Doing (very) small batches of beer

Question

I was wondering if, for the sake of testing, it was a good idea to do very small batches of beer. I almost always see batches of 5, 6 gallons. I would like to make tests, and I don't want them to take 46 bottles of 500ml! :)

I wanted to know what are the possible bad things about brewing small quantities of beer. And by small I mean down to 1 gallon.

I read once that bigger batches are better. If this is true, could anyone explain why it is?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

I have been brewing 1-gallon batches at home, and 5-gallon batches at a friend's house, so I have some knowledge on this point. To me, these are the pros and cons with small batches:

Pros:

• My spaghetti pot is large enough to do a full boil.
• It takes very little room, all of my equipment stores in a small plastic bin, and I can easily ferment anywhere in my house that is my desired temperature.
• I can do full boils on my kitchen stove.
• Boil times on one-gallon recipe kits are only 45 min.
• I never have to make a starter.
• It will be easy and cheap for me to experiment with all-grain ("mini-mash"), using my spaghetti pot and colander, or my $10 2-gallon beverage cooler with a small paint-strainer bag, for mashing.
• I have the option to do a partial boil 2- or 3-gallon batch, split it between jugs, and experiment with different yeasts, fermenting temperatures, different dry hopping or spices, etc.
• Bottling is quick.
• I can chill in an ice bath in my kitchen sink in 5-10 minutes.
• Cleaning 1-gal. equipment is easy because it is small and light.
• I am not stuck drinking 48-52 bottles of my lesser product.

Cons:

• It takes almost the same amount of work and time to make as a 5-gallon batch.
• It is harder to find 1-gallon recipe kits, and the selection less diverse. Northern Brewer has a good selection of extract kits. Midwest Supplies has a few all-grain kits (Micro Bru), and Brooklyn Brew Shop has a decent selection.
• Fermenting in 1-gallon jugs, there is little head space, so I lose about a bottle through the blowoff tube.
• The yield is only about eight 12-oz. bottles, so after sharing I will end up with around four bottles.
• There is not enough beer to sample as it ages.
• It seems like evaporation loss during boil is higher.
• The batch is too small to take a hydrometer reading, unless you don't mind either losing 10-12% of your beer per sample or dumping the sample tube contents back into the rest of the beer (use great sanitizing processes!) So I invested in a refractometer.
• It is not cost-efficient to use liquid yeast, so I am limited to dry yeasts (not that this is a problem for the basic styles that I have brewed or plan to brew in the near future).
• Swings in indoor temperature affect a 1-gal. jug a lot quicker (probably due to lower thermal mass, and greater surface area/volume ratio).
• Mixing small batches of Star-San requires a syringe.
• I am not going to be kegging 1-gallon batches (although some people have been kegging in 1.5L mini-kegs).

Note: I bought 5-gal. equipment and propane burner this week, and have a larger kettle, and am considering brewing primarily 5-gal. batches due to the yield issue. The guys on Basic Brewing Radio/Video do a lot of experimentation using 1-gallon batches, so you may wish to check out their archives. Also check out this article they wrote in BYO magazine.