One gallon batches to five gallon batches?

Yes you can, but better beer is made with full boils. If not feasible I would try to get a larger kettle so you add less water. For space I assume you mean fermenter size. Buckets are cheap and make great beer.

 

Do you mean headspace in the fermenter? I would take the batch size and multiply by 1.3 to get the minimum fermenter size. That gives you at least a 30% added headspace.

 

What you are proposing to do, add water after the boil, was the standard practice for a very long time. Papazian advised this method and if you could do a full boil 25 years ago you were some sort of mechanical wizard. Jumbo kettles were a thing of legend.

But, doing the entire batch at once aka full wort boils, that is the thing to do. If there is any way to do the full 5 gallons (well more with boil off) do that.

The single best way to improve your beer, and the easiest, is to do full wort boils. Honest. Sometimes we have to make compromises. Go full wort boil as soon as you can.
Cheers.

Edit. You didn't ask but do not add water to fermented beer, unless you boil and cool the water and even then not such a great idea. Not due to infection risk but rather water is oxygenated and that will quickly add oxygen to your beer. Not good.

 

I made this same transition from 1gal to 5 gal in a fairly large 1BR apt I used to live in, but recently moved to smaller space. I've run three 5 gal batches in the new space but they have been painful. My kitchen is half the size, sink is smaller, stove is smaller, used to have a closet for fermenting that is no longer, etc. And cleanup? Don't even ask. I've got one 3gal batch fermenting now, but after that I'm going back to 1gals with maybe an occasional 3 or 5 gal batch for the holidays or such.

Homebrewing and apartment living are not very compatible . That said, all the best of luck to making it work for you.

 

Space? All you need is a 6.5 gallon bucket with a lid. Leave the airlock off of it, cover the hole with some aluminum foil. Put a piece of plywood on top of it, add a pillow and call it an extra stool or an ottoman for a week or two.

Done.

 

The problem I ran into with brewing in an apartment was usually around getting a full batch to actually boil. Usually apartment stoves are not putting out enough BTU to get 5 gallons, let alone 6 gallons to account for boil off. I found over time boiling 4 gallons which reduced to 3, then adding pre-boiled water to fermenter to make 5.5 gallons.

A lot of kits out there use the above method, I think because they assume someone using kits is just getting started. You can also use one of the many brew calculators out there which account for boil size vs ferment size.

If the ambient temperature allows it you can wrap it in a blanket to protect from light and set it in any corner of the bedroom or whatever.

 

I've boiled and cooled water before, and added around 1.5 gal to an extra strong DIPA to try and dilute it. Learned a lot from that one... it did not turn out well.

@dwarke is anything holding you back other than space? You'll find that a lot of the 5-gal buckets and other equipment involved is stackable, and doesn't really require a lot of extra space. Also, if you already do 1-gal kits then I'm sure you can dedicate a little extra room for a 5-gal bucket. I lived in a 500 sq ft apartment around 5 years ago, and did plenty of 5 gal extract kits on the stove. Just watch for boil overs!

 

One trick that can work, and I have tried it for the purpose of increasing IBUs, boil up a 1/2 pound or so of extra light DME and use that to get a re-fermentation going. Make a very weak work. Add that. Might be tricky with a big beer and sleepy yeast, but once the fermentation process starts again oxygen will be consumed.
Cheers.

 

Nothing says you can only do 1 or 5 gallon batches. Maybe 3 gallon batches might be the sweet spot for you, but that would take up about the same amount of space as 5 gallon batches. Something to think about.

 

Hopefully I never have to dilute a beer ever again, but if I do that's a really good idea. Thanks man

 

Check craigslist for some mr beer fermenters that got used once or never. Will do good for 2 gallon batches. That is what I did and plan on using when I start. I have 2 and they will easily fit into an old wine fridge that had it's thermostat go south by just removing a shelf. I am piecemealing brewing gear so when I have the time to start I should have most of the pieces

 

Yeah I was looking at that before I bought the mr beer kegs and there were some mixed reviews on it, issues with the spout which I think have been fixed

 

1 gallon batches are a waste of time and effort unless you are doing a proof of concept. 3 weeks for less than 12 beers? That's not for me. I've never not brewed in an apartment. It's possible. I do partial boils, and yes I'd love to do full boils, but the partial volume makes perfectly good/great beer too.

5 gallons of the level of quality beer I brew partial boiling is definitely worth it. You'll find the input time and effort to be nearly the same as with the smaller batches, and you just need a 2'x2'x4' rectangular prism of free space in your apartment to accommodate the extra space needed.

FWIW I don't use 100% extract. I'm a partial masher. Someone may challenge my credibility but my friends, family, and I love my beer so while I'd love to expand into the capacity to brew 5 gallons with a full boil, I've found it not to be an insurmountable barrier in creating quality beer.

I think you should go for it.

 

I don't recall above whether you said that you have tested your stove to see how much you can boil, so try 3.5 (or 4) gallons of water for a test run before you commit to this. Over time, it sounds like you will graduate to 5-gallon batches, and purchasing a 7.5 gallon kettle will work for 3.5 gallon batches and do very well with 5-gallon full boils (starting with 6-6.5 gallons to allow for boil-off) later on. So a large kettle should be your first investment when you can afford it.

 

I've done all extract and partial mashes where I boil 3 gallons & then add water to fill the fermenter, and they produced good beer. As good as the all-grain, full-boil 1 gal batches I've made? Not quite, but I'd say 80-90% as good. Which is sufficient to satisfy my homebrewing heart. It's really the time/space/clean-up in my smaller apt that is pushing me to smaller batches. Also, when they say "add cold water" I boil water for 5 mins, chill & add it. Just adding tap water worries me.

I'll also second @HopsintheSack and @Mothergoose03 's comments about checking what your stove can boil. My new stove is smaller and the burners lack the power and fine-tuning of my old stove, which is a big factor in the increased time a full 5 gal batch takes me.