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Hey all, I just brewed up a very small batch of Coopers Irish Stout using a 2.4L juice bottle as the fermenter. I've used this method before to make ginger beer where, because I can just get as little or as much ginger, yeast, sugar etc as I like and chuck it in there there is no real drama. However, I wanted something with a bit more body and the Irish Stout certainly lived up to my expectations (that + a westbrew irish stout kit converter - it tasted a bit like swan stout) but the question you're probably all asking and the question I'm asking myself is - what to do with the rest of the brew kit? From the 1.25L can I only used 125ml to make up my ~2L batch, the rest I poured into ice trays which I left in the freezer in the hope that they would freeze - but they didn't! The sugar content is just too high and so they form a sticky fudge like mass. I don't know if they'll keep too well in this state and if anyone has any practical experience I'd be grateful for any insights they might offer. Some other ideas I have come up with include

-pouring the remaining brew kit contents into small bottles and pressure sterilising - I dunno 1 hour 15 psi in the pressure cooker?

-Just pouring the stuff into a bottle and leaving it in the fridge. I wonder just how likely pathogens are to grow in this highly concentrated mix of sugars anyway...

I think another fermentor kit is the best answer...

Andy, there are much better things to do then make sticky messes in your freezer, better things like make beer in my fermenter. I will gladly take any excess off your hands.

Also, what brand juice bottle do you use, I have tried bottling into some when I run out of bottles but they don't carbonate as they don't seal tight enough, you can hear the gas excaping around the lid.

You know, the Berri "20% more" 2.4L series - they've been giving us 20% more for as long as I can remember. The extra 0.4L does provide a bit of head room for rising froth levels if you want to brew up 2L. I have tried bottling in these before and had the same problem, but at the moment I am using it to achieve primary fermentation, ie have fitted an airlocke to the lid and let it bubble away, much like normal people use 25L vats. For bottling I used P.E.T. bottles - collecting these is the hard part as it involves using my body as an industrial waste processing unit for the c.cola corporation.

If I had a choice I would've purchased a brew kit designed for smaller brews, but the smallest I could find was one for making 15L batches of oatmeal stout. I suppose this is the next question - does anyone know of a supplier of smaller brew kits? say the size of your average soup can?

I'm sure this sounds like a lot of mucking about for those who follow instruction booklets and diligently buy all the recommended accessories, but for me and a few people I've talked to, one of the greatest disinsentives to getting into homebrew is the huge quantities you have to make all at once. I mean imagine if you had to buy beer in 3 carton lots and had no guarantee that all your beers wouldn't have exploded before you got home! I'm also thinking of hooking this thing up to my push bike. Portability and low cost are the primary concerns.

Regarding storing excess extract, I reckon you could put it in an airtight container and whack it in the fridge.

With such a high sugar content, it's unlikely to go off.

Oliver

It doesn't, Store mine there all the time. Not to be a knob but I know what you are saying Oliver and it isnt the sugar but the water activity. Sugar binds water, reducing the water activity. Here is a point though, your refrigerator is a great home for bacteria, if you are going to store your malt there, remember to boil it, don't just mix it with hot water. Just because the malt wont culture bacteria it doesn't mean that it won't have a colony or two on it.

Once you make the wort, if you haven't killed the colony on the malt it will have a happy home to grow. Something to think on

Dogger

Autonomous Andrew,
if you want to make small brews, why mess about with the kit cans: why not just boil selected malts, hops, adjuncts, ... , thereby making a brew of whatever size you want? Plenty of recipes about for this, or alternatively, make it up as you go, just aiming for the appropriate OG, colour and bitterness for the style you are looking for.
I sure wouldn't want to be messing about with measuring out of a can, then storing what I didn't use. But I consider laziness to me my greatest (only?) virtue

I had a friend who had small batches like that

But he was in gaol

Cheers

Autonomous Andrew wrote:does anyone know of a supplier of smaller brew kits? say the size of your average soup can?

...

I'm also thinking of hooking this thing up to my push bike. Portability and low cost are the primary concerns.

there's no way your serious...

Well you can see where this small scale stuff is starting to have it's applications - prisons, cyclists who may have to travel long distances between pubs, I could go on. My main issue is that I tend to move about a bit and don't want to have to lug about heaps of equipment and produce with me everytime I shift house. If I can get brewing with a few empty recycled containers from the supermarket then I'm happy. That and brew in small quantities more frequently gives more variety.

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. My main concern was botulism. I had managed to find some info on pressure canning wort and this issue was raised. The causative organism can still produce toxins at temperatures as low as 3 deg C. As a rule, sugar in high enough concentrations acts as a preservative by exerting osmotic pressure on cellular membranes. Honey and treacle for instance can be left in the cupboard with no threat of going off, but these brew kits with more complex nutritional profiles would theoretically provide a more favourable environment for the growth of nasties. 120 deg C for 30mins kills the botulinum spores and would thus eliminate the problem however high temperatures turn sugars into invert sugars which could do strange things to the flavours.

You're probably onto something there peterd. Ironically, I thought this method would be easier!

And here's me thinking Professor Julius Sumner Miller had died.

Why is it so.

This is a piss take..

Autonomous Andrew wrote:My main issue is that I tend to move about a bit

Maybe you should consider an MSB 11L kit...fits nicely in the kitchen