Starter kit question: 1g or 5g?

[WarBeard1980]

Hello mead brewers! I am taking my first steps to creating my very first home batch of simple mead. I wanted to throw a question out to all of you and see what you had to say.

I have found some 1 gallon mead making starter kits consisting of primary fermenter (food grade bucket), glass carboy, racking cane, tubing, hydrometer, sanitizer... ets. What I have found typically runs about $50US.

I haven't really been able to find an equivalent in the 5 gallon size. I feel as though I'd rather not buy the 1 gallon, and then find myself turning around and buying the 5 gallon supplies if it turns out that I really enjoy this hobby.

My questions:

1) Does anyone think it would smarter to jump straight to a 5 gallon batch, or would it be wiser to bite the bullet and start out small?

2) Does anyone know of a company with a good deal on primary/secondary and tools geared towards 5 gallon batches? Fermenter, Carboy, Racking tools, testing tools, etc?

Thanks!

Sorry if this is already elsewhere in the forums. Prost!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hiya WarBeard1980 - and welcome. Not so sure that the equipment is all that different if you make 1 gallon or 5. Sure, you need a larger bucket as your primary but you can use a 6 gallon bucket to make 1 gallon, the racking tools can be the same, same size tubing, same hydrometer. The one difference is the secondary: a one gallon carboy vs a 5 gallon.
Brewers like to play with 5 gallon batches and that is fine.... but I suggest that novice mead makers start with one gallon batches - a) the cost of honey is not small and b) being able to make numerous batches over the space of a few months means that you can learn to improve your process and learn to master basic mead making rather than make large batches of mead that you need to "age" for years to make them drinkable... Three pounds of honey (or even 2.5), mixed in enough water to make a gallon of must, yeast and nutrients is all you need to make a fine mead (potential ABV of about 13 or 12% ). But you can make 5 gallons, use an aggressive yeast, fail to provide the yeast with enough nutrient, ferment at too high a temperature and the mead can be so full of fusels that you can use it for rubbing alcohol.
All that said, it IS just as easy to make five gallons as one... but IMO, that is not a good enough reason to waste five gallons or to make such large batches that you are not prepared to make a new batch each week or two (but for that you need many gallon carboys).
Your call...

 

[harlond]

In my first attempt at brewing, I jumped right to 5 gallons, and I can tell you, I didn't feel smart dumping 5 gallons down the drain. YMMV.

 

[biochemedic]

I think 1 gal batches have their place, but when I started I quickly found that I put the same effort into a 1 gal batch as I did with a 5 gal, and for 1/5 th of the result! I did a single 1 gal batch, then moved on to 5 gal after that.

Another option is to make a larger batch then split it into several 1 gal batches for more variety (different fruits/spices, different yeasts, etc.) I'll also throw out there that 1 gal glass jugs from cheap wine (ie, Carlo Rossi, etc.) make great 1 gal carboys, and as bernardsmith said, much of the other equipment is the same, and you definitely want to learn how to manage your fermentations with proper nutrients, yeast pitch rates, temp control, degassing, etc.

Any number of online vendors sell equipment kits for brewing 5 gal batches...not much difference between a beer brewing equipment kit vs one for mead, although some do prefer carboys vs buckets, and then there's that whole glass vs plastic/PET thing. I have also seen some equipment starter kits that are billed as for wine making, and those often include a carboy instead of a bucket fermentation vessel. I will say that I've gotten rid of all but one of my glass carboys and have moved almost exclusively to PET Better Bottles...

 

[Maylar]

5 gallons is a lot of mead IMO, and an expensive investment unless you're a beekeeper. I would always recommend a 1 gallon kit to any beginner and encourage developing your techniques and recipes until you're satisfied with the results. Stepping up to a 5 gallon batch will require minimal additional equipment, and those 1 gallon jugs can still be used for experimental batches and secondary fermentors. You can't have too many 1 gallon carboys hanging around.

 

[fossilcat]

I started with a couple of 1 gal batches then jumped to a 5 gal batch. And while happy with the 5 gallons, I found myself without anymore honey to use. And I enjoy variety and the process of making mead. So now I do 2.5 gallon batches (the 1/2 to mitigate rack loss) with the occassional 5 gal which, as Bio suggests, I split. Also as Bio has suggested, I collect the Carlo Rossi 1 gal jugs from my brother in law - I've got about 15 of them right now.

I currently have one 5 gal carboy (mesquite honey, D47 yeast) that will split to 2 gals American Med Oak, 2 gals ancho/serrano pepper oaked with American Heavy Oak, and one gal layered with American Med and American Heavy. Also, 2.5 gals of Cranberry Hibiscus step feed to 19.5% (so far...) with KV-1116 (also mesquite honey); and a 2.5 gal rose hip BOMM (substitute the recommended acacia honey with my friend's local honey). And I've still got about 24 lbs of honey left with lots of plans! The 2.5 gal batches give me the variety and volume that I want.

I ferment everything in three 6.5 gal buckets and rack to anything from a 5 gal carboy to a 1/2 gal carboy. Although I own a couple of 5 gal Better Bottles, I avoid them now. I use a non-abrasive brush to clean but I'm still paranoid that I'll scratch the plastic with the wire core... and stuff grows in scratches. Maybe if I had originally purchased those wide mouth carboys that you can stick your hand in, I'd be more confident with the plastic.

 

[biochemedic]

I ferment everything in three 6.5 gal buckets and rack to anything from a 5 gal carboy to a 1/2 gal carboy. Although I own a couple of 5 gal Better Bottles, I avoid them now. I use a non-abrasive brush to clean but I'm still paranoid that I'll scratch the plastic with the wire core... and stuff grows in scratches. Maybe if I had originally purchased those wide mouth carboys that you can stick your hand in, I'd be more confident with the plastic.

You don't need anything to clean a Better Bottle but a hot solution of OxyClean Free and time...

However, if/when it comes time to add to or replace parts of my carboy collection, I will definitely look into the Big Mouth Bubblers...

 

[bernardsmith]

You don't need anything to clean a Better Bottle but a hot solution of OxyClean Free and time...

However, if/when it comes time to add to or replace parts of my carboy collection, I will definitely look into the Big Mouth Bubblers...

Right, but here's the thing - You never know what path your wine making or mead making will take you on. If you use plastic and plastic carboys are certainly more safe than glass- then you are forced to use gravity (siphoning) to rack, but if you use glass then you can use a vacuum pump and you don't need to hoist a full carboy counter high to transfer the liquid. A vacuum pump allows you to bottle too. That may not be an issue for some one in good health but you hurt your back... and now racking becomes a pain in the ... back. Just sayin' that a decision about plastic or glass is not (IMO) a once and for all decision... I think you want both plastic and glass (I can degas by pulling a vacuum with plastic )

 

[bleme]

If you were making beer, there would be more arguments for going with 5 gallon batch sizes, mostly because either way you are looking at a 5 hour brew day.

With mead, there is a lot less time invested up front so the 1 gallon size, which allows more experimentation, has a lot more appeal. One gallon jugs are cheap and plentiful so it is easy to build a deep pipeline. Even if you make 5 gallons at a time, you can just split to 5 fermentors and maybe use a different yeast or fruit on each and you just learned 5 times more than you would have with a 5 gallon system.

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

Hiya WarBeard1980 - and welcome. Not so sure that the equipment is all that different if you make 1 gallon or 5. Sure, you need a larger bucket as your primary but you can use a 6 gallon bucket to make 1 gallon, the racking tools can be the same, same size tubing, same hydrometer. The one difference is the secondary: a one gallon carboy vs a 5 gallon.
Brewers like to play with 5 gallon batches and that is fine.... but I suggest that novice mead makers start with one gallon batches - a) the cost of honey is not small and b) being able to make numerous batches over the space of a few months means that you can learn to improve your process and learn to master basic mead making rather than make large batches of mead that you need to "age" for years to make them drinkable... Three pounds of honey (or even 2.5), mixed in enough water to make a gallon of must, yeast and nutrients is all you need to make a fine mead (potential ABV of about 13 or 12% ). But you can make 5 gallons, use an aggressive yeast, fail to provide the yeast with enough nutrient, ferment at too high a temperature and the mead can be so full of fusels that you can use it for rubbing alcohol.
All that said, it IS just as easy to make five gallons as one... but IMO, that is not a good enough reason to waste five gallons or to make such large batches that you are not prepared to make a new batch each week or two (but for that you need many gallon carboys).
Your call...

This is exactly what I am in the process of doing right now. The honey needed just to make a gallon of mead cost me $28 CAD. No sense wasting money on making a huge batch, messing it up and having to dump it down the drain.

 

[WarBeard1980]

Wow! Thanks for all of the feedback. I think it says a little something about the character of people who pursue hobbies such as this, and it's one of the reasons I want to be a part of it (mostly, the delicious booze).
I like what many of you are saying about starting out with the 1 gallon sizes and rolling in more test batches behind it over the course of time with different spices and yeast strains. I think this is the direction that I will take. I will also give a gallon Carlo Rossi bottle a try. I'm sure my wife won't mind if I bring home a jug of cheap wine once in a while.
Thanks again! I will let you know how the first run turns out.

 

[BILTIT]

I find that most of my stuff is 5 gal. I do some test 1 gal stuff but only the really expensive stuff. If i have to wait the same length of time, might aswell have 5 gal vs 1 gal. You can always salvage it if it doesnt work out how you planned.