How To Brew Less Than 23l With A Kit?

[smollocks]

I've been doing some reading in advance of buying & brewing my first kit, and it seems like all the kits result in a final volume of 23L, or about 60 stubbies. Is there a reason for this standard 23L volume, and is it possible (and easy) to adjust this down to about half? I imagine just using less water would adversely affect the flavour.

I don't really want to have to drink 60 stubbies before I can move on to the next brew, by that time I'll be sick of the beer and the learning process will be a lot slower. As this is my first attempt I don't have a beer fridge to store it all, and even coming up with the 60 bottles will be a stretch. I know I can just throw out what I don't want, but the question still stands about adjusting final volumes.

Cheers

 

[Pollux]

You can get the coopers PETs in packs of 15 for roughly $15 at coles if you are in a stretch..

Or buy a coopers homebrew kit from BigW/Kmart for roughly $85-90 and it comes with 30 of the PETs as well...


You can do half batches, it works on the same principle of doing a toucan brew (i.e. two cans of extract made to 23L).

I did one with a coopers real ale, a coopers lager and 500g LDME, for what it was, it turned out alright.

 

[rclemmett]

I don't really want to have to drink 60 stubbies before I can move on to the next brew,

In the words of the unband, "too much is never enough". 60 stubbies will go before you know it, particularly with your first batches. You need to let it sit for a while to condition, about 6 weeks or so. My first beer was nearly gone before it came good.

Alot of people do toucans, which is quite simply two cans mixed too 23l and fermented. If you do one kit in a half batch its just half a toucan.

It would probably help if you told us what you've got.

Edit: I type slowly.

 

[boingk]

1: You never get sick of beer...unless you create something truely foul, in which case you just tip it out.

2: By the time you age it up and have two more brews aging up, cases go down pretty quick.

3: Bottles are easy to find. Invest in a bench capper and scrounge the recycling plants for stubbies and longnecks. I find it is quite common for people to put the empties back in the case and leave them outside the depot. Either that, or in plastic bags. But yes, you'll need some bottles.

Where are you located anyway? I've got a couple batches worth of PET bottles I want to offload. I'm in Goulburn, NSW.

Cheers - boingk

 

[smollocks]

Alot of people do toucans, which is quite simply two cans mixed too 23l and fermented. If you do one kit in a half batch its just half a toucan.

So I'd just use the full kit contents made up to 12L of water? Wouldn't I need to use half the kit contents (and half yeast) in 12L water to make the final product as intended?

I haven't bought anything yet, still reading. I'm hoping to start with something a bit better than just a Coopers can from Coles.

Where are you located anyway? I've got a couple batches worth of PET bottles I want to offload. I'm in Goulburn, NSW.

I'd rather stick with glass, but thanks for the offer

 

[rclemmett]

I started with a coopers kit............... The beginning is a good place to start. What part of Sydney are you in?

 

[Gavo]

Using the kit in 12lt of water will be fine. It will make it a bit more bitter but if you add 500 grams of LDME Light Dry Malt Extract this will ofset it a little. Not sure what the ABV will be, My comupter that has beersmith on it just spat the dummy. Pitch the whole pack of yeast, particularly if it is a kit yeast, most kits don't really supply enough yeast anyway. Besides you have enough to worry about early in your brewing career than halving the yeast.

Hope it goes well with the brew. Oh and hurry up and get some more bottles, you can always store more beer and 60 stubbies is not enough anyway.

Cheers
Gavo.

 

[bradsbrew]

Half the workload and use tallies/longnecks best way to build a stock pile is start buying cartons of coopers at the bottlo. I have never made a kit and kilo up to 23 mine used to average 19 - 21L. And you can even use the 2.25L soft drink bottles makes bottle time a breeze theres a lad(well probably not a lad more an old boy) that swears by using his 2L cola bottles. For the effort you put in its best IMO to make a 20L batch. Bottles are easy to come by.

Cheers Brad

 

[Bribie G]

The reason that 23 L is some sort of magic number is that it was the old five imperial gallons back in the days when HB started off, also UK beer kits and recipes are 5 gallons = 40 pints as well.

It's not sacrosanct, personally I bottle 24 L per brew and of course many keggers tailor their recipes to 19L to fit into keg.

 

[bowie in space]

I don't really want to have to drink 60 stubbies before I can move on to the next brew, by that time I'll be sick of the beer and the learning process will be a lot slower. As this is my first attempt I don't have a beer fridge to store it all, and even coming up with the 60 bottles will be a stretch. I know I can just throw out what I don't want, but the question still stands about adjusting final volumes.

I'm a relative noob, but i counted the bottles of beer stored in my garage and spare room. Total = 164 bottles, most of them longnecks! Brew at 23L, bottle and store then brew again and keep on brewing. Take notes and label your beers so you know what you're drinking and how you made it. Leave them age for a couple of months. I've done 10 brews and have drunk about 4 of them (collectively).

Store your bottles at ambient temperature and top your fridge up with a few bottles at a time. Longnecks are the way to go for less hassle when it comes to priming and capping. Start saving your empty longnecks and get cracking!

 

[flattop]

Soda water comes in 2L Pets for about $1 a bottle, they will get you out of a bind in a pinch but keep em outta the light.
It would be hard to measure half the yeast, use it all and get some decent yeast for the next brew.... Kit yeast is usually questionable at best.

 

[warra48]

60 stubbies might sound like quite a lot of beer, but it isn't once you start consuming your batch.
At only 2 stubbies a day, you'll be through an entire batch in no more than a month.
If you allow time for fermentation and bottle conditioning etc, you could have 5 or 6 batches in production/stock at any time, and this will give you plenty of potential variety in your drinking.
That's my schedule, and I only brew about once every 3 to 4 weeks.



Edit: Spelling.

 

[Nick JD]

A great source of PET bottles is recycling night. h34r: Grab a big old plastic sack and creep up and down your street searching in the wheelie-bins for PET bottles. Concentrate on the houses where the more rotund people live - they love soft drinks in 2 liter helpings. :icon_drool2:

You'd be amazed how many people even rinse them out before chucking them. Sterilize the be-jesus outa them and you're good to go. Keep them out of the way of UV (dark cupboard) and they'll be good for 6 months and twenty cycles.

 

[litre_o_cola]

As said, start hunting for bigger bottles and lots more of them.

At the moment I have 100 longnecks and a dozen stubbies which I use only for samples to taste test during conditioning.
I am always looking for more bottles and was fortunate enough to pick up a heap from the lhbs when a guy was changing to kegging (my ultimate goal)
Plus I drink my beer out of a glass not the stubbie/bottle so I don't get a mouthful of sediment to finish off.

I make my brews to 21L, by the time I rack and bottle I figure at the price I can afford to waste a litre when only doing K&K.

 

[Jonez]

I don't really want to have to drink 60 stubbies before I can move on to the next brew, by that time I'll be sick of the beer and the learning process will be a lot slower.
Cheers

Those were my exact concerns. I did not want to end up with 23 L of undrinkable stuff.

I did my first two Kits in halves. (that is 4 batches of around 12L each). Since I was experimenting, in my first two batches I divided the can and the yeast. Added about half the the recommended amount of fermentables. With my second can, I got better yeast and was able to use full pack. I used hops too. I got better results.

I have learned a bit now and am confident I can make something that does not taste too bad. I will be making 23L batches next. I have been drinking the halves too quickly.

 

[Brewtus]

If you have room to store beer than just go and buy 8 x Boxes of 15 PET bottles. You can than have four brews in the bottle and as you empty about 30 bottles than brew again but your will always have a variety of beer on hand and be able to compare brews. I saved up a bunch of coke, diet coke and other caps so I can tell batches apart. Also you can organise or take part in case swaps or trades with other brewers.

 

[DUANNE]

to get more bottles i just asked all my megaswilling mates to save theyre empties for me. in no time at all you will be wondering where to store them all and even better what to fill them with. they will be happy to save space in the recycling bin and you get a big free stockpile of glass bottles. imho beer allways tastes better out of an amber stubbie /longneck.

 

[KGB]

I'm a relative noob, but i counted the bottles of beer stored in my garage and spare room. Total = 164 bottles, most of them longnecks! Brew at 23L, bottle and store then brew again and keep on brewing. Take notes and label your beers so you know what you're drinking and how you made it. Leave them age for a couple of months. I've done 10 brews and have drunk about 4 of them (collectively).

Store your bottles at ambient temperature and top your fridge up with a few bottles at a time. Longnecks are the way to go for less hassle when it comes to priming and capping. Start saving your empty longnecks and get cracking!

Some good advice there IMO.

Depending on the brew, you can knock it down to 21L or so with no worries. When you first begin, a Coopers can is a fine place to start. Just make sure you try and keep the temp around 20 degrees and if possible grab a better yeast from your local home brew store. Use dry malt extract instead of or in combination with some dextrose rather than just all dex.

While you're reading and learning, your first goal should be to accumulate as many bottles as possible. Rope in the mates as suggested.

 

[RobboMC]

I've got a couple batches worth of PET bottles I want to offload. I'm in Goulburn, NSW.

Cheers - boingk

Are they PET white or brown? If they are brown I'm interested.

 

[RobboMC]

You really need enough bottles for about 4 batches,
based on drinking about 20 litres/month. That way the beer can
age for 3-4 months before consumption.

And to have some spare, nothing worse than having to empty bottles in a rush
to have enough for the next batch.
My investment in extra bottles is about $75.

With now 100 full longnecks in storage it's money well spent on geting good beer at the other end.

Last night's drink was bottled in April. You want to aim for that scenario if you can.

I've gone the other way, upping volumes to increase my time/brew volume ratio;
but yes it can get a bit boring having 40 or more bottles of the same thing,