5 gallon to 3 gallon batch advice

[blackfin1]

I am planning on beginning to brew with ingredient kits, but I dont want to make a 5 gallon batch. I think it is too much. Can I take a 5 gallon kit and convert it to 3 gallons? Can I just take all the ingredients following the instructions of course and brew in a kettle with 3 gallons of water, chill then ferment as is without adding water? the for secondary fermentation use a 3 gallon carboy?
Would this work or will the beer be too strong?

Thanks,
Sal

 

[scrawbag]

blackfin im no expert but its common for people to use twice the amount or two kits in a batch. it will affect the final result but usally in a good way. its alcohol content will be higher and its taste will be stronger but i dont see any problems
now the carboy is a problem. it does not have room on top for krausen/foam. it is designed to not allow space at the top so its not exposed to oxygen while conditioning. the foam will come flying out of it. the second fermenter/carboy should have no/little fermentation happening in it so its not designed for it. if you do you will need a blow off hose of epic porpotion not a bubbler.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

It would just make a stronger beer, 2/5ths stronger. That can be good or bad, depending on alot of things. Converting a 5gal recipe to 3gal is easy, multiply every ingredient by .6
Then just buy the ingredients needed and you'll make the recipe as designed.
You can always just concentrate the 5 gal kit to 3 gal size, but the results may not always be as desired.
Good luck and welcome to the forum! HBT is a great site to learn from!

 

[JVHBass]

BeerTools.com Beer Recipe Library

That site has many recipes and you can enter the batch size you want and it will automatically convert it for you

 

[copyright1997]

I am planning on beginning to brew with ingredient kits, but I dont want to make a 5 gallon batch. I think it is too much. Can I take a 5 gallon kit and convert it to 3 gallons? Can I just take all the ingredients following the instructions of course and brew in a kettle with 3 gallons of water, chill then ferment as is without adding water? the for secondary fermentation use a 3 gallon carboy?
Would this work or will the beer be too strong?

Thanks,
Sal

Either scale it or give some away when you are done. For instance, if the kit has 2 cans of LME, you could use 1 can for a 2.5 gallon batch. If it contains DME, then it is easy to scale as you can just go by percentage (e.g. 60% of it for a 3 gallon batch). Do the same for the hops.

Also, you will be surprised just how fast that 5 gallons will be gone. I've made 12 batches since July, most of which have been 5 gallons (3 were 4 gallons). You will find you want to give some to others to see what they think, improve your process (by brewing more), and just because.

I wouldn't suggest just using the same amount of extract and only using 3 gallons of water. If you do this, the ABV will be 5/3 the intended amount. While this might sound "good", it will likely not be to style. Also, different strains of yeast can only handle differing amounts of alcohol. So, if you started with a batch that had an expected 5% ABV, then you are likely ok with 5/3*5 = 8.3%. But if you started with an IPA that had an expected 7.5% ABV to start with, you are now talking 12.5% and some yeast strains won't handle this.

 

[annasdadhockey]

Why is 5 gallons too much? That's only about 2 cases. Give some away if you really can't drink that much. Otherwise, you're beer will be 40% stronger than intended...not always a bad thing.

 

[blackfin1]

Thanks for the help. Looking forward to making my first batch and trying it out.

Sal

 

[DSmith]

I went from extract (partial boil, 5 gallon batches) to all grain 3 gallon end of boil (full boil) batches in a DIY 5 gallon mash tun. Ferment in a 5 gallon carboy, need to still buy a 3 gallon carboy for a lager. The intent was to minimize the cost to do all grain, use my kitchen stove for boiling and brew more often. I get about 30 bottles per batch. Brewing has seemed to go MUCH better since making this switch. But, I also have incorporated yeast starters, stir plate, wort chiller & temperature control since too.

I'd recommend skipping the kits and getting the Brewing Classic Styles book It's written for 6 gallon end of boil volume and halfing the recipes for 3 gallon is simple.

Scaling is as simple as multiplying each ingredient by the ratio of the end of boil volumes. Adjusting the hopping based on different % alpha acid than what's in the recipe is best done using a program. ProMash and EZ_Water_Calculator_3.0.1.xls are my go-to tools for planning out each brew.

 

[Kosch]

I'm glad I saw this thread, I've actually just started looking at doing 3gal all grain (my first AG), just because this will be the quickest and cheapest way to start AG until I can get do some equipment upgrades.

I've got a few 3 gal carboys, so I'm just planning on using these with a blowoff tube.

What I started doing was finding recipes I liked, entering them into BrewTarget (AWESOME software btw!) and then using the Scale Recipe function. I've grown rather excited and anxious now, all I need is my 5 gal cooler and parts to make it a MLT and I'm set! I had been all down about having to wait to get all the new equipment until I started looking at doing smaller batches.

Now the problem is deciding what recipe to start with

Kosch

 

[msa8967]

If you want to do 3 gallon brews w/o using carboys you can buy 5 gallon (actual volume) food grade buckets in Walmart's paint department. These are the white #2 buckets that cost about $4 including a lid. A rubber gromet and air lock will add another $1.50. I use these for 3-4 gallon size brews instead of buying extra carboys. The extra head space for using 3 gallons of brew in 5 gallons total vomule is no problem and usually won't require a blow off tube.

Just thought I would mention this, nothing wrong with using these carboys.