beer quantities.

[Tylerz281500]

so i bought a beer in a bag brew kit, yeilds roughly a gallon of beer, im near the bottling stage of that and ready to look into pursuing a new project. I found a site my friend recomended called adventures in homebrewing as he uses their kits. unfortunately they are all 5 gallon kits and a few have really sparked my interest. so whats my best bet here should I attempt to scale down a 5 gallon kit? or upgrade to 5 gallon, if i do that what ll do i need to change, bigger buckets and what else?

I just dont think im ready for a big quantity yet, and not sure if scaling a premade 5 gallon kit will screw up the brew, or if its more of a headache than necessary, not saying i wont upgrade down the road but im still getting the hang of it.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

You do what you want. but most recipies are focused on 5 gallons since, thats the convenient size available in fermenters corny kegs and the like. If you're getting drinkable results, I'd recommend going to 5 gallon batches.

 

[mmb]

If you like the one gallon size, Northern Brewer has one gallon kits. Adventures in Homebrewing would scale for you too, I'm sure. They're a super bunch of folks.

 

[barnaclebob]

Do you have a local homebrew store?

Can you swing 2.5 gallon batches? You only need a 20qt pot and a carboy for that. It would be much easier to cut a 5 gall batch in half rather than 5ths.

 

[ktrain]

Tyler,

Scaling is very easy more or less 1/5th of everything (yeast varies). You can buy the grains separately rather than as a kit. That being said, there are some companies out there that have 1 gallon biab kits (midwest supplies being one of them and northern brewer has 3 gallon biab kit recipes). However you can just scale down any all grain kit to 1/5th and you should be pretty good to go. One suggestion if you are doing small scale is to switch to metric. IMO grams and liters make it easier to be accurate with additions. It depends your setup and efficiency but my general rule of thumb is 1 kilo of base grains will yield about 4 liters (1 gallon = 3.8 liters) of 1.050 post boil wort. I did a small batch of Da Yoopers Pale Ale and it came out amazing. Let me know if you want to know scaled down recipe.

Good Luck!

 

[Tylerz281500]

thanks guys, ill check out midwest and northern, ill also ask if cap n cork, and AIH could scale their kits to an extent. i like AIH's 5 gallon starter kit seems like a good price just dont think im ready for it yet.

 

[Redhook]

5 gallons is easy, especially with extract. You can do a partial boil and top it up to 5.5 gallons with bottled spring water after cooling. 5 gallons only makes about 48 12 of bottles and it goes fast.

 

[C-Rider]

I do BIAB AG. I use 2 gallon plactic buckets from HD and a 5 gal colman cooler and a 4 or 5 gallon brew kettle. Video is old, and I've upped numbers a bit to get 18 bottles a brew.

 

[Tylerz281500]

though you needed food safe buckets. didnt think home depot ones would suffice

 

[Redhook]

The Home Depot buckets and brewing buckets are both made out of HDPE. Check the bottoms and you'll see the same stamp.

 

[Tylerz281500]

that i didnt know so what all i need for a 5 gal after that is to drill a whole for the air lock, and what else is 5 gallon specific? longer siphon?

i did have an unrelated question though, does one have to bottle beer? i know some sediment would be on bottom but couldnt you go through the bottling procedure and just leave it in a lidded bucket with a tap on it or something???? sorta like a 5 gallon bucket keg, is that even possible?

 

[mmb]

that i didnt know so what all i need for a 5 gal after that is to drill a whole for the air lock, and what else is 5 gallon specific? longer siphon?

i did have an unrelated question though, does one have to bottle beer? i know some sediment would be on bottom but couldnt you go through the bottling procedure and just leave it in a lidded bucket with a tap on it or something???? sorta like a 5 gallon bucket keg, is that even possible?

It would need to be able to hold about 12psi and bucket lids normally don't do that well. I gave a BeerBox set from beertools.com and it's a 2.75G box that has a tap on it. Reminds me quite a bit of the whole wine in a box thing but it uses co2 to fill the headspace and keep things pressurized. Perfect for small batch brewers. I naturally prime mine.

 

[Chrisbrewbeers]

Don't be scared of homebrew......my advice is to find a way to brew 5 gal batches and enjoy yourself.

 

[Tylerz281500]

couldnt find the beer box, gonna explore so ways to make a bucket able to hold 12 psi with a lid or something, or maybe i can just have a spare grommet to put a siphon in it when im ready.

per my findings im seeing some screw top buckets sutiable for a decent amount of pressure. ill need a bigger siphon to get into ito a glass or just make a keg top out of some pvc or something like that and be set.

 

[mmb]

couldnt find the beer box, gonna explore so ways to make a bucket able to hold 12 psi with a lid or something, or maybe i can just have a spare grommet to put a siphon in it when im ready.

per my findings im seeing some screw top buckets sutiable for a decent amount of pressure. ill need a bigger siphon to get into ito a glass or just make a keg top out of some pvc or something like that and be set.

Www.beertools.com

 

[Tylerz281500]

all i see are software programs

 

[mmb]

all i see are software programs

I apologize. http://www.brewingtools.com

 

[Tylerz281500]

lol no biggy, thats cool though i like that setup, bit pricey when i feel like i can make something that would function the same........many options for sure.