4.5L Carboy, what to brew in it

[Lowlyf]

Hey guys, so I remembered I had a 4.5L Carboy hidden in my house and I want to brew something delicious. I'm thinking something on the darker side, maybe a red ale or something wintery. Keeping in mind in a rookie at this and I have one done 1 kit brew so far, Is there somewhere I can go to calculate what I could brew in this little bad boy? Otherwise I have my 30l fermenter sitting there idle atm but getting low on bottles.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Moad]

Mead?

 

[Smokomark]

A starter for a 20 lt brew.

 

[panspermian]

I got one lying around, haven't used it yet.
My idea was for mead or for really small test batches.
Scale a recipe down by weight of ingredients divided by litres. This gives how much for 1 litre then multiply by 4.5litres and that's how much you need for such a small batch.

 

[MaltyHops]

If you use 1/2 of a typical 1.5kg Coopers extract tin (and no other sugars) in a 4.5L batch, you would make a beer of around 6% alcohol (or 1/3 tin --> 4% beer) - keep the other half in the freezer until you're ready to use it next.

Ian's Beer Designer spreadsheet is quite useful (provided you can run MS Excel).

 

[LiquidGold]

Not exactly dark, red or even beer but a batch of JAO mead might be the go. A good way to learn patience and yet already so drinkable come bottling day.

 

[BrosysBrews]

Use it as a test vessel to try doing your own hop additions. Use about 500g of dry malt extract plus hop additions, download a spreadsheet like ianhs, software or an app like Brewpal and start experimenting! The good thing will be if you stuff it up you won't of stuffed up much!

 

[Yob]

Full can of coopers stout... Lots of yeast...

 

[komodo]

I've got 3.
one is used for Kombucha
one the fun buster is making limoncello in
one I use for small runs of berri juice cider amoungst other small brews.

 

[yankinoz]

Maybe strong ales and use small bottles, so your brew might last a while. With that batch size, do you want friends to know? Hmm.

A small batch like that will quickly gain and lose heat, despite the thick walls of the carboy. Assuming that you do not have temp control, plan to pitch at the start of a forecast spell of cloudy weather, when day and night temps are not far apart and all right for your chosen yeast strain. When the active fermentation slows, but not before, insulate with blankets or by puttng in an inside closet.