What do you use to make small batches with?

[James0816]

I like to make small batches of "tester" product before brewing large scale. Just to be safe in case I don't actually like it. Anyway, I seem to only find either 1g or 5g and above carboy's and buckets.

To make 1g of product, you usually start with over 1g of ingredients which pretty much rules out the 1g carboy. Curious as to what others may use for small batches? I have a couple 3g carboys I can play with if that's my only option.

 

[Seamonkey84]

I use 2 gallon bucket then rack into the one gallon carboy. The extra headspace isn’t a problem during primary, and aids in degassing. Otherwise I have 3 gal better bottle carboys.

 

[Blacksmith1]

I got a 2 gallon food grade bucket and lid from home depot. That let's me start a batch from just over one gallon, to a little over two gallons. I also have a 2.5 gallon glass "pickle barrel" from walmart. These allow me to make a batch larger than 2 gallons if I choose to use 2 of my gallon carboys (I have 6) for secondary.

 

[RPh_Guy]

g = gram
gal = gallon

+1 for using a 2 gal bucket and then rack to a 1 gal carboy.

Cheers

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

I usually use 1 gallon glass "cider" jugs. Sure, there are racking losses, but since I usually add 2/3 of the honey up front, and then 1/3 at racking, that makes up for it.

 

[Harry482]

Small batches for me are 5 gal. The grainfather rocks for that!

 

[RPh_Guy]

Small batches for me are 5 gal. The grainfather rocks for that!

One gal of mead costs more than 5 gal of beer, so the learning curve can be costly.

 

[Yooper]

I use 2 or 3 gallon frosting buckets that I got from our grocery store bakery. It allows easy stirring for the first few days (I will keep the sanitized long spoon right in it sometimes, and cover the whole thing with a towel), and then move it to a small 1 gallon jug as fermentation slows (usually around 1.010 or so).
I have a variety of vessels- jugs, wine bottles, growlers, etc- all sized to hold any overflow for topping up. It's easy to get stoppers for them and fit an airlock.

 

[Blacksmith1]

+1 to that. I have bottles for "left overs" as well. Wine, booze, and juice bottles, pickle jars, a few large sauce jars with measurments on them, whatever I can find.