Reduced Boil Volume

[TimXJR1300]

I'm still relatively new to homebrewing and have had great success with 'Craftybrews Stove Toppers'
These kits made just 5L but are full on all grain brewing... in a demijohn. I have made a Saison, English IPA and have a 'Traditional English Ale' conditioning right now

I've just put on a 40pint Dry Malt Extract 'Tribute Clone' which is fermenting away as I type.

These are all made in my kitchen, on the cooker. I don't have a large boiler, mash tun or sparging thingy.

There are some great recopies out there that I would love to try but they all seem to want to boil somewhere between 20 and 27L which I clearly can't do on my cooker.
Yet the LME and DME kits you buy you only need to boil up to 6L (two pans in my house!) so my questions are these...

1. Is it possible to reduce the volume of the boil down to 4 - 6L? but still make 27L beer and if so what do you need to do to the recipe/method?
2. Is it possible to reduce a recipe so that you make a smaller batch - say 5L?

I could of course go and spend a fortune on Hot Liquor Tanks, Boilers, sparge thngies but I'm not quite there yet.

Advice gratefully received.

 

[Neil1987]

I asked a similar question the other day alough it was for extract brewing which was yes you can but if it's all grain I'm not sure if u can someone posted a site where u type recipe into it and it reduces batch size for you if I can get like back I'll send it

 

[Neil1987]

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

 

[An Ankoù]

Yes you can, but. The more you concentrate the wort, the more caramelisation you'll get as you boil it and the hop utilisation will be reduced. I do reduced volume boils but don't go below half volume, ie, 10 litres for a 20 litre batch.

 

[TimXJR1300]

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

That's a useful tool.... I may have a play with that.. thank you

 

[dwhite60]

Get a 15 liter pot and do 12 liter batches, BIAB. If you're already doing small batches this should be an easy change.

No reason you HAVE to make 23 liters.

 

[terrym]

@TimXJR1300
Try this
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/a-simple-guide-to-extract-brewing.75501/There was also another similar thread about this yesterday
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-low-can-i-go.86990/#post-903136
And I had an an XJR for quite a time a few years back. Brilliant bike but not particularly good for 'touring' and it was a bit heavy (!), so I reluctantly moved on. I am on an MT-07 now, a lot different, like riding a push bike, but miss the grunt of the XJR.

 

[TimXJR1300]

@TimXJR1300
Try this
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/a-simple-guide-to-extract-brewing.75501/There was also another similar thread about this yesterday
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-low-can-i-go.86990/#post-903136
And I had an an XJR for quite a time a few years back. Brilliant bike but not particularly good for 'touring' and it was a bit heavy (!), so I reluctantly moved on. I am on an MT-07 now, a lot different, like riding a push bike, but miss the grunt of the XJR.

My XJRs (Had two) wen all round western europe including the French and Italian Alps ... it did take some strength!

 

[phildo79]

I'm still relatively new to homebrewing and have had great success with 'Craftybrews Stove Toppers'
These kits made just 5L but are full on all grain brewing... in a demijohn. I have made a Saison, English IPA and have a 'Traditional English Ale' conditioning right now

I've just put on a 40pint Dry Malt Extract 'Tribute Clone' which is fermenting away as I type.

These are all made in my kitchen, on the cooker. I don't have a large boiler, mash tun or sparging thingy.

There are some great recopies out there that I would love to try but they all seem to want to boil somewhere between 20 and 27L which I clearly can't do on my cooker.
Yet the LME and DME kits you buy you only need to boil up to 6L (two pans in my house!) so my questions are these...

1. Is it possible to reduce the volume of the boil down to 4 - 6L? but still make 27L beer and if so what do you need to do to the recipe/method?
2. Is it possible to reduce a recipe so that you make a smaller batch - say 5L?

I could of course go and spend a fortune on Hot Liquor Tanks, Boilers, sparge thngies but I'm not quite there yet.

Advice gratefully received.

Be careful when reducing your boil volume. Quite often it is a simple case of putting the numbers into brewers friend and recalculating the hops needed but some recipes you need to boil over 20L or you won't get the desired taste. Trust me, I know. I have a recipe for Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA which is one of my favs. The recipe states it will be very hard to achieve the correct bitterness/taste unless you can boil between 25L and 30L. I said to hell with that and only boiled 8L. It wasn't even close to the original and was a constant disappoint as I made my way through 33 pints of the stuff.