2 gallon cooler and a graduated bucket in the sink.)

First Runnings

3.5 gallons of wort to boil down to 2.5
(Thank god for fermcap)

Adding the ridiculously tiny amount of our hoppy friends.

Getting ready to chill

With a garden hose/faucet adapter you can use your wort chiller indoors.

Yes, that's what you think it is. The perfect small batch fermenter.

A little O2 action

Yeast time.

Batch 1 is done!!!

I've also put together several primers on small batch brewing here. I show a couple options for minimash tuns, including an unmodified 2 gallon cooler, and one of those 5 liter minikegs.

And there's links into the info I put into the MR Beer thread as well.

 

[thetragichero]

i'm gonna do exactly what you're thinking of doing so i can switch to all grain: 3 gallon batches, stovetop boil
i don't have a problem getting through 5 gallons, but going smaller will stagger the equipment cost for me (until i get a bigboy propane burner and brewpot and boil outdoors), while getting rid of the whole extract mess

just gotta get over this daggone cold....

 

[turketron]

Wow, thanks for all the advice, especially the illustrated guide, Revvy! I'll look around for a good PM/AG recipe and give it a go.

I think I'll pick up either a couple 1 gallon jugs or a 3 gallon Better Bottle from my LHBS. It'll be fun to have something other than an opaque bucket to ferment in so I can finally see what's going on in there

 

[Hoosier-Brewer]

My LHBS sells this Brew Cube deal, 1.5 gallon all grain batches.

 

[turketron]

So I went to my grocery store's bakery department and they're going to call me when they have a couple extra buckets for me to pick up.

I downloaded Beersmith and messed around with it a bit to figure out the scaling feature. I started with the Belgian White recipe found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/austin-homebrews-belgian-white-beer-135187/ and arrived at the following recipe for a 2.5 gallon BIAB no-sparge batch:


Type: All Grain
Batch Size): 2.50 gal
Boil Size: 4.87 gal
End of Boil Volume 3.38 gal
Boil Time: 50 min

2 lbs 2.5 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Belgian
1 lbs 5.8 oz White Wheat Malt
1 lbs 2.2 oz Wheat, Flaked
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min
0.23 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins)
0.23 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 mins) -
0.5 pkg Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944)



Saccharification Add 24.06 qt of water at 153.8 F 60 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 10 min
Sparge Step: Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Mash Notes: Brew in a bag method where the full boil volume is mashed within the boil vessel and then the grains are withdrawn at the end of the mash. No active sparging is required. This is a light body beer profile.


Does this look like it'd work for a 2.5gal batch? The sheer amount of options to adjust in Beersmith was almost overwhelming, is there some variable I might have missed when scaling the recipe? Any feedback would be great!

 

[turketron]

My other thought was to buy one of the 5 gallon all-grain ingredient kits from Northern Brewer, and then just split it in half and brew two 2.5 gallon BIAB batches. This would also allow me to experiment with different additions or maybe two different types of yeasts.

Can a batch be halved by just an even division of the ingredients in two? Or is there more to it than that?

 

[JonM]

It's as easy as that. Cut everything in half.

Better yet, reduce everything by 40% and do a three gal batch. Leave .25 gals of gunk in the kettle, get 2.75 gallons into the fermenter, and leave .25 gals of trub when bottling - that way you get 27 or 28 bottles.

(And a 3-gal BB has plenty of room for 2.75 gallons of fermenting beer and headspace.)

 

[Revvy]

My other thought was to buy one of the 5 gallon all-grain ingredient kits from Northern Brewer, and then just split it in half and brew two 2.5 gallon BIAB batches. This would also allow me to experiment with different additions or maybe two different types of yeasts.

Can a batch be halved by just an even division of the ingredients in two? Or is there more to it than that?

John's right everything is scalable.

Someone is bound to say that "hop utilization" isn't scalable, but I've been doing it for years, and any discrepancies folks think there are are so miniscule so as not to be perceptible by our palates. We're not talking a 10-20 difference in ibus, if there were any it would be 1-2 points....

Recipes are scalable with the volume of the batch.....so yes you cut in half or 1/5 if you are making a 1 gallon or a 2.5 gallon recipe, and yes you double and triple and quadruple and sextuple the grain bill ALL the grain bill for larger recipes. Remember you are ALSO scalling the the liquid so it's the same dillution- it's the same gravity or grains, color of grains, Ibus of hops having the same affect on the scaled volume of liquid.

4 pounds of 2 row, 1/2 pound of crystal 60 and 1/2 pound of carpils in a 2 1/2 gallon batch of beer, is the SAME beer that is made up of 8 pounds 2row, 1 pound c-60 and 1 pound carapils for a 5 gallon batch.... It's still going to be the same srms, og and ibus, regardless. That's why a lot of recipes given from brewies are given as percentages.

80% basemalt
10% C 60
10% Carapils


Density/gravity of the boil is what matters, if you scaled it right, should be the same gravity, so utilization SHOULD be same at 1g or 5g, or 10 gallons of 1 bbl, etc...

 

[skirl]

Complete Noob here. Thanks for the info Revvy. I've got that same 2 gal cooler and want to convert it into a mash tun. Is that a small stopper with some kind of T shoved into the stock spout? What did you use for connecting the outlet tube on the outside of the spout. Thanks for any info.

 

[Tinga]

Complete Noob here. Thanks for the info Revvy. I've got that same 2 gal cooler and want to convert it into a mash tun. Is that a small stopper with some kind of T shoved into the stock spout? What did you use for connecting the outlet tube on the outside of the spout. Thanks for any info.

you could do Brew in a bag and not have to convert the cooler in anyway. simply buy a grain bag from you local homebrew store and put the grain in the bag while you mash.