5 litre Batches of Beer. Why?

[BeerCat]

Also is there any issue with carbing smaller batches in a 19L corny keg?

It will carb up faster.

 

[the_quick]

Just as above. I'm such a person. Between my wife and myself we drink around 2-4 bottles of beer per week. Usually weekends. Maybe bit more over the summer. I usually do 10L batches, but might give a go to 5L ones.
So far most of my beer I gave away :)

 

[Ghillie]

So far most of my beer I gave away :)

I will PM you my address?!

 

[chthon]

First a link: Why I became a 1-gallon homebrewer

Before I started brewing, I had to find out if it was possible to brew less than 60 bottles at a time. I like beer, but I don't drink much, let's say 1 per day. I also like variety. I am also thrifty. And we have a comfortable home, but no place for extra big things. I must be able to store everything on the attic and brew in the kitchen.
I started with a small kit, containing hopped LME, a fermenting bucket of 6 l, yeast, 4 bottles and a bottling wand.
For AG I started very small. I used the mill you see as my avatar, and I started with 100 g of milled grain, just to understand the mash.
My first full brew I did using a 10 l stock pot and a sieve. I did 12 bottles.
Then I added a small bucket to create a filter bucket, so that I could mash using this together with the fermenting bucket. Bought some extras like 5 L DJ's for fermenting.
When I wanted to upgrade, I noticed that the local fries-shop threw away buckets (10-11l) in which food is shipped. I asked a couple of these, and from them used 1 as filter bucket, 1 as bottling bucket and 1 as fermentation bucket. This made it possible to increase my capacity, and now I find that 21 bottles, and occasionally 24 or 28 is ideal for me.
I am able to brew on Friday evening, starting at 16:45 and finishing the boil and cooling at 21:15. Last time I did not filter my brew, I just threw everything after boiling in the fermenter. Preparations for brewing take place on Thursday evening: adjusting water and milling grain. I could probably shave off an hour for mashing, because I am currently experimenting with multi-step mashes. Heating 7 liter of mash to the next step is at most (if at all) 10 minutes.

So I have a whole lot of reasons to brew small: easy to move, variety, inexpensive, lack of storage, shorter time to brew. And I have still enough beer to occasionally give something to family, friends, neigbours and acquaintances. And I brew for quality, not quantity.

 

[AdeDunn]

I normally make 10L but very occasionally make 5L. It's actually much faster to make a 5L brew than a 23L brew because things take a lots less time to heat up. If you then do a 30min mash/30min well it's even faster. I can knock out a 5L 30/30 in 1 and 1/2 hours

Also, if your in any way physically impared it would be almost impossible to make 23L because of the weight. I have a bad back and lugging around 23L would kill me, so I do 10L which can easily manage. Say you only had one arm or were say in a wheelchair a 5L brew would be very easily managable I think (I remember about a year about a wheelchair user was asking about brewing as they were worried about all that hot liquid - not sure whether he persued our hobby as he only posted a couple of times)

Along with been able to brew more often, with more variety, you've just covered many of the reasons I switched to 14 litre batches. I have arthritis in my hands and wrists, a bad back, shot knees and a tremor, and 14 litres is a LOT easier physically! I did a 5 litre brew once, but found the tiny quantity of an amazing beer incredibly frustrating.... You may remember actually, as I got mocked roundly, as I at one point had 14 litres of liquid pre-boil.... lmao You may get an idea that I may have overdone the boil, if I tell you that it was a mosaic smash, with just IREKS pale ale malt and Mosaic hops...




I've ended up brewing 3 times this week for example though, so it's a good job I don't do 23 litre batches! All thanks to my wife's website finally getting some orders for dog biscuits, so she's needed spent grain... Brewing again tomorrow, but this one is going to be an old ale that will be getting put away until around Christmas, thus stopping us from ending up with too much beer at once.

 

[Sadfield]

Very brave of you to talk candidly about your bad bag on such an open forum.

 

[AdeDunn]

Very brave of you to talk candidly about your bad bag on such an open forum.

Years of cycling will do that... lmao

I'll fix that typo... lol

 

[Drunkula]

I do it for experimentation. If you're trying to learn malts, hops, water chemistry then you can learn five times quicker than doing a full batch. And having loads of little batches means you can pick from each and see how each also ages. I've been making 23l batches recently and already realised it's killing my curiosity.

 

[Ciaran12s]

Why make 23 litre batches? Most kits instruct mixing everything to a 23 litre target so fair enough, but why make 23 litres of your own recipe? I make 25 at a time on a double brew every six weeks which works well for me. At some point in the future I would like to brew more often in which case I'll reduce the volume to maybe 10 or 15 litres at a time. My kit is too big and my kitchen pots and pans are probably too small to make 5 litre batches so I can't see it ever happening for me.

 

[beds74]

Hi - I've stumbled onto this trying to find the answer to why bother with 5l batches...Someone has bought me a IPA Brubox kit and realise it's only to brew 5l. Can you upsize the brew...by adding extra sugars? Say to 20 litres? If so how? I agree what's the point of doing small batches as a bigger batch will last you lot's longer for not much more effort?
Thanks.

 

[chthon]

The problem with upsizing a kit is that the hop bitterness of the kit is made for that amount only. Trying to stretch this on its own will dilute the taste.

Smaller batches can also mean more different types of beer. I try to brew 8 to 10 different beers from September to July, with the seasons in mind, in batches of 7 to 9 litres.

 

[phildo79]

It's a tricky one. Does the kit come with information like IBU's, ABV, target OG, target FG, hops used and in what quantities? If it does, you could try a brewing calculator to build a 20L batch around it. Seems like a bit of a faff. Not sure I'd be arsed doing it, personally.

 

[Mrhandsome]

I started brewing with a 5l all grain kit and have kept on with 5l batches whilst I experiment with different recipes.

It's also great for learning all the processes involved without too long between batches where I would forget what I did last time.

I also like to drink a range of different beers and not be limited to mass amounts of the same beer, and the amount I drink of these is also taken into consideration. Certain styles need to drunk whilst fresher like hoppy IPAs.

Once I've got some good recipes down I may get the kit and up my batch volume, but for now 5l is great for me.

 

[Zephyr259]

There's not going to be enough malt in a 5L kit to extend with sugar without the result not being worth drinking. You'd need to use malt extract to make up the difference, and as other have said, you'd need hops to keep the biterness and hop flavour consistent. Probably best to just make the 5L kit and see if you like it as it's intended.

 

[HSD]

I’m planning on doing 5-10l grain brews eventually, a few kits and extract brews to do first for the experience then intend to buy large All grain kits / recipes and split them up into smaller brews that can be customised to learn more about brewing, there’s a lot to learn and I know v little!

 

[TimXJR1300]

I prefer to do 5L batches for all of the good reasons above, specifically trying to make many different types of beer. I've made a French Saison, an IPA, A traditional English Ale.. all have turned out really well.

I also made 23L of a 'Tribute' clone using DME (because in the kitchen I can't boil much more than 6L) which is very very drinkable and sat in my pressure barrel in the bfewing chamber in the garage (S30 and all)

It is good fun making all grain beer and I really don't care how long it takes ... because its fun.... and you get more tea and biscuits if it takes a long time.

Why not go larger?
It is nothing to do with affordability (for me at least), its nothing to do with car washing (see above) it is simply because I don't know where to start and I don't think I, my family and friends could consume the amount of beer I'd end up making.

I intend to stay with small batches.. the odd large one from time to time... a big lager one next for the log hot summer...
Small batches are great for experimenting, getting your head around weaking recipes (o the to do list).

 

[Jim Brewster]

Hi, first post here. I've just started a Northern Brewer 1 gallon kit I got as a gift (great gift as I've now got the bug).

I'm finding out a lot from this forum since I started this first batch but the issue I now have is I am struggling to find 1 gallon kits for my next batch after I bottle. A lot of kits come as 40 pints, so 5 gallon, I assume I could just use a fifth of the ingredients and make 5 different batches?

Or there is a gallon all-grain kit on eBay that someone has put together that could be worth a try. Although at the moment I'm being tempted towards making up a ginger beer wort the day of or the night before bottling and adding it back into the vessel sediment after bottling.

Also for me, 5L isnt enough to provide more than a few days worth of drinks but at this stage I am ok with getting more practice with the processes and the different styles. I'm planning on only opening a bottle every few days to learn about how it conditions.

 

[MagnusTS]

Hi - I've stumbled onto this trying to find the answer to why bother with 5l batches...Someone has bought me a IPA Brubox kit and realise it's only to brew 5l. Can you upsize the brew...by adding extra sugars? Say to 20 litres? If so how? I agree what's the point of doing small batches as a bigger batch will last you lot's longer for not much more effort?
Thanks.

You could buy three more of the 5L IPA Brubox kits and put them all together.

 

[terrym]

Hi, first post here. I've just started a Northern Brewer 1 gallon kit I got as a gift (great gift as I've now got the bug).

I'm finding out a lot from this forum since I started this first batch but the issue I now have is I am struggling to find 1 gallon kits for my next batch after I bottle. A lot of kits come as 40 pints, so 5 gallon, I assume I could just use a fifth of the ingredients and make 5 different batches?

Or there is a gallon all-grain kit on eBay that someone has put together that could be worth a try. Although at the moment I'm being tempted towards making up a ginger beer wort the day of or the night before bottling and adding it back into the vessel sediment after bottling.

Also for me, 5L isnt enough to provide more than a few days worth of drinks but at this stage I am ok with getting more practice with the processes and the different styles. I'm planning on only opening a bottle every few days to learn about how it conditions.

If you are brewing beer by using extract, partial mash or AG there is no real need to buy a kit of ingredients. There are enough recipes out there for anyone to adapt to whatever volume they want, and buy the ingredients separately. And, as a far as I can see many of the kits sold are based on those in a few well known books like Graham Wheeler's.

 

[obscure]

I mostly do 9L batches five litre in a mini keg, plus 8 .5l bottles works very well for me, but do also do occasional 5L batches, the nice thing about them is that they are quick, I can quite happily do a double brew day in a morning, which gives me a bit of variety.

I rarely drink outside of the weekend, and typically two to three pints is my limit, so a 23L batch would last me a month if I drunk nothing but it. I get why small batches aren’t for everyone but 5-9L meets my needs perfectly.