My first batch was a Brewers Best extract kit partial mash brewed on the kitchen stove in a 32 qt aluminum tamale steamer I got at Walmart for $21. I fermented it in a plastic bucket with a wet t-shirt over it. I "Geared Up" from there to 3 vessel, (15.5 gallon keggles), all grain, building up water profiles from ro water, milling the grain, temperature controlled fermentation and kegging in 5 gallon corny's. It's been a blast. The education has probably been the most rewarding part of it all. I find every aspect of making, from growing grain, malting, yeast, water, techniques... it's the most satisfying hobby I've ever engaged in.
All that said - the 6 to 8 hour brew days, lugging around 1/2 barrel kegs, 20 gallons of water, large heavy amounts of wet grain to deal with, bigger burners, bigger this, heavier that, took it's toll. I'm not as young as I was and brew day kicked my butt. Not only that, but the end result was 5 or 10 gallons of beer that cost a pretty good chunk of money to make, (and quite frankly was not always worth the hassle and expense that went into it). I started brewing less and less, not because I was bored with home brewing, but the actual physical aspect just wasn't that fun. More stuff to clean, (I hate the cleaning part).
After months of agonizing I finally told the wife that the chances of me brewing again were slim to none so I was just going to sell everything off. I put the 3 keggles with the propane burner and the brew stand on craigslist for $300. When the guy came to pick it up I loaded up his SUV with everything I had in my garage. He actually had to come back the next night to pick up what he couldn't fit in his car the night before. He's a young guy just barely getting into it. I told him if he had any questions to not hesitate to get a hold of me and I'd be happy to pass along anything I've learned over the years. I wished him a Merry Christmas and turned around to enjoy my empty garage.
He has texted and emailed me several times with all kinds of questions about this or that. And by discussing this stuff in detail for the past few days I have revitalized my urge to brew. My wife laughed saying "I TOLD YOU SO!" But what I decided was that I want to scale down and brew 2 gallon batches that I can do in an afternoon on my kitchen stove and then just stick everything in the dishwasher when I'm done. After surfing around online it suddenly occurred to me that I could scale down even further and do 1 gallon batches. That's roughly 10 beers, which is plenty. No matter how good the beer is I get bored drinking the same thing. When I buy beer I usually buy the mixed 6 packs or 12 packs, or I buy individual beers. There are just too many beers to try and I can only drink so much.
Anyway, to make a short story even longer, I was just curious how many of you have scaled back to small batch BIAB brewing and have you found any major drawbacks?
All that said - the 6 to 8 hour brew days, lugging around 1/2 barrel kegs, 20 gallons of water, large heavy amounts of wet grain to deal with, bigger burners, bigger this, heavier that, took it's toll. I'm not as young as I was and brew day kicked my butt. Not only that, but the end result was 5 or 10 gallons of beer that cost a pretty good chunk of money to make, (and quite frankly was not always worth the hassle and expense that went into it). I started brewing less and less, not because I was bored with home brewing, but the actual physical aspect just wasn't that fun. More stuff to clean, (I hate the cleaning part).
After months of agonizing I finally told the wife that the chances of me brewing again were slim to none so I was just going to sell everything off. I put the 3 keggles with the propane burner and the brew stand on craigslist for $300. When the guy came to pick it up I loaded up his SUV with everything I had in my garage. He actually had to come back the next night to pick up what he couldn't fit in his car the night before. He's a young guy just barely getting into it. I told him if he had any questions to not hesitate to get a hold of me and I'd be happy to pass along anything I've learned over the years. I wished him a Merry Christmas and turned around to enjoy my empty garage.
He has texted and emailed me several times with all kinds of questions about this or that. And by discussing this stuff in detail for the past few days I have revitalized my urge to brew. My wife laughed saying "I TOLD YOU SO!" But what I decided was that I want to scale down and brew 2 gallon batches that I can do in an afternoon on my kitchen stove and then just stick everything in the dishwasher when I'm done. After surfing around online it suddenly occurred to me that I could scale down even further and do 1 gallon batches. That's roughly 10 beers, which is plenty. No matter how good the beer is I get bored drinking the same thing. When I buy beer I usually buy the mixed 6 packs or 12 packs, or I buy individual beers. There are just too many beers to try and I can only drink so much.
Anyway, to make a short story even longer, I was just curious how many of you have scaled back to small batch BIAB brewing and have you found any major drawbacks?