Wind chill here in SE PA was in the negative teens yesterday. But I brewed the de Belge Farmhouse IPA anyway. No gloves, no thermals, no runny nose snotcicles, just a nice, comfortable indoor stove-top brew day. That brew never would have happened for me with an outdoor burner.
I love small batches. As a bonus, I can skip the yeast starters guilt-free.
+1. Isn’t it grand!?
When brewing a 3 gallon batch do you need smaller fermenter or would the equipment used for 5 gallon batches work?
I would still use 5-gallon fermenters. Or if you wanted you could cut back to about 2.5 gallons as I did and then use the 3-gallon fermenters. Actually now I usually make 1.67-gallon batches, still using the 3-gallon carboys.
For a 2.5 gallon batch does it work to just cut a 5 gallon recipe in half?
I brewed in the snow-pocalypse up here on Saturday. Stove top, all grain, indoor, etc. AND I got 5.5 gallons in the fermenter!
Why do you need to scale back just to do an indoor brew-day?
Yes, easy as that.
[quote=“Worts_Worth”]I brewed in the snow-pocalypse up here on Saturday. Stove top, all grain, indoor, etc. AND I got 5.5 gallons in the fermenter!
Why do you need to scale back just to do an indoor brew-day?[/quote]
Agreed. Actually my last 3 batches have been 5 gallons, all done on the stovetop. This requires at least 2 big kettles, although on the one batch I did resort to using 4 smaller kettles. I do not own a turkey fryer burner nor a kettle bigger than 4 gallons. Works fine in the house… as long as you don’t upset the significant other. Mine doesn’t care.
:cheers:
I brew 3 gallon batches routinely. 5 gallon primary, 3 gallon for a secondary if needed. Works great with a 3 gallon Corny keg for serving. This way I get to brew more often too. I brew all-grain with a 5 gallon set of coolers and a 7.5 gallon kettle.
I made the switch to 3 gallon brewing because I found that I was having a hard time finishing 5 gallon due to life style changes (health and fitness, getting older) and haven’t gone back.
Excellent. I just did something just like this with a 5-gallon batch recently (I hate big batches but it does happen on occasion). I split the primary into two 3-gallon fermenters, then racked both into a common 5-gallon carboy because I needed my 3-gallon carboys back right away for another batch. Worked beautifully.
The key is to try to put your beer into the smallest fermenter that it will fit in, to limit airspace and thus limit chances for oxidation and contamination. If you don’t have anything small, fine, but you are at a very slightly increased risk. But it’s pretty small.
I LOVE my 3 gallon carboy. Not only can I do 2.5 gallon batches easily, and save my 6.5 gallon carboy for larger batches. It’s a great little vessel for no-sparge high ABV beers. Then I can partygyle into a larger carboy for 2 very different beers, and 1 mash.
Excellent.
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This is me too.
5-gallon primary, 3-gallon secondary. I’ve been skipping secondary more and more, but I can fit 2 of the 3-gallon secondaries in my freezer with a 5- or 6.5- gallon primary. So if my schedule lets me have 3 batches in process, they all fit in the freezer if 2 are in secondaries.
