Small Batch Brewers - Let's Talk!

General Homebrew Discussion
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  1. What’s your usual batch size?

I target ~3 gallons at the end of the boil and package in 2.5 gallon kegs. I am considering cutting this down on some batches to use the smaller kegs in the 1.5-1.75 gallon range as well. When I am testing out new hop varieties, I start with 1 gallon preboil and end up with about 3 quarts in the fermenter.

  1. Why do you brew small batches?

I have a couple of reasons. First of all, I’m a kitchen brewer and this allows me to brew full-boil, all-grain batches on my stovetop. Secondly, I only drink 3-5 pints of beer in an average week. I enjoy the brewing process just as much as the actual drinking, so brewing small batches allows me to brew more often. It also lets me have a variety of beer on tap at a given time without ending up with a huge backlog of beer to drink. And finally, I like to experiment a lot. By brewing smaller batches, it’s not as big of a deal to dump a batch that didn’t work out as well as I had hoped.

  1. Do you brew, extract, partial mash, all grain?

I mainly brew all-grain, but I brew a handful of extract batches every year.

  1. What’s your basic process?  I.E., BIAB, tiny cooler (:wink:), just stir in the extract, etc.

I consider my process a cross between BIAB and no-sparge. I was going to BIAB when I started brewing all-grain, but I was concerned with maintaining mash temps, especially with smaller volumes of liquid. My solution is to line a 5-gallon beverage cooler with a BIAB bag, and mash in that. The 2-vessel approach works for me in my kitchen, and holds temps as well as I need it to.

For chilling, I place my kettle in cold water in one side of my 2-basin sink. I then stick my handheld faucet in the water pointed on the kettle and run the cold water full blast. The excess water runs over the divider between the two basins and drains out the other side. It’s not as efficient as an immersion chiller, but it works well enough with the smaller batch sizes.

  1. Do you have a favorite piece of equipment that you like to use especially for small batches?

I use 5 gallon kegs as my fermenters. It has just about all the advantages of a conical, at a fraction of the price. Plus, they double as a keg.

  1. If you’ve brewed larger batches how would you comapre the two in terms of effort?  Time?  Equipment needs?  Recipe consistency?

I’ve only brewed larger batches for a couple of extract kit beers that were among my first few batches. Since those were partial boil and topped off with cold water in the fermenter, I don’t think that makes a good apples-to-apples comparison to the all-grain batches I’m doing now. I couldn’t brew a 5-gallon all-grain batch using my current setup unless I had a double brewday.

  1. What am I missing that should be known about small batch brewing?

The differences on the cold side are often overlooked. Yeast pitches are different - for most ales I don’t need a starter if I have a reasonably fresh pack of liquid yeast. For some (low-to-moderate gravity English ales and hefeweizens), I don’t even pitch a full pack. Temperature swings happen more easily in fermentation if ambient temperature varies.

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I can relate to a lot of this. We just decided to finish our basement, and while I haven’t done a full inventory on all my stuff that needs to be moved, I’m at about 7 or 8 three-gallon batches in long-term aging, plus about 8 cases or so of bottles. And that’s not counting my “beer cellar” of maybe 4-6 cases of commercial brews in long-term aging.

I go through stints where I can’t/don’t drink that much because of work or other commitments, or just plain being exhausted at the end of the night when I get a few minutes to unwind. Also, even though I dump a lot of beer, there are many neglected batches that are just gathering dust in my basement.

I just got a 3-tap kegerator, and it’s in an easily accessible spot in my house, so it’s a lot easier to grab a half-pour. I think this will help out with my “drinking problem” a lot in the long run.

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I remember just being handed my first beer at a restaurant once when I received an alert call from work. Spilling a beer is a crying shame, but playing for a beer that you didn’t even get to sip…

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  1. What’s your usual batch size?
        three gallons
  2. Why do you brew small batches?
        It takes me too long to go through five gallons; I start getting bored before the end of a larger batch. I can afford to brew more three gallons batches than five gallon batches which gives me more variety. The older I get the heavier each gallon seems to weigh.
  3. Do you brew, extract, partial mash, all grain?
        all grain
  4. What’s your basic process?  I.E., BIAB, tiny cooler (:wink:), just stir in the extract, etc.
        I batch sparge (thanks Denny) in a square, blue, ten gallon Coleman cooler which gives me the capacity to brew larger or stronger batches if I so desire.
  5. Do you have a favorite piece of equipment that you like to use especially for small batches?
        I use the same equipment no matter what size batch I’m brewing.
  6. If you’ve brewed larger batches how would you compare the two in terms of effort?  Time?  Equipment needs?  Recipe consistency?
        I haven’t really seen much difference from switching to smaller batches other than it’s easier on my tired old bones, although I have always brewed stovetop and smaller batches allow me to do a full boil.
  7. What am I missing that should be known about small batch brewing?
        You aren’t missing anything: small batch brewing is a personal call each brewer has to make depending on his/her limitations and requirements.
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Thanks Denny!  This thread has got me thinking how I could do smaller batches.  I do 6 gal. (in fermenter) batches, but I too have a “drinking problem”.  I’m the only beer drinker in the (local) family, though the Pastor and several members of my church love my beer (good Lutherans all, the only thing they drink more than beer is coffee).  :)  And I’d like to brew more often.  This has me thinking 3 gal. batches 70-80 % of the time with the occasional 6 gal. batch would be ideal.

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  1. What’s your usual batch size?
    Mix of 3 and 5 gallon batches

  2. Why do you brew small batches?
    I brew small batches typically for beers I don’t want 5 gallons of and so it won’t last 3+ months on tap.

  3. Do you brew, extract, partial mash, all grain?
    All grain

  4. What’s your basic process?  I.E., BIAB, tiny cooler (:wink:), just stir in the extract, etc.
    For my “half batches” I do full volume mash, low oxygen. Same process but sparge for 5 gallons.

  5. Do you have a favorite piece of equipment that you like to use especially for small batches?
    5 gallon keg for fermenting and my jumper hose for close-transfers to 2.5 gallon kegs.

  6. If you’ve brewed larger batches how would you comapre the two in terms of effort?  Time?  Equipment needs?  Recipe consistency?
    Time and effort really are about the same having to pre-boil a larger volume or about the same volume for 3 gallon full volume mash versus strike water for a 5 gallon batch - around 5 hours.

  7. What am I missing that should be known about small batch brewing?
    Scale of economy doesn’t mean much when the brewer is getting all they need out of it.

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I’m amazed how many brew small

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Actually, it seems to be the fastest growing demographic in the homebrew world.

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It’s not the size it’s how you brew it.

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This does not surprise me in the least.

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  1. Lately I’ve been doing double-batch brew days. So 1 gallon each of two different beers. Once in a while I will do just a single gallon. In the past I was doing about 1.8 gallons but decided I’d rather have 8-10 beers of two different styles than 15-16 of the same one.

  2. I brew small batches mainly because I like variety and I love to brew and want to be able to do it as often as possible. I get burned out on one style of beer if I have too many of them (I almost never buy 12 packs). Also, I don’t share as much as others seem to and my wife doesn’t drink, so I have to drink almost all of what I make and if I’m making 5 gallons at a time, it would take half a year for me to drink a batch. Lastly, I don’t have space to store that much beer at once.

  3. All grain

  4. Mash In A Bag in a small ice chest. Drain, squeeze, and boil outdoors over a propane burner in a 5-gallon canning pot. Ferment in a mini fridge w/ temp controller. Bottle after about 10 days. Drink after about 3 weeks. About 5.5 hours on brew day for a double batch or 3.5 for a single batch (water adjustments/measurements and grain measurements/milling are done a day or two ahead of time).

  5. I love my little cooler. Works perfectly for what I do. I tried a larger, round Igloo cooler with the spout on the bottom and lost too much heat. I actually put my small cooler INSIDE of my larger camping cooler to maintain the heat a little better.

  6. N/A - I’ve only done small batches.

  7. I see a lot of “all that work for only 8 beers?!” Brewing isn’t work. It’s one of the most fun things I do. I love the “work.” Last year, because I do small batches, I did about 24 batches. This year I plan to do 30 batches (29 different styles). If I brewed larger batches, I wouldn’t get to do even half of that.

BTW, got Homebrew All-Stars for Christmas and have finished all of it except the “Wild Ones” section. I love it. Really cool to read about some of the All-Stars who are still using cheap, DIY equipment like us Average Joes.

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I’d say it’s THAT you brew…

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I think about it.  Does that count?  Big thoughts, of course.  In case size matters.

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  1. What’s your usual batch size? 2.5 gals
  2. Why do you brew small batches? Only beer drinker in the house, plus I get to brew more often.
  3. Do you brew, extract, partial mash, all grain? All grain
  4. What’s your basic process?  I.E., BIAB, tiny cooler (:wink:), just stir in the extract, etc. Cooler - no sparge, or biab, Speidel fermenter, keg .
  5. Do you have a favorite piece of equipment that you like to use especially for small batches? My 7 gal cooler with added custom insulation.
  6. If you’ve brewed larger batches how would you compare the two in terms of effort? Harder on my back (no pump)  Time? Negligible  Equipment needs? What I have already would allow me to brew 5 gals, although a pump sure would help.  Recipe consistency? Negligible.
  7. What am I missing that should be known about small batch brewing? You may have an edge when it comes to control of the final product, less weight and and less volume of beer to handle, allows me an easier more enjoyable brew day.
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  1. What’s your usual batch size? 2.5 gallons.
  2. Why do you brew small batches? Allows for more frequent brewing. I’m a bottler. There are only two beer consumers in the house and both don’t drink much. I feel no guilt in dumping stuff for any reason.
  3. Do you brew, extract, partial mash, all grain? All grain.
  4. What’s your basic process?  Cooler, brew bag, no sparge, low oxygen.
  5. Do you have a favorite piece of equipment that you like to use especially for small batches? Double Cu coils in ice buckets fed into a SS chiller makes chilling wort (even to lager temps) unbelievably fast.
  6. If you’ve brewed larger batches how would you compare the two in terms of effort? Almost no difference unless I do BIAB in the kitchen, then it seems easier/shorter because there’s less equipment.
    Time? Negligible. 
    Equipment needs? Most of my equipment I previously brewed 5 gallon batches with works just fine for 2.5 gallon batches. 
    Recipe consistency? Negligible.
  7. What am I missing that should be known about small batch brewing? No matter how good of a beer I’ve made, my wife and I have never really wanted more than a dozen or so bombers of it to drink ourselves.
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  1. What’s your usual batch size? 2.5 gallon
  2. Why do you brew small batches? I can consume  2.5 gallons (sometimes even that’s too much beer)
  3. Do you brew, extract, partial mash, all grain?  All Grain
  4. What’s your basic process?  I.E., BIAB, tiny cooler (:wink:), just stir in the extract, etc. Zymatic but I brewed 2.5 gallon BIAB prior.
  5. Do you have a favorite piece of equipment that you like to use especially for small batches? Now it is the Zymatic. When I brewed BIAB I really liked the smallest Speidel.
  6. If you’ve brewed larger batches how would you comapre the two in terms of effort?  Time?  Equipment needs?  Recipe consistency? The cleanup was much easier with the 2.5 batch. Cool down is really fast. I can easily brew in my kitchen. If my wife didn’t mind and I didn’t have to carry all of my stuff upstairs to the kitchen brewing 2.5 BIAB was actually easier for me than the Zymatic as far as clean up.
  7. What am I missing that should be known about small batch brewing?
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  1. What’s your usual batch size?

My batch size varied quite a bit, but I did a lot of 0.75-2.5 gallon batches while I was in chicagoland.

  1. Why do you brew small batches?

limitation of space, left my equipment in storage. Was drinking it by myself (Plus the occasional bottle to club meetings).

  1. Do you brew, extract, partial mash, all grain?

All grain, biab with batch sparge.

  1. What’s your basic process?  I.E., BIAB, tiny cooler (:wink:), just stir in the extract, etc.

Biab at maximum volume set to 4 gallons. Run off ratio generally 4:1. Pulley + bag. Induction +BIAB is an awesome small batch setup.

  1. Do you have a favorite piece of equipment that you like to use especially for small batches?

BIAB bag? Induction burner? Consistency is a lot harder with small batches, are your boil off rate will play a much large role than in 5 or 10 gal batches, so I measure my volumes using an accurate stainless ruler. 0.01g accuracy scale for hops, minerals, etc. Refractometers are a god send here as well due to practically no loss of wort.

  1. If you’ve brewed larger batches how would you compare the two in terms of effort?  Time?  Equipment needs?  Recipe consistency?

Consistency is a a good deal harder when you get below 2 gallons. Equipment is much cheaper, you can get a 4-5 gal pot for $20 that’s induction ready.

  1. What am I missing that should be known about small batch brewing?

I had some huge issues with packaging/siphoning and bottling. I could not for the life of me figure out a way to get a good siphon going without oxidation. I settled on tubing + stainless T barb fitting and a hose clamp (similar to the “$3 auto siphon” thread at HBT).

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For me I enjoy the 2.5 gallon
I enjoy the case or less of beer I have not perfected.
I BIAB
Something I always use with my SB BIAB but not my full batches is the stove top and a strainer.  Same 5 gallons paint strainer and a good stock pot.
I build my recipe and tweak as necessary, it’s very simple to double or triple a batch ingredients.
The water adjustments is definitely the hardest part for me with the small batches.  A GREAT scale is always good to have on hand.  Good syringe for acids etc.