Halving water in a beer kit?

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WesDoogan

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Hello,

I recently bought the Coopers DIY Beer Craft Brew Kit to brew my first batch of Mr Beer Bewitched Amber Ale. Following the instructions carefully it has all turned out fine and I have really enjoyed the process.
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Coopers-DIY-Beer-Craft-Brew-Kit.html

I want to try brewing a Wilko 1.5kg IPA kit that says it makes about 40 pints.
http://www.wilko.com/cider+beer-brewing/wilko-ipa-brewing-kit-15kg-makes-40-pints/invt/0440627

My question is can I halve that 40 pints to 20 pints (roughly 11.5 litres) using the kit in my 15 litre fermenter which came in the Coopers DIY Beer Craft Brew Kit? Or can I only use Mr Beer kits designed to make 8 litres with this bin? I am worried about it being over bitter or there not being enough headspace in the fermenter.

Thanks in advance.
 
Just get a 25 litre fermenter, they only cost about £8. If you're serious about the hobby then you'll be needing one sooner or later anyway ;)
 
Hello,

I recently bought the Coopers DIY Beer Craft Brew Kit to brew my first batch of Mr Beer Bewitched Amber Ale. Following the instructions carefully it has all turned out fine and I have really enjoyed the process.
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Coopers-DIY-Beer-Craft-Brew-Kit.html

I want to try brewing a Wilko 1.5kg IPA kit that says it makes about 40 pints.
http://www.wilko.com/cider+beer-brewing/wilko-ipa-brewing-kit-15kg-makes-40-pints/invt/0440627

My question is can I halve that 40 pints to 20 pints (roughly 11.5 litres) using the kit in my 15 litre fermenter which came in the Coopers DIY Beer Craft Brew Kit? Or can I only use Mr Beer kits designed to make 8 litres with this bin? I am worried about it being over bitter or there not being enough headspace in the fermenter.

Thanks in advance.

Doing a one-can kit to ~ 12-13L in a 15L fermenter will make pretty decent beer. You can add hops dry or as a hop tea and ~ 500g of sugar / DME / Brew Enhancer for an ABV boost as well.

If you get kits in a sale, it is not too expensive an option.

Getting a 23L fermenter is a good idea in itself if you are interested in Homebrewing, so don't let me put you off this!
 
I've just put 2 40 pint batches of Young's bitter on to brew using 2 kits in each batch with no sugar added. Bubbling away nicely.
 
I agree with Slid and Graz.
Buying another FV is probably best, which gives you much more flexibility for later brews. Wilko do one for £10.
However I made up a 15 litre brew from a Wilko 1.5kg kit and a jar of H&B malt extract some time ago, which I then dry hopped and it turned out fine, so something slightly less in volume should be OK too if you want to carry on using the 15 litre FV.
 
I bought a Wherry kit for 40pints which comes with two cans and brewed just one of the cans in a 15L bucket. It came out lovely. There are plenty of two can kits you could do this with and by splitting the batches you get to experiment more with adding your own hops etc :thumb:
 
Following on from this, I am brewing a 40 pint kit as a 3 gallon. I will then dilute it to 5 gallon when bottling. Do you think this is a good idea? I am also doing the same with another identical kit but brewing at 1.5gallons to then dilute to 5 gallon for bottling.
 
Following on from this, I am brewing a 40 pint kit as a 3 gallon. I will then dilute it to 5 gallon when bottling. Do you think this is a good idea? I am also doing the same with another identical kit but brewing at 1.5gallons to then dilute to 5 gallon for bottling.

Personally No but some one might be along soon with a different idea :nono:
 
Thanks Tanzanian

The reason why I am experimenting with that is purely down to using less space as well as being lighter for transport. When bottling my five gallon kit I need to lift the brewing bottle up on the table and I find it quite heavy. The thing I was really asking is can it brew out when brewing at a concentrated rate? You know how you can only brew to a certain percentage of alcohol? well I wonder if by concentrating it I am effectively doing the same thing, which is restricting the amount of alcohol is brewed?

But thanks again for your reply.
 
Thanks Tanzanian

The reason why I am experimenting with that is purely down to using less space as well as being lighter for transport. When bottling my five gallon kit I need to lift the brewing bottle up on the table and I find it quite heavy. The thing I was really asking is can it brew out when brewing at a concentrated rate? You know how you can only brew to a certain percentage of alcohol? well I wonder if by concentrating it I am effectively doing the same thing, which is restricting the amount of alcohol is brewed?

But thanks again for your reply.

your supplied yeast may not be totally effective in such a concentrated wort
 
Doing a one-can kit to ~ 12-13L in a 15L fermenter will make pretty decent beer. You can add hops dry or as a hop tea and ~ 500g of sugar / DME / Brew Enhancer for an ABV boost as well.

If you get kits in a sale, it is not too expensive an option.

Getting a 23L fermenter is a good idea in itself if you are interested in Homebrewing, so don't let me put you off this!

Thanks Slid.

I'm going to try your method with the Coopers IPA Kit and 500g of Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 to 13L but with no hop tea first testing the outcome and then do a second batch adding the hop tea and note the difference.

I'm sure I will get a 23L vessel at some point it's just I live in a shared apartment in London with 3 other people and don't want to take up too much space in the kitchen. The 15L one is perfect for leaving to sit on top of the kitchen counter in the corner regulating a nice 22 degrees.
 
Just one more question here. When adding a hop tea how much water and hops to use with my recipe?

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4QyrJ1E8VI[/ame]

This video uses the same recipe I am above except I will be using 500g of brew enhancer instead of the full kilo bag in this vid. Does this mean I should halve the hop tea recipe of boiling 14 grams of pellet hops in 4.5L of water for 8 minutes to 7 grams in 2.25L?
 
I would use 14g myself as this is only half an ounce. :thumb:
 
Thank you Robin54, I thought as much. I have two identical kits going at the moment. One brewing at 1.5gallons and the other brewing at 3 gallons. I put them on on Sunday and they have already started to slow down to an almost stop. I think I will dilute them to my usual 4 gallons. I then mix with 1 gallon of sugar solution (3.5oz sugar) which makes it up to 5 gallons for bottling.
Thanks again
 
Thanks Robin54
I thought as much. Actually as I am brewing in my kitchen and stuff it makes the brewing and bottling a bit of a chore. I used to enjoy my bottling as I always open up a couple while I am doing it. But I find using the 500ml bottles a bit of a pain now. I saw a post by 'Bevies' about the 'EasyKeg' from Brew UK. It looks good. If I got 5 of them it would make the bottling process much easier. What do you think?
 
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