Hi from a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village

[thaavik]

Been a lurker when I needed information but decided it was time to join officially. I'm a 1 gallon brewer, I've done about 6 or 7 brews so far and, touch wood, all have gone pretty well so far.

I'm going to start going through threads to get a better answer to this, but what are people's thoughts on when it's the right time to upgrade the scale of my rig? Space issues mean I'll never have even a 5 gallon keg setup in my current place, but brewing in 1 gallon batches is quite a lot of work for 9 or 10 beers. Seems like the next logical step could be a 3 gallon carboy and an upgrade on my kettle rig, which right now is 2 8-quart pots. My all grain brewing has been going well, and I'm somewhat of a purist in everything I do so I am hesitant to step into extract brewing.

Any thoughts? Appreciate it, and excited to join the community

 

[2brewishuman]

I think it's pretty awesome you have accomplished what you have with the minimal setup. The 3 gallon carboy, in all honesty, doesn't take up a whole lot more room than the 5 gallon. All grain brewing is something I want to experiment with at some point, since I'm an extract guy.

Do you have a mash tun? Can you tell us more about your setup? Maybe it's something I can adopt before I spend the big bucks on all of the equipment.

Thanks and welcome to the board!

:fro:

 

[punkrockdave]

Well like 2brew said 5 gallon setup is not much more of a space hog than a 3 gallon setup. In my kitchen (which is useless) I have 4x 6.5 gallon carboys, 1x 5 gallon, 2x 20qt kettles and all the necessary equipment. My kitchen is long and narrow. My working area is cramped, not much more than 12 sq ft. The thing I did was make several rolling storage carts to help me out. I mostly do extract brews, cause frankly I don't believe you could brew a 5 gallon AG batch on a stove top (at least not my stove ). I have done a couple of partial mash recipes and that has worked out well so far. I hope this gives you an idea of what you can do in a small work space. I put a pic of my storage area to maybe give you some ideas to help bump up your scale of brewing. Cheers.

 

[thaavik]

Thanks both for your replies, they are much appreciated.

2brew, I guess my spaces issues lie more with the pots and equipment I'd need than the actual 3 or 5 gallon carboy. I've been able to carve out the right space for my fermenters and you're right, they wouldn't be too much more intrusive. Right now I just have 2 8 quart pots, one for mashing and one for sparging. I then use one to boil with, starting about 6.5-7 Quarts and boiling down to 5 before going to my fermenter. I'm more concerned about having pots that have enough volume to do 3 or 5 gallons. I do like the convenience of always being able to try a new recipe though.

Dave, thanks for the pics, that set up looks very clever for how small the space is. Those rolling carts definitely are a good idea, give you more area to store stuff. Sorry if this seems stupid but how are you doing 5 gallon brews when your pots will only hold a max of 5 gallons? Don't you need larger pots to account for the initial boil volume? I know that extract brewers will top off their fermenters with water, but doesn't that mean you lose a lot of ABV? Or is it that the 3.5-4 gallons of wort that you were able to fit in your pot is a lot stronger and the additional water is already accounted for? Meaning if your target OG is say 1.050, your wort is actually like 1.070 until you top it off with water? Is that making sense? I feel like I am missing a step here.

Thanks again guys.

Tory

 

[punkrockdave]

Like you said, I'm adding water for extract brewing. That is the only way I would be able to do 5 gallon batches. I haven't grasped the math side for going for a target gravity. Mostly I find recipes here and follow those guide lines for either extract or partial mash brews. Thinking of doing AG batches this coming summer if I can get the materials together. I do have the yard space for it.