[Steve Ruch]

Five gallons is supposedly the "normal" size batch. What size does everyone actually brew?

[redrocker652002]

Five gallons is supposedly the "normal" size batch. What size does everyone actually brew?

For me, I think my boil size is somewhere in the area of 7 gallons.  I get about a gallon of boil off, lose a small amount in the kettle that I just cannot get to drain so that my fermenter size is somewhere between 5 to 5.5 gallons.  After dry hops and yeast settle, my take is somewhere in the 5 gallon range, but I tend to keg and don't actually see what goes in.  Your results and the pro's may have different opinions, but that is what I have found mine to be. 

[John M]

I find 5 gal to be a good size batch for me. I drink enough beer to keep a variety flowing at that batch size.

[Drewch]

My "standard" batch sizes are 5 liters and 10 liters.

Edit: These fit comfortably in either a 2-gallon food grade bucket or my 3-gallon Fermonster.

[BrewBama]

I brew 3 gal ‘big’ batches and 1.5 gal ‘small’ batches of beer. 1 gal batches of cider and mead. I just don’t drink as much as I used to so I give most of it away thru club meetings, competitions, or friends/family.


One day, you’ll wake up and there won’t be anymore time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Don’t wait. Do it now.

[fredthecat]

I find 5 gal to be a good size batch for me. I drink enough beer to keep a variety flowing at that batch size.

my theory re: 5 gallon being a standard size for so long (i dont think/know if it still is) is that it is a reasonable weight for an adult male to pick up. i know some might struggle with that, some might find it easy, but glass carboy (5 lbs?) plus 5 gallons of beer (5 gallons of water is 41lbs - so with the alcohol beer is presumably slightly less - uh ~5% less i guess?) thats about 45lbs.

it also could ahve been due to available sizing for turkey boiler pots or standard boil pot sizes?

i know brewing systems 5 litres or less were popular for a period, but IMHO especially for beer unless you are a very, very casual drinker. waiting 4 weeks min to 6 weeks from grain to ~4 litres after losses of carbed beer is just insufficient bang for your temporal buck.

my dream home system would be something like a 12-14 gallon boil with some decent automated pumping and a dedicated brew room that I can create 5 gallons x 2 fermentors of wort with.

[Richard]

I do 5 gallon batches but I transfer into 2 kegs, 2.5 gallons each. Those are easier to carry and fit better into my refrigerator than 5 gallon kegs.

[CounterPressure]

Five gallons is supposedly the "normal" size batch. What size does everyone actually brew?

It's probably been 12 or 13 years since I brewed a 5 gallon batch, but that was how I started out. The initial equipment I bought didn't allow larger batches unless I did two. I brewed that way for many years always wanting to buy equipment for 10 gallon batches but too cheap to do it. By the time I finally bit the bullet and bought larger format equipment ,I was fairly confident there would never (or rarely) be another failed batch, and it just became an economy of scale.

Years ago I had a lot more traffic through my house and it was hard to keep up given the amount of time I had for brewing. Back then once a month I might have 30 to 40 people at the house for dinner, so that definitely came into play.

I still have large gatherings but they're far less common now because I moved to a place where I'm located more remote. I find myself brewing several weekends in a row and then having months not touching it at all. I may be going back to five gallon batches on stuff I want to experiment with, but I find myself even then, more comfortable just doing the same 10g every time.

The 10 gallon batches can be a double-edged sword. Most of the time I think it's the perfect batch size. But when something doesn't turn out really good to my taste, I find myself far more likely to dump the beer and just cut my losses. My threshold for what I consider acceptable has raised considerably over the years. I refuse to drink something I don't like and I definitely refuse to serve it to someone else. It's most painful when you purchase two rather expensive kits and then the utility sink drinks then.

[denny]

Five gallons is supposedly the "normal" size batch. What size does everyone actually brew?

6-6.5

[Megary]

2.5 gallons, packaged.  For many reasons, that’s the size that works perfectly for me personally.

[Kevin]

My batch size is around 5.5 gallons. My packaging size is ~5 gallons.

[Bob357]

My standard batch size is 5.5 gallons, which gives me 5 gallons into a keg. On the rare occasion that I brew from a kit, I use 5 gallons and I'll also use 4.25 gallons for no sparge brews.

[pv]

I usually brew 7gal in my 65L Brewzilla.  I keg 5gal and bottle 2gal to add to my inventory.

[chumley]

Nominally its 10 gallons, but it seems like I always end up with 9 gallons, which is fine with 4.5 gallons going into each keg.

[erockrph]

I target 3 gallons in fermenter to end up with a full-ish 2.5 gallon keg.