Why 23 litres? Can I brew less?

[gyc]

Hi all.

I'm an absolute beginner and I'm trying to learn a bit before my first brew.

All the kits I've found, all the ready-made malts and most recepies are aimed at brewing 23 litres (~6 us gallons, ~24 pints).
Is there a bio-chem-physical reason for that minimum amount of beer?
Can I try and only brew, say, 3 or 4 litres?

I've already noticed that - although the process is fairly simple - there are a number of details to pay attention to.
I'd hate to brew that much beer only to discover that I scr***d something in the process and have to throw it away. It would break my heart... not to mention the cost and the space it takes right at start, of course.

Am I being too careful?
Any suggestions?

 

[jamesb]

It's simply because it's a convenient amount to brew. There's nothing stopping you brewing more or less. It's now easier because most homebrewing vessels are designed for 23/25l now.

Bear in mind that it won't necessarily make your brewday any quicker by brewing less.

Personally I think 3 or 4 litres would be to little and not worth the bother. 10l would be the minimum I'd consider. See Brewstew's attobrewery thread.

By the way, 23l is about 40 pints, not 24.

 

[BrewStew]

the smaller you go on brewing volumes, the more accurate with your ingredients you need to be.

at 10L, just a gram of hops out could change the whole flavour of the brew. for my atto brewery i intend on building purely for recipe experiments i'll be needing to invest in some scales accurate to 0.1 of a gram.

anything smaller than 10L i'm fairly sure the chemical and physical process needed from mashing wouldn't occur. for example when you sparge, the grain itself acts as a filter. the less of a filter you have (ie less grain) the more difficult it will be to filter out the debris and get a clear wort.

then it comes to the boil. if you're boiling anything less than 10L, you'll need a weaker source of heat so your boil isn't so vigorous that it evapourates completely in minutes.

the problem with brewing anything smaller than 5 gallons, is you'll need to have the equipment to suit that volume, so if you want to brew 10L volumes, you'll need a 10L brewery... which means you'll need to spend more cash later on equipment when you want to uprgade or do a recipe you really like in larger volumes

hope this helps :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

There are problems as BrewStew has mentioned, but there are also benefits.
Brewing small volumes is a great way to experiment with a large number of recipes and ingredients.
It's also called mini mashing and it's quite popular, do a google search and you'll get loads of info
Have a good read of your google hits, then fire away with any questions :thumb:

 

[BrewStew]

oh yeah, there are the good points too :lol: hence why i'm so keen to get my 10L atto brewery under way... less wastage potential, less spent on ingredients less time spent on the brewday etc. but i'll have to be bloody careful as i guess it wont be so forgiving if even slightly cock something up. that's what i love about my 5 gallon and my 18 gallon breweries, especially my 18 gallon... i can be several tens of grams out with ingredients... be less careful with temperatures (unless it's a cold day ... see my latest brewday thread, Winter Sunrise) and still pull off something quite tastey.

i can see myself having to be super anal with everything on the atto brewery, just so i'm able to upscale and repeat a recipe i make on it on one of my bigger breweries later

 

[gyc]

By the way, 23l is about 40 pints, not 24.

You are right, of course. 24, would be quarters... :wha:


Isn't S.I. a breeze?...

 

[gyc]

There are problems as BrewStew has mentioned, but there are also benefits.
Brewing small volumes is a great way to experiment with a large number of recipes and ingredients.
It's also called mini mashing and it's quite popular, do a google search and you'll get loads of info
Have a good read of your google hits, then fire away with any questions :thumb:

I agree substantially with BrewStew's arguments, but this is precisely my point, besides my "fear" of ruinning a few brews when I start...

 

[gyc]

So, if I got it right:

1) there is no particular reason to brew any specific amount of beer at a time;

2) recipes can be scaled up or down at will;

3) the smaller the brew, the more accurately we need to "measure" the ingredients;

4) sterilize, sterilize, sterilize, sterilize...


Great!

Now, off to find the gear...

 

[BrewStew]

i think it's pretty hard to "ruin" a beer. the worst you can get is an infection.

my recent brewday of Winter Sunrise (in the brewday section) went what i considered to be quite wrong. but sampled it yesterday and i'm well chuffed

of course you could make a beer that's not quite to your tastes, but it'll still be drinkable

 

[BrewStew]

So, if I got it right:

1) there is no particular reason to brew any specific amount of beer at a time;

2) recipes can be scaled up or down at will;

3) the smaller the brew, the more accurately we need to "measure" the ingredients;

4) sterilize, sterilize, sterilize, sterilize...


Great!

Now, off to find the gear...

got it in one... or rather 4!