Scaling Down

[alestateyall (tommymorris)]

@Al_Hounos

I wonder how many of you small batch brewers do BIAB? It’s a method that lends itself particularly well to smaller batches. With my 3 gallon BIAB system, I can do batches in 3 hours, and only about 45 minutes of that is active time. the rest is mashing and boiling. For cleanup, scrub the kettle and hose off the bag and immersion chiller. Just as easy as an extract batch. Maybe the OP should look into BIAB.

I enjoy the learning and brewing process at least as much, if not more, than drinking the finished product, and that’s why small batches make sense for me. When I’m not making 3 gallon batches, I’m doing 4 or 5 gallons and splitting it between different yeast.

I brew 3 gallon batches with batch sparge. My brew day is less than 4 hours.

I could try to speed up, but, usually I am very relaxed when brewing and don’t want to go any faster.

[charles1968]

@goschman

I have come to this conclusion after realizing the amount of beer that I have basically puts pressure on me to drink at a certain rate to stay on schedule. This is proving not to be a good thing.

Homebrewing is great fun but if it puts pressure on you to drink at an unhealthy rate, you definitely need to change your process. Low abv / bottling / smaller batches / split batches - whatever it takes. Some advantages of bottling: helps ration intake if you stick to 12 oz bottles; easier to keep varied stock; no pressure to empty a keg. Homebrewers are great at logging data so why not log your alcohol intake too (alcodroid app is brilliant at this). Design your brewing process to make you drink less while still enjoying it.