Newb Questions

[Brew Swillis]

Hey yalls!

So, I finally am trying to get some kind of system put togethor, but I am constrained by time and space. I live in an apartment with a wife and English Mastiff (a dog that big ONLY takes up space) so I ve decided that I just dont have a place to put mash tuns and so forth so I pretty much need to go extract with specialty grain to start with, until we find a bigger place that is. With this in mind I have a couple of questions

1) I listened to the old Brewnomics episode with Chris Graham about 3-4 times and I swear I heard JZ saying something about using a 'nylon stocking' as grain/hop bag. WTF? really? The nylon holds up and doesnt melt down or anything?

2) Also, most everybody talks about 5 gallon batches as though they are the smallest normal beatches, but it seems that several people are doing 1-3 gallon batches. If you do this, how do you scale everything down and minimize unwanted off tastes such as caramelization and whatnot?

Thanks yo

Brew Swillis

[TampaBrew]

Do yourself a favor and get a few hop sacks from the homebrew shop and/or one of the online shops. I have heard of people using the stockings for dry hopping. Not sure about the boil though. But hop bags are cheap and you can wash and re-use them.

People do scale recipes back to do smaller batches, however just make 5 gallon batches. It will make things easier on you without having to worry about hop utilization, grain bills fractions etc. There is enough shit you have to sorry about aas a beginner brewer, don't add more

What is your thinking in wanting to do 1-3 gallons batches just out of curiosity. Just to try and make different styles? Fear of having a shitty 5 gallon batch?

[Brew Swillis]

Thanks,

Im not too concerned about the sacks, I figured I would just pick up a couple of them anyways.

You know, I saw a couple of people in the Apartment Brewers thread mention that they do smaller batches and can brew more often and with more variety. I dont really have a bunch of people to spread the 5 gallon love to, so I figured smaller batches = more opportunity for variety, smaller kettle and ferment vessels and less space occupied while not in use.

To be honest I may be jumping the gun a bit because we are planning on moving out of CA next year and will most likely be moving into a house where I will have the space for the whole get-up, but I kinda wanna make some beer!

[Phil]

Hop sacks stink. Get some paint strainer bags from the hardware store instead, or just chuck em in. I will probably upgrade to a paint strainer bag suspended in the kettle for my next brewday but for 10 batches now I've just been dumping the hop pellets in and haven't noticed any problems with trub (using the hand-pump type auto siphon).

[Evan B]

Small batches really aren't a bad way to go. Everything's the same, but you're not spending nearly as much money on ingredients. Sure, the amount of time and effort is the same, but if your space is severely limited, it might be a worthwhile sacrifice. You have to remember, that not only do you need to find space for all that equipment; you also need to find space to store your filled bottles.

3 gallon has been the happy medium for me in my apartment brewing. I started out with 1gal batches just to get used to brewing in a smaller space, and I'm glad I did. I left behind a 10gal converted keg system, so adjusting to apartment brewing was a huge challenge. After I got used to my limitations, I've been able to scale up my batch sizes, and work more efficiently. I can make up to a 6gal batch with my system, but I just don't have anywhere to bottle condition that many bottles of beer unless they're going to sit in the middle of the living room.

[Brew Swillis]

@ Phil, Thanks for the heads up, I will definitely be looking for paint filters now.

@ Evan: So if I am going to scale to batches smaller than 5 gallons, what math do I need to consider so that I can still produce a beer similar to what I would produce in a 5 gallon batch? Is it simplycutting all the ingredients down to a fifth of whats in the recipe if its one a gallon batch for example? Im kind of an excessive planner so I dont mind having to calculate efficiency rates for a different sizes batch and so forth beforehand. Keep in mind, that I havent brewed before, but I have read Palmers book.

Ironaically, I DO have plenty of spce to bottle condition the beers, I just dont have the space to store the multitude of vessels. The irony of cupbards.

Thanks

[TapItGood]

I purchased one of these 3 years ago, use it every 2 weeks and have not had to replace it yet. Just rinse it out well after each use and your golden. Hope this helps.

http://morebeer.com/view_product/15689/ ... _24_Medium

[Evan B]

just scale the recipes down with simple math. if you're using extract and a partial boil, try adding just a small bit of your extract at the beginning of the boil to help with hop utilization, then add the rest in the last 20mins or so. this will cut back on carmelization.

best way to go about it is to get one of the many brewing calculators or software programs. as long as your hop ratios, grain percentages, and gravity are the same as the original full size recipe, there shouldn't be a huge difference