2.5gal recipes

1. Right... except that some aspects of your system probably aren't linear. I take it from your question that you are doing extract brewing? If you were doing all-grain, I would say that the dead space in your mash tun is a constant and so it isn't going to scale with everything else, and so you have to calibrate a little.

2. You can do that, but it will mess a little with hop utilization. Others may have advice for you on how to deal with the problem - maybe by adding some of your extract toward the end of the boil. Another possibility to consider is splitting your boil between two pots on two different burners. Each pot would be small enough (hopefully) to reach a good vigorous boil. It's a little extra work splitting your hop additions etc. into two, but shouldn't be that big a deal (and small errors, for instance putting 55% of your hops in one kettle and 45% in the other, by accident, wouldn't matter much).

Oh, and speaking for myself... I am paranoid enough that I would probably use boiled and cooled-down water (not just de-chlorinated water) in the fermentor, for fear of contamination. But I think the risk of contamination from tap water is probably low.

3. Your guess is right.

 

If you have a 4-5 gallon boil kettle then test your burner by putting 3 gallons of water in it (adding a little extra water to allow for boil-off) and see if you can get a good rolling boil. I agree with minderbender that you can split the batch, or you can boil as much as possible and than add top-off water to the fermentor to get to your 2.5 gallon level. (You need to allow for the space in your fermentor that will be trub that gets in there, but you can allow for that at the end of fermentation when you boil your priming sugar into solution, by using enough water to hit your 2.5 gallons then.)

Also, like minderbender said, if you are using extract you can hold off adding 50%-75% of it until the last 10 minutes of the boil. That keeps the density of the water a bit lower during the boil and helps to maintain the boil. ** But don't forget to watch for a boil-over when you add all of that sugar at the end of the boil. **

 

You usually get 9-10 bottles per gallon of beer. Assume 10.

 

Which aspects aren't linear? I've got a great book (Clone Brews) that has all grain, partial grain, and extract version for 5gal systems. I was just going to scale these down and go from there. Is there a particular aspect that doesn't scale well linearly?

I'll take a stab at answering the comments by @minderbender, but he may want to chime in also.

I think he was referring primarily to all-grain needing to be adjusted for a split recipe, but it shouldn't be a big deal if you go a straight division of the recipe by two.

This is definitely a feasible option. I have a 3gal brew kettle I use now and I have a 1 gallon pot I could use for the other boil. I could easily do 2/3rds in the large kettle and 1/3rd in the smaller one.

This should work, although you'll be close to a max out of the capacity if you add a little extra water to allow for boil-off. The risk of a messy boil-over is greater if you have less room for the wort to expand in the kettle. You'll have to watch both pots very closely, and hope that both pots don't decide to erupt at the same time.

Yeah, I use boiled (25-30min), cooled water for top-off. I'm not worried about the tap, I just want to ensure the purest water possible.

If you are using tap water then you need to be a bit concerned if you have city water and it has chlorine.

Do you have a recommendation about how much water max to use for top-off? I think I could reasonably adapt the system I have provided I go and buy a 3gal carboy (easy) and could top-off with between .5-1gal water.

Your top-off water depends on the amount that you have after the boil. For a total of 2.5 gallons, if you have an extra half gallon distributed between the two pots, then you'll end up with close to the 2.5 gallons after an hour's boil. I would transfer whatever you have into your fermentor and then adjust to the 2.5 gallons at the time of bottling or kegging. If you are bottling, and your beer is less than 2.5 gallons in the bottling bucket (try to plan for it to be a little less if you can), this is the time to figure out how much liquid you need to reach 2.5 gallons, and then use that amount of shortage when boiling your priming sugar into a solution. When you add that amount, then you'll have your 2.5 gallon goal. If you already have 2.5 gallons (or more) in your bottling bucket, then boil your priming sugar in just a cup or two of water so that you don't further dilute your beer by very much.

I've never done extract brewing before, since I've used 1gal all-grain kits. I wouldn't be opposed to trying out extract though to learn the ropes if it's going to be easier. I'm assuming if I wanted to stick to all-grain, I'd definitely need to buy a 4-5 gal kettle?

Extract brewing is easier as well as faster because you skip the mash process. It's a bit more expensive because you're paying more for extract because the work and time saving has already been done to save you the mashing process. You can still use your 3 gallon and 1 gallon pots whether you go all-grain or extract because you're going to start with the same amount of liquid. I'm not an all-grain brewer to know for sure, but I think it's more difficult to hit your needed amount of liquid as well as your efficiency so that you can easily end up with too much liquid if you don't watch it closely.

 

1. Just that quick. Just that easy.
2. A full-wort boil for a 2.5G batch-size needs the capacity / capability to boil ~3.5G for 60 minutes.
Contrary to popular belief ... you can use a lid and not have any of problems traditionally attributed to using a lid.
3. One case + 2-12s.

Traditional 5G fermentors and their bulky temperature-control components might fit in a coat closet if there weren't any coats. OTOH ... not only will a high-aspect ratio 2.5G fermentor fits nicely inside 48-QT chest-cooler ... both will also fit nicely inside a coat closet with coats.

 

I use a funnel with a kitchen strainer in it. (This is best done with another person to hold the funnel and occasionally scoop the trub aside in the strainer. Also, use some sort of spacer around the funnel's spout if it is a snug fit into the next of the carboy. The air inside the carboy needs somewhere to escape as you pour in the wort.) The pouring action along with the strainer adds quite a bit of air into the wort. If you siphon your wort into the carboy, then you've got to shake it to aerate it if you don't have the equipment to oxygenate with compressed O2.

 

If you have a high gravity beer, then double aeration would be helpful.