Most of our recipes are for 2½ gallons of beer,
which makes approximately twenty-four 12-ounce bottles or twelve 22-ounce bottles. Why such a small batch?
We started out making 5 gallons, which is what most people do when they start
because most of the recipes out there are for 5 gallons. The common feeling being,
if you’re going to spend a few hours brewing something and then many weeks
fermenting and conditioning, you might as well make as much of it as you
possibly can.
That argument does make a lot of sense. It’s great to get a lot
of beer out of the ingredients and the process. However, we don’t throw a party
every weekend, and we’re urban dwellers with relatively
small living spaces and pretty tiny kitchens. One 5-gallon batch makes about forty-eight
12-ounce bottles of beer. If you’re brewing this size consistently, the amount
of beer that you end up with (even after drinking as much as possible) seems
endless. The bottles, kegs, and fermenters will start to spill out of your
fridge, closets, and basement. In fact, one day one of us couldn’t take a
shower because of the fermenting buckets occupying the bathtub. We started to
wonder if this qualified as hoarding. It was time to take it down a notch.
Upon doing so, we found that there were many other
advantages to smaller batches than just saving space. Smaller batches are, in
general, much easier to deal with. You can get a smaller amount of liquid to
come to a boil faster. Inversely, it’s easier to cool down a smaller batch of
beer, an essential step that needs to happen quickly in homebrewing. You don’t
need as much stove power, which is very helpful, especially with cranky or
electric stovetops. Another plus is that small batches are so much easier for
us to lift, transfer, and generally maneuver, especially when we’re brewing
alone.
With small batches, we feel free to experiment and try,
try again without too much hassle. Having said all that, if you are having a party and want to brew 5 gallons, our recipes
can easily be doubled for a larger batch.
Happy Brewing!
