What size batches do you brew?

[wiggybrewer]

I started brewing five gallons, but switched to three gal. Stove top brews it the kitchen. I brew weekly, that's four different beers a month. I also keg in three gal. Kegs, there really easy to clean.

 

[sd_brewbie]

Started with 5 and mostly done that. Tried a 1 gallon batch and not worth the effort. My last two batches have been 10 gallons (about the max I can fit in my 15 gallon kettle). Really nice to get that much beer from one brew session. I think I will be doing many more 10 gallon batches.

 

[wisconsinitebrewer]

Started with 5 gallon batches. Moved to a mix of 6.5 and 5. If I do 6.5 gallons, I'll bottle a gallon and a half and keg the rest.
But, getting ready to make the jump to a larger system; will be going to 10 gallons

 

[Singletrack]

7.75 gal into the fermenter. This size is about the maximum for my equipment.

 

[schematix]

I've done 10G batches since day 1. It's a good balance of time vs product received.

There are some cons though:
-When you make a mistake, you're working on drinking it for a while,
-it takes some gusto to really go out on a limb and experiment due to this.
-Brewing in the kitchen with a small investment in equipment is going to be hard. You're gonna need at least 1 pump and 2 burners to make 10G happen.

I am currently converting my system to either 9 (12G pre-boil) or 13.5G (16G pre-boil) batches so that i can use either 2 or 3 corny kegs. I am going to do all closed loop pressurized fermentation to remove what I believe is the last 2 remaining sources of O2 in my system: plastic PET carboys and the 0.1% O2 contamination in the CO2 i use for force carbonating.

 

[Jonakr]

My first brew kettle was only 4 gallons, so I was only doing up to 5 gallon batches. I got a 14 gallon pot, so now I do split 5x2 gallon testers. The only problem is that a heated 14 gallon pot is about 112 lbs. not so easy to maneuver around.

 

[SunnyDownSnuff]

1 or 2 gallons. Sometimes do the parti-gyle thing, which usually winds up being 3 1/2 gallons total.

I keep it small because I like to brew once a week when time permits, I enjoy the experimentation and variety. I work stovetop, indoors, using two commercial stock pots, a colander, and I keep two tea kettles full and on medium heat. But I should add that at these low volumes, my most important tools are my calculator, pencil, and electronic kitchen scale.

Tried a "big" batch once but didn't care for it. By staying small, the Heating, chilling, pre-clean/san and clean up all seem to go faster for me. Then all the follow up operations, bottling, etc. all go faster. The other nice thing is I can ferment/secondary/age in a couple of one gallon containers. I use a mix of plastic milk jugs and homer buckets. I tend to toss out (recycling) the plastic milk jugs rather than try to clean out the fermenter funk.

It's ghetto, but it works for me. No heavy lifting required

 

[Brewmasher]

I used to do 10 gal batches, now I use Grainfather/ Fastferment which limits me to 7.5 gal., but the ease of use allows me to brew more often.

 

[catdaddy66]

Almost exclusively 5 gal batches. I have brewed a handful of of 10 gal batches (to split or via partigyle) as well. I hope that in the near future i can get the equipment to allow me to do 10 gal more frequently.

 

[Craigmn]

5 gal mostly, but when I brew saisons I do 10 and split

 

[puttster]

Now I do 5 gals but would like to switch to 10 gal. Then I'd fill two 5 gal carboys. I'd bottle one carboy as usual and let the other one sit for a month or so, until enough bottles became available to fill.

 

[Bryggeri]

16 gallon, occasionally split batches, usually single style, 5 for self, 5 gal for parties 5 gal to bottles to share

 

[Horseshoot]

I aim to have 11 gal of wort to ferment at the end of a brew. With the end goal of 2 full five gal kegs of finished beer

This is what we do 95-97% of the time. The rest of the time we shoot for 5 gallons in the keg, for an experimental batch.

Mike

 

[Qhrumphf]

I mostly do 5.5 gallons into the fermenter leaving 5 gallons packaged. Occasionally (maybe a couple times a year) I'll do a 10 gallon batch (which I suppose I should bump up to 11 for the same reason), but at that point I usually end up doing a partigyle instead.

With non-beer stuff (mead, cider, wine, etc) I only do 1 gallon batches.

 

[DaNewf]

Currently 19-23 litres. I brew BIAB w/sparge in a 29 litre electric wort boiler.

Lately the beer is starting to pile up so I am considering moving to no sparge BIAB in the same kettle. I'm guessing this will knock my batch size down to about 13-15 litres with the added benefit of a slightly shorter brew session (less wort to heat up and then chill down).

 

[TonyKZ1]

I'm brewing 5G at the moment, but started with and still do 1G and 2-2.5G recipes.

 

[Island_Dan]

I brew 2.5-3 gallons. Gives me exactly one full case of beer and lasts just until the next batch is ready. I really love my SS Brewtech brew bucket mini also!

 

[starsealsseo]

Most of my batches are 3 gallons

 

[Photopilot]

My new brew kettle holds 30 gallons. Since my conical holds 17 gallons. I am aiming for 15 gallon output for 3 corneys. Maybe in winter when i can ferment outside the fermentation chamber I can try a 25 gallon batch.

 

[Wiscohio_brewer]

Still doing 5 gallon batches. I can't drink enough beer or give enough of it away fast enough to justify doing 10 gallons batches. Maybe one day.