I’m thinking of scaling down. When I started brewing, everything was 5 gallons. After having made some terrible beers over my time, and with so many options I want to try out and compare, I was thinking of scaling down. For example, if I wanna compare yeasts, maybe I make a SMASH beer but 2x1 gal. Use yeast A in the 1st gal and yeast B in the 2nd gal.
Also, I enjoy the act of brewing, but I only drink 1 beer a day, so that takes me 1.5 months to get thru 5gal a batch.
Has anyone scaled down? Did anything change or surprise you?
Yeah I make smaller batches to test out recipes and when I’m making beer styles that only I’m interested in. I have a kegerator but it’s at my in-laws’ place and they aren’t very adventurous beer drinkers so I’m not gonna make 5 gallons of a Belgian dubbel, etc.
For the smaller batches I usually do 1.5 - 2 gallons (6 - 8L) and then package in swing-top 1L bottles that I immediately rinse and dry after finishing the bottle. Using swing top means I don’t have to mess around with caps and I can also reseal the bottle immediately after pouring to minimise loss of CO2. Using 1L bottles makes it a bit quicker to do the bottling - plus, I have a blichmann beer gun which is a nice luxury that saves a bit of time and potentially helps minimise oxidation.