Another noob question about batch sizes

One thought for you to kick around is that you can generally make smaller batches than what your equipment can handle, but you can't make bigger

 

there are plenty of 1 gallon kits out there that might work for you. i bought the wil wheaton kit from northern brewer, but there are several other options out there. they also have some 3 gallon brew in a bag kits, in case 1 gallon isn't enough.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/beer-equipment-starter-kits/one-gallon-small-batch-starter-kit

i also went with 1 gallon kits, because i didn't want a ton of gear taking up space in my garage, and 5 gallons just seems like a lot of beer to get through. i'm able to fit just about all of my gear (minus the gallon jug) into a 5 gallon bucket ,so storage isn't an issue.

i've heard that simply reducing the recipe may not work out quite right. i'm sure some of the more experienced brewers can chime in on that point.

i've found my local homebrew shop to be really helpful with recipes and ingredients. i pulled down a 1 gallon recipe from northern brewer and took it to my local shop. i wanted to make a couple tweaks and the guy at the shop talked me through a bunch of options and helped me get all the ingredients together.

 

Recipe ingredients are directly proportional, so it is possible to reduce recipes per the size of the batch that you want to brew. And starting with extract recipes is a good way to get started to learn the basic brewing process before you move into all-grain recipes.

You can buy 'starter' kits, but you usually don't get everything that you need with them. If you buy equipment that is sized for 1-gallon batches but you think you'll someday brew larger batches, I'd go for the larger batch equipment now. You can still brew small batches with this equipment.

If you don't think you can consume 5 gallons of beer, and if you'd like to brew a number of different styles in a short period of time, small batches are the way to go. Since you are in an apartment, it's common that a kitchen stove (especially if it's electric) in apartments cannot boil 5 gallons, so that may be your limitation. There are ways around that limitation by boiling multiple pots to total up to 5 gallons, etc. but it's not really practical.

Check with them for a homebrewing club that you can join. Also check to see if the store offers brewing classes.

The biggest recommendation that you can get right now is to read John Palmer's book www.howtobrew.com which si free online, or purchase the modestly-priced newer version so you can write notes, highlight it, etc.

There are no stupid questions around here. Ask away, but if you want a lot of quick answers/opinions to some questions, do a search of this forum using 'newbie' 'noobie' 'equipment' 'kit' etc as your search words using the thread title also as a qualifier for the search, or just begin paging backwards from this page and read everything that looks appropriate. Your 'noobie' questions get asked frequently.

 

Find an experienced homebrewer and brew with them a few times first that is willing to share equipment and experience. Avoiding the common mistakes of new Brewers will allow you to make fantastic beers from the start. If you are still or even more fascinated with it they can steer you towards equipment that can adapt and which ones you can live with or without. Dive into the book how to brew during this process. And invite your homebrew buddy to help you brew your first batches. A buddy of mine got started with five or six Northern Brewer kits that he really liked them. He made really great beer

 

Small batch brewing is all I do and it's very simple to scale recipes if you have a program like beersmith. Also go onto youtube and look up small batch all grain brewing for some ideas for equipment you will need for this, as for knowing the process I would start reading as many books as possible as they are the experts. 2 great ones that will set you down the correct path are John Palmer How to Brew for the basics and then Gregory Noonan New Brewing Lager Beer, this will also put you ahead of most home brewers that have no clue of what is really going on in each process or why you are doing a certain process.

 

Short answer: buy standard 5 gallon-capable equipment. Make 1, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.7, 4.34 whatever gallon batches you want.

Remember you can also make 5 gallons of wort and split it 2/3/4/5 ways with different fermentors. different yeast, hops, flavorings, anything post-boil you can easily split batches to experiment with.
I nearly always either split a big 5-6 gallon batch or just make 3 gallons. I don't think i have made a 5-gallon batch of the same beer since my first.

 

I've always imagined that someday I would be brewing 5-gallon batches of a tried and true recipe, but even after 75+ batches there are still so many variables to experiment with that I don't know if I ever will. The learning (and the variety) is as fun as the drinking for me.

 

Fairly new to brewing myself so my advice will be limited as others have said there are 1 gallon kits that you can do extract brewing. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and Im pretty pressed for space but I manage to fit everything i need for brewing 5 gallon extract kits with some good ole fashioned tetris storage including a secondary carboy.

While 5 Gallons of beer sounds like a lot once your buddies, co-workers, and family find out your brewing and better yet what your brewing is good your gonna run out of 5 gallons before you can blink an eye.

 

I personally would recommend purchasing a typical 5 gallon brewing kit from the Local Homebrew Store (LHBS) and feel free to make smaller batches using this kit. I have over the past few years made more and more 3ish gallon batches using my 7.9 gallon plastic bucket.

As to the topic of using a Mr. Beer fermenter, quality homebrew can indeed be produced using this kit; you just need to buy ingredients from your LHBS (or online vendors).

Below is a nice video discussing how to use a Mr. Beer kit but ‘kicking it up a notch’.

Cheers!

 

Before you buy anything i would figure out how your going to control the Fermenting temperature because it's going to get really warm up here in the northeast and yeast need to be in the correct range. You can submerge the container in iced water but you have to continuously monitor it .

 

Been brewing 2.5 gallon batches for ever. To add to some of the advice given so far, I'd use some brewing software to help you formulate or modify recipes. I use beersmith and can modify any recipe I plug into it to fit my equip, I will say it's good advice to go with sizing your equipment for 5 gal batches to start with that way you'll give yourself more flexibility down the road.

 

For your situation I've got to second the 1 gallon brewing, and skip extract if you do. With 1 gallon you can immediately just go to all-grain as it isn't really going to cost you more. They have some great kits at Craft-a-Brew and Brooklyn Brew Shop, Brooklyn brew Shop also has two recipe books for 1 gallon batches though it is usually easily scaled down anyway. To learn the process and save space, then you can always scale up when it suits you. My local brew shop would help with my 1 gallon recipes, though they might bust your balls a little. "Why would you spend all that time to make 8-10 beers?", "Because I don't want to have to drink 50 mediocre beers every time I brew and I can spend $10!" It takes a while to make great beer. Good luck!

 

No offense, but all these people who are fine with 8-10 bottles from a 1 gallon batch must hate sharing or have no friends. If you want to brew mediocre beer than drinking 8-10 is I guess fine. But, if you brew anything that is in the 'good' to 'very good' or even in the 'great' range, you'll be kicking yourself when your 3 or 4 friends want to try but you can't give up any. Or, you will give them up and have none for yourself. Or, you'll have a bunch for yourself because you keep the pipeline going but that's tons of effort if you do that -- brewing and bottling a brew every week or more.

Personally, I would never brew smaller than 2.5 gallons unless I was doing some sort of proof of concept.

I have always brewed 5 gallon batches in an apartment and I am happy to share my brew with anyone -- not just the select upper tier friends. Also, when I tell people I actually make solid beer (which most people have a hard time believing), they don't have to take my word for it, they can taste for themselves.

Also, while I agree it may take a while to make great beer, it is definitely possible to make 'good' to 'very good' (better than mediocre) beer from the get go. I'm not the type of person to go into a new brew expecting it to not be good, though I do know people who experiment widely with strange ingredients, and as I said before, 1 gallon of those is usually enough to test the hypothesis.

 

ah, the old "i don't mean to be offensive/mean/rude/etc., BUT i'm totally gonna be offensive/mean/rude/etc." argument.

you, and many others, have your reasons for brewing 5 gal batches. i, and not quite so many others, have my own reasons for brewing 1 gal batches. we could go around in circles all day about why 5 gal is better than 1 gal and vice versa using examples that are specific to our own situations, but there are no right or wrong answers here. we're all gonna do what we think is right for us.

different strokes for different folks, dude. cheers!