Brewing smaller batches

[Hamms]

I wanted to start brewing smaller batches, 2.5 gallon to be exact, and I wanted to know if there is any crucial adjustments I should make to mashing or boiling exc.?
I already have 3 gallon fermenters I'm going to put the beer in. Other than that, I think it's a matter of just scaling down the ingredients?

 

[Hamms]

.

 

[Nagorg]

Not really... Scaling down is about all you need to do.

 

[Leapsandbounds]

As above, not much to do but scale.

 

[RPh_Guy]

You will probably need to adjust the amount of water. Do the same thing you did for your first batch to determine your losses.

 

[ba-brewer]

I generally get a lower brewhouse efficiency on small batches, mostly due to the inherent losses get applied to a smaller volume. I get about 70% for my 5gal batches but closer to 65% for 3gal and maybe a few points lower at 2gal.

 

[Hamms]

I generally get a lower brewhouse efficiency on small batches, mostly due to the inherent losses get applied to a smaller volume. I get about 70% for my 5gal batches but closer to 65% for 3gal and maybe a few points lower at 2gal.

Any reason why this might be? Im interested if any other Brewers experience this and how they remedy it.

 

[ba-brewer]

smaller amount of finish product and my trub and dead space losses are not exactly linear for my system.

 

[ListerH]

The one strange thing that caught me out when moving down to small batches (also using 3gl fermenters) was that my calculations of headspace needed using larger batches kind of went out of the window. If you’re not using a blowoff tube, you’ll start to find that putting 2.5gl into those 3gl vessels will mean that more often than not, you’ll blow through your airlock.

Other than this, I just scaled everything down and all good!

I enjoy the fact that I can brew more often and have a wider selection of beers!

 

[RM-MN]

I do a lot of 2 1/2 gallon batches in a 5 or 6 1/2 gallon fermenter. Works fine and I never need to worry about blowoff. BIAB works great for these batches and if I dump all the wort and trub into the fermenter the brewhouse efficiency is through the roof. It all settles out and I just rack the beer off above the trub.

 

[McKnuckle]

Another brewer of exclusively "small" (sez who?!) batches here.

There are no issues at all once you have your equipment sorted. Same evaporation rate, perfectly normal efficiency, and same headspace considerations as the 5 gallon homebrew standard.

My serving system consists of 2.5 and 3 gallon kegs (plus a couple of 5ers). I usually ferment in these, leaving 0.5 gallon headspace at a minimum. I also use a stainless 4 gallon bucket sometimes.

If you use software for your recipes this is a piece of cake. If you fly by the seat of your pants using someone else's 5 gallon recipe verbatim, you'll need to learn how to estimate liquid volumes for your batch size. But IMHO that's a requisite part of the brewer's toolkit anyway.

Finally, if you are bottling, there is zero reason to be obsessed with precise batch sizes like 5 or 2.5 etc. If you need to brew 2.3 gallons to play it safe on headspace, then just do it.

 

[Hamms]

The one strange thing that caught me out when moving down to small batches (also using 3gl fermenters) was that my calculations of headspace needed using larger batches kind of went out of the window. If you’re not using a blowoff tube, you’ll start to find that putting 2.5gl into those 3gl vessels will mean that more often than not, you’ll blow through your airlock.

Other than this, I just scaled everything down and all good!

I enjoy the fact that I can brew more often and have a wider selection of beers!

Exactly my reason for scaling down.

 

[Hamms]

Another brewer of exclusively "small" (sez who?!) batches here.

There are no issues at all once you have your equipment sorted. Same evaporation rate, perfectly normal efficiency, and same headspace considerations as the 5 gallon homebrew standard.

My serving system consists of 2.5 and 3 gallon kegs (plus a couple of 5ers). I usually ferment in these, leaving 0.5 gallon headspace at a minimum. I also use a stainless 4 gallon bucket sometimes.

If you use software for your recipes this is a piece of cake. If you fly by the seat of your pants using someone else's 5 gallon recipe verbatim, you'll need to learn how to estimate liquid volumes for your batch size. But IMHO that's a requisite part of the brewer's toolkit anyway.

Finally, if you are bottling, there is zero reason to be obsessed with precise batch sizes like 5 or 2.5 etc. If you need to brew 2.3 gallons to play it safe on headspace, then just do it.

Yeah I took a hiatus from brewing for a while. And I have a nifty new system that's much cleaner and efficient. I also lost a lot of weight from not Brewing so much. So I want to keep the weight off by not drinking tons of beer, but I want to keep Brewing. Cheers!

 

[Nagorg]

Exactly my reason for scaling down.

Funny... One of the reasons I started brewing larger batches was to reduce how often I had to brew while not running out. Less frequent brew days also comes with a higher "WAF".

 

[bobeer]

I brewed 2.5 gallon batches for years just to have a variety of beers. It also helped me accomplish nailing down more styles faster than brewing full 5 gallon batches.
No real adjustments needed really. If you have a wide pot you might want to watch your boil-off rate but that's about it. I used Beersmith's scale recipe tool to adjust any larger batch recipes down to 2.5 gallons.