Can I scale back brew sizes, or is 5 gallons the standard for a reason?

[levand]

I'm very new to home brewing... actually, I haven't even bought my first set of equipment yet, hence this question.

It seems that the standard batch size is 5 gal - the local brew shop (Annapolis Home Brew) seems to only sell recipes and kits at that size.

However, there are a number of very good reasons why smaller sizes would be better for me:

• I already own most of the pots/utensils I'd need for full boils of smaller (3 gallon) batches.
• I live in a small house with not much storage space
• It would take me a very long time to drink 50 bottles of beer.
• I'm very scientific minded - I'd love to experiment with different things and play around with variables, rather than committing to a few large batches.

So a few questions:
1. Can I make decent beer in smaller batches?
2. Can I take a 5 gal recipe and do the math to cut back the ingredients proportionally for a smaller brew, or will I have to find recipes intended for smaller batches?
3. Can I use a larger primary fermenter for a smaller brew (e.g, 6.5 gal carboy for 3 gallons of wort)? Obviously the secondary fermenter's size should match.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Runyanka]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. That's a lot of headroom. However it will push all of the oxygen out during fermentation. Leaving a pillow of C02.

 

[Dahoov]

I'm very new to home brewing... actually, I haven't even bought my first set of equipment yet, hence this question.

It seems that the standard batch size is 5 gal - the local brew shop (Annapolis Home Brew) seems to only sell recipes and kits at that size.

However, there are a number of very good reasons why smaller sizes would be better for me:

• I already own most of the pots/utensils I'd need for full boils of smaller (3 gallon) batches.
• I live in a small house with not much storage space
• It would take me a very long time to drink 50 bottles of beer.
• I'm very scientific minded - I'd love to experiment with different things and play around with variables, rather than committing to a few large batches.

So a few questions:
1. Can I make decent beer in smaller batches?

90% of my batches are 2.5 to 3 gallons and I think I make pretty good beer. My friends seem to agree so yes, I believe you can too

2. Can I take a 5 gal recipe and do the math to cut back the ingredients proportionally for a smaller brew, or will I have to find recipes intended for smaller batches?

Absolutely. You can also get software that will do the scaling calculations autoMAGICally. I personally use BrewTarget.

http://brewtarget.sourceforge.net/download.html

3. Can I use a larger primary fermenter for a smaller brew (e.g, 6.5 gal carboy for 3 gallons of wort)? Obviously the secondary fermenter's size should match.

My small batches all start in a 5 gallon glass carboy. For the initial fermentation you don't really need to worry about the headspace because it will quickly fill up with CO2 and unless you remove the airlock there will be very little chance of oxydation. I use 3 gallon glass carboys for bright tanks (clarifying tanks). If I dry hop I just put them in the first carboy after the krausen has fallen and then rack to the bright tank after the dry hopping period.

Thanks in advance!

I hope my information was helpful since you already thanked me

 

[unionrdr]

I've seen 1 & 3 gallon ale pales before. I'm almost positive it was Midwest supply. They're very good to deal with,they use Fed-Ex,so they're fast. & nothing broken,no torn boxes,etc. Good stuff,good service.

 

[levand]

Thanks, everyone... this is exactly the answer I was hoping for. I'll go with buying the smaller pieces of equipment and scaling the recipe.

Looking forward to it!

 

[Homercidal]

Just get some food grade 5 gallon buckets. Nothing wrong with smaller batches.

 

[lextasy23]

Funny, I'm scaling up to 7.

I have a buddy who makes 1 gallon experimental batches in growlers. He's made some crazy good beer. 1 gallon or 5000, it's the same process.

 

[jwplessner]

Carlo Rossi 4L wine jugs with #6.5 stoppers are awesome vessels for a 1 gallon fermentation.

1-3 gallon all grain "brew in a bag" brewing is easy and cheap with the kettles people use for 5 gallon extract batches. The green bay rackers "can i mash it" calculator is great if you want to find out whether you can use your kettle to mash the whole grain bill for your small batch.

Yeast is typically sold in quantities marketed to the 5 gallon batch brewer, so you may have extra yeast after pitching. The Mr. Malty pitching rate calculator will help you pitch the appropriate amount of yeast for smaller batches.

 

[lextasy23]

If you make starters, just pour a little of one of them in, and let it regrow.

 

[C-Rider]

For similar reasons I'm scaling down to 1 gallon batches using 2 gallon white pain buckets from HD. I have two fermenters and one for bottling. First batch has a few days to go, ready to start on a porter.

 

[Zixxer10R]

Pain buckets????!!!! YIKES!

 

[C-Rider]

Pain buckets????!!!! YIKES!

Ok joker, Paint Bucket! Cheers

 

[Maxkling]

For similar reasons I'm scaling down to 1 gallon batches using 2 gallon white pain buckets from HD. I have two fermenters and one for bottling. First batch has a few days to go, ready to start on a porter.

Im not sure if this has ever been confirmed or not, but there is a debate about them being non-food grade buckets and possibly leaching chemicals. Im not sure just throwing it out there, the buckets are designed for paint not food.

 

[walrusbt]

Levand, glad you brought this up. I'm about to get started myself and I may go this route with my batches of brew (though probably not the first). I'm looking forward to whipping up different styles, but like you, 5 gallons may take longer to drink than I'd like (since I fairly sure I'll be anxious to kick out another style to sample). It's got me rethinking whether I should get the turkey fryer I was planning on so I could do 5 gallon full boils. hmmm.....

 

[Revvy]

There's a ton of threads on here for small batch brewing.

You can brew any sized batch you want. I do a lot of 2.5 gallon recipe test batches. You can even do 1 gallon AG brews. The basic brewing guys call that the six pack brew.

A recipe is scalable, so a 1 gallon recipe is 1/5th of a 5 gallon one....a 2.5 gallon one is half the ingredients.

2.5 gallons is one case of beer.

I use my normal 5 gallon mash tun for most of them, but I do a lot of Experiments, test recipes, or beers that I know I won't need/want more than a case of.

I sometimes use an unmodified 2 gallon cooler for a lot of my small btaches it holds up to 4 pounds of grain.

I just us a folding steamer in the bottom along with a grain bag. Just break off or unscrew the center post.

One of these, it helps to lift the grain bag above the spigot to keep the drainig from getting stuck.

I posted a lot of info in the mr beer thread that you may find helpful.

I posted some all grain small batchrecipes here, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/785533-post702.html

ANd a bit of a primer on AG with pics here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/738927-post659.html

But I mostly use my regular 5 gallon cooler mash tun which holds 14 pounds of grains...and 14 pounds of grain for a 2.5 gallon batch can be a mighty big beer.....


One of our memebers chubbykid had plans for a minikeg mashtun http://sites.google.com/site/chubbykidhomebrew/Home/equipment/mini-keg-lauter-tun

THe basic brewing radio guys are big fans of tiny batch brewing...3/4 gallon (1 6pack) in a 1 gallon winejug fermenter.

They demo the 6-pack IPA here

[ame]http://en.sevenload.com/shows/Basic-Brewing/episodes/PERGFAJ-01-12-06-Basic-Brewing-Video-A-Six-Pack-of-IPA[/ame]

and they also have done barleywines as well.

I ferment my 2.5 gallon batches in all manner of things, I have a 3 gallon better bottle, I also use 3 gallon water jugs, AND my old Mr Beer keg (it's perfect because you can even lager in your own fridge with it when you are starting out.)

You can even ferment a 2.5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy if you want, though I would say a 6.5 gallon carboy is a little too much headspace for my confort.

Hope this helps....any more questions feel free to ask...But look through ALL THE OTHER INFO first and I bet you, you won't HAVE any other questions. This has been thoroughly covered like just about everything else.

 

[jsweet]

For me, I can't imagine going through all the effort of brewing for a 1-gallon batch -- though people do, and love it! -- but I do 3-gallon batches all the time. Brewed one last night in fact. Any time I am trying something experimental or really out there, I do a small batch just in case it sucks

 

[Lilahblossom]

Well in this neck of the woods, five gal doesn't last long if it's a good honey ale with cascade hops. My husband and his brother can polish off a good portion on one sitting by the campfire. I brew that in ten gal batches now. But I think for a special Christmas recipe, it would be appropriate to brew a three gal. batch.

 

[DaveGEsq]

Levand,
I'm new too. I've brewed a couple beers the 5 gal way. I'm moving down to 2.5 gal for a couple reasons. First, bottling is a pain in the ass and less brew means less bottles laying around. Second, I really enjoy the beer making process and want to experiment more freely. The thought of having 5 gal of undrinkable beer makes me afraid to really try stuff. Third, for the same amount of effort to brew a 5 gal batch (ie. a few hours in the kitchen), you can have two different kinds of beer brewing in 2.5 gal carboys. Since different beers take different amounts of time to be ready for the bottle, you're always playing around with it. It makes it more of a hobby than filling 5 gal of wort and waiting a month. Just some thoughts.

 

[Scratch]

I went by Annapolis Homebrew week before last. They have "kits" that are actually their own recipes that they assemble themselves. As you said, the standard size is 5 gallons, but they will make a 2.5 gallon kit for you, specially packaged and labeled. I got a 2.5 gallon kit for the Pennsylvania Lager ("Yuengling-like"). I brewed it in a 3-gallon carboy.

 

[WalkerBrew]

I just stumbled into this thread looking around to see if anyone actually does it, and there is a fantastic amount of info here. I am going through all of the Basic Brewing vids and the small batch idea really strikes me as worthwhile.

While I work on my larger setup for AG, I am going to do some 6-Pack AG brewing, test styles I have never had before and generally play around.

Thanks for the info!

-Eric

 

[Revvy]

I just stumbled into this thread looking around to see if anyone actually does it,

There's so many people on here who do small batch brewing that there was discussion about a subforum devoted only to that.

 

[DaveGEsq]

"My small batches all start in a 5 gallon glass carboy. For the initial fermentation you don't really need to worry about the headspace because it will quickly fill up with CO2 and unless you remove the airlock there will be very little chance of oxydation. I use 3 gallon glass carboys for bright tanks (clarifying tanks). If I dry hop I just put them in the first carboy after the krausen has fallen and then rack to the bright tank after the dry hopping period."


If you can't remove the airlock, how do you take gravity readings? Do you just let the thing sit without touching the airlock until all visible signs of fermentation have ended?

 

[Dahoov]

If you can't remove the airlock, how do you take gravity readings?

I generally only check the gravity before I pitch the yeast and whenever I rack. There are exceptions of course, but I am going to keep this short.

Do you just let the thing sit without touching the airlock until all visible signs of fermentation have ended?

Pretty much. I actually wait at a least a week after the krausen has fallen. If I want to serve it quickly I will rack it into a bright tank filling it to within an inch or so of the bung. I find in my experience that it will clarify much quicker this way and allow me to get it into kegs earlier. If I am not in a hurry for it I will usually just leave it in the primary until it is clear enough to keg. In a bright tank I can usually get an average gravity beer into the keg within 3-5 days. If I leave it in the primary it usually takes 3-5 weeks, but usually has a much cleaner flavor since the yeast has had a chance to "Clean house".