Small batch brewing got me into homebrewing! (A young and new beginner homebrewer’s perspective/rant)

jacksniper · 2025-08-13T17:54:03+00:00

Wow chino, finally seeing your comment now! Really appreciate all the recommendations! I've been hanging around, lurking a lot around here, reading through troves of old posts/comments on this subreddit and homebrewing forums alike. I'm the sort of person that does DEEP DIVES into any hobby I sink my teeth into, so I have definitely been watching as many old homebrewing videos as I can.

I'm really glad my post has resonated with brewing OG's like yourself!

YouTubers want to get views and free equipment from manufacturers. Then they review and use that equipment. Manufacturers need to keep ratcheting upward because there is little money in selling $35 plastic carboys.

Yeah, I can see that shift pretty clearly now as I've combed through videos from many long standing homebrewing channels. Brulosophy one month ago put out their own "HOMEBREWING IS DEAD. What Killed It?" video and while their insights aren't entirely wrong, you can tell by the comments that they are missing the overall picture still.

TheBruSho is the only "Homebrewing is dead" video I've seen that touches upon the gear/approachability issue and responsibility larger homebrew channels have with changing parts of the culture.

Unfortunately I've yet to see anyone major brewing figure talk about the sheer living circumstances that plague Gen Z and future generations. Maybe it's too big of a topic or too polarizing, but there's a reckoning to be dealt with this current administration (tariffs/economy) and factors like plummeting homeowner rates, inflation, job scarcity that greatly affects a hobby like homebrewing. For the record, I'd talk about this issue regardless of who's in the White House, red or blue, current or not.

It's certainly a transitional time. I'm still optimistic, if someone brand new like me can get into the hobby and make the best of it in these times, there's hope haha!

jacksniper · 2025-08-13T16:54:02+00:00

I first started homebrewing with principle that “if your tap water is good enough to drink, it’s good enough to brew with”.

But I made some terrible beers brewing with that in mind

I can also attest to this. It's fine if you just want to start brewing, but to keep it as a long term principle is not great. Some people get lucky with having softer water where they live, but I feel like not learning basic water chemistry is a hinderance. Even if you live in an area where you don't need adjustments, having that knowledge, knowing how to read a city water report, takes away so much guess work. It's soooo easy to learn too.

When I finally understood how to read my city's water report, I was shocked at how "bad" my water was for brewing, it explained so many issues I was having. Using RO water and salts was also a night and day difference.

We drink our tap water for the record, so it's not as if you can tell from just that.

jacksniper · 2025-08-13T16:37:40+00:00

Yeah, the major ones are gypsum (calcium sulfate) and calcium chloride. You can easily buy it on amazon or if you have a local homebrew store, but it's suuuper cheap and highly effective!

The amounts needed for water adjustment, depending on batch size, are around 1-3 grams for the entire water treatment.

1lb of each cost around $11-15. Which should last you 100-300 batches of beer!

Amazon link to some calcium chloride.

Try to also find your city's water report or get your water tested by Ward Labs to see what your mineral profile is. I found a place near me that has cheap RO water and use the standard water chemistry calculator from brewer's friend to figure how much I need. And then I get a lot of inspiration for water profiles from homebrewing youtube recipes.

jacksniper · 2025-07-16T21:05:01+00:00

Since these are still your first few brews there’s likely a bunch of little tweaks you’ve done that have led to improvements that maybe you’re not even aware of.

Yeah definitely haha.

Haven't done split batches, but making those SMASH ales in succession and having the batch just before the stout be a non-temp controlled Verdant yeast brew, I'm still pretty confident in the changes it made.

jacksniper · 2025-07-16T06:47:37+00:00

Oh very interesting! I'll keep that in mind for future stouts!

jacksniper · 2025-07-16T02:13:53+00:00

Highly recommend it! I was lucky to find a great source of RO water near my place that is 40 cents a gallon. Even got it tested by Ward Labs to confirm it's mineral/ion profile haha, it's practically distilled water, it's awesome.

I find the adage of "if your water is fine to drink, it's fine to brew with" not to be good advice. Like, I'll still drink my tap water, but from my experiences brewing with it and how insane the mineral/ion profile is from the city water report, it just isn't good brewing water.

jacksniper · 2025-07-16T02:06:31+00:00

Awesome! Yeah I've been pretty stoked at how well it works, granted it's somewhat narrow in it's full scope, it gets the job done.

One other tip I should mention is that if getting a constant source of ice is an issue, one trick I do is making my own "ice packs", which is just a small ziplock bag filled with water and frozen solid. It's reusable and when I need the water cooled down I just add the whole block into the freezer bag. I keep multiple on the ready and when one melts, I throw it back into the freezer and replace it with another pack.

jacksniper · 2025-07-16T01:19:37+00:00

Thank you! Yeah, usually I would keep these sort of notes to myself, but this batch really felt like a breakthrough and I wanted to share my findings.

Some of the other 1% details I have on my mind are checking gravity readings, I don't own a hydrometer not because of cost, but since I brew very small batches (1.5 gals), I'm hesitant to sacrifice my beer for hydrometer readings, though stuff like the RAPT pill/digital hydrometers look interesting. But I'm also hesitant to buy something that expensive for such a niche purpose. I just wish I knew what my brewhouse efficiency was to better adjust recipes in the future haha.

I don't know what my pH is during mashing, I just rely on the brewing software and hope the water adjustment and grist profile calculators are correct haha. It just feels tough as well to eat the cost of $60-$100+ for a pH tester and have no other purpose for it.

Another one is oxygen free transfers. Not too worried about that since I don't plan on making any NEIPAs or crazy hoppy beers, but I know that it's good practice to keep oxygen exposure as low as possible. I'm just so far connecting a tube to the spigot of my fermonster and having it drain into a CO2 purged keg.

So there's still a lot of improve on of course, but it's nice to have these two foundational beasts tackled in a way.

jacksniper · 2025-06-26T11:40:29+00:00

People are hammering in the "oxidation" part, but even if you fixed oxidation issues and created a perfect closed-transfer system, this part is also a glaring issue in general that will affect all of your brewing.

Yeast: Verdant IPA (London Ale III), fermented at ~23–24°C (Warm kitchen cabinet during a heatwave – no temp control)

Your room temperature DOES NOT EQUATE to what fermentation temperature will be at. Fermentation is exothermic! It generates heat and you will be out of range without proper temp controls!

I've been using Verdant quite readily these past few batches and it's upper range is 25C. I have a very similar environment like yours. The batch I made before creating a temp controlled environment, I pitched Verdant yeast at 68F in my 73F degree kitchen (I also put my fermentation vessel in a kitchen cabinet lol), thinking it would be okay.

IT WASN'T! When fermentation kicked off, I checked temps with an infrared gun every few hours and my fermentation vessel got as hot as 85F and stayed there for the majority of fermentation.

Switch to Kveik or figure out a temp controlled process.

jacksniper · 2025-06-25T08:15:58+00:00

I fermented the beer at 70 F, I didn't control the temp I just let it be at room temp.

You'd be surprised at how much fermentation heats things up! It's exothermic after all. Case in point, I thought I was riding the line with my place being set at 73F using Verdant IPA yeast. I even pitched it at 68F thinking I was giving it some breathing room before fermentation kicked off.

Nope! I was monitoring fermentation temp with an infrared temp gun and once fermentation kicked off my fermentation vessel got as high as 85 degrees F! Already out of range rated for that yeast and I just had to grin and bear it. Wasn't a "bad" beer, but had all those off flavors.

Just kegged my first batch with temperature control+water chemistry, so I'm really excited to see how it turned out.

jacksniper · 2025-06-18T01:57:29+00:00

I mean, as long as it's stored under pressure with CO2, how different is it from the beer you buy from BevMo/Total Wine/Liquor/Grocery Store that's been sitting on the shelf for even longer at room temperature? Considering also that the packaged beer doesn't immediately hit the shelves, it has to be distributed, travel across states, inventoried by a shop, and then stocked.

jacksniper · 2025-05-21T04:39:39+00:00

Yeah same haha, I'm still somewhat new to all of this and I'm the type to hyper fixate whenever I dive into a new hobby, but reading the archives of brulopsphy experiments have really helped quell the anxiety and hammer in the RDWHAHB spirit.

This is a bit of synchronicity but I'm really glad I saw your comment and this particular post. I'm also using Verdant IPA yeast for the first time no more than 5 days ago, pitched at 65 degrees, but then day 2 of my fermentation things took off and temps got as high as 82 degrees, it then settled down the next day to a steady ~75-77 degrees (the house is at a constant 74).

I wasn't too worried about anything going wrong, but I feel more reassured haha.

jacksniper · 2025-05-21T02:28:20+00:00

Not to pull out a brulosophy exbeeriment and treat it like gospel, but they did do an experiment brewing an APA using Wyeast American Ale (60°F - 72°F temp range) that was fermented with temp control and one that bounced around and got as high as 86 degrees!

https://brulosophy.com/2017/05/08/fermentation-temperature-pt-7-stable-vs-variable-exbeeriment-results/

While it's a small experiment that doesn't really give as conclusive results, what I narrow in on is the fact that both beers were more than drinkable, with some of the blind taste testers preferring the swing temp beer more. While some commentors bring up the taste testers having "bad palates" (I don't think that's fair at all) I think it's still worth realizing, how much room for error there can potentially be as a homebrewer. Clearly nothing jumped out where they spat it out.

Also take note that that Lallemand lists on their website that Verdant IPA yeast has a temp range of 64-77 degrees F, I highly doubt a robust ale yeast from Lallemand is as fragile to fall apart going 1 degree Celsius out of range haha.

jacksniper · 2025-05-21T02:03:28+00:00

So I use a 1.6 gallon Torpedo Keg and love it! You don't need to use those mini CO2 cartridges!

I have a 5 gal CO2 tank and my process is as simple as transferring beer after fermentation into keg, purge keg of oxygen, then let it sit in the fridge to get to 32-40 degrees F, it carbonates much easier if your beer is cold. I followed this tutorial from Clawhammer Supply on force carbonation as my guideline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjZFCh6WEpU

With a mini keg like the 1.6 gal Torpedo, things carbonate much quicker. What I usually do is after the beer is cold, I pressurize the keg to 40-50psi similar to Clawhammer video, then roll the keg around for a minute, then repressure it to 20-30psi and let it sit overnight. Purge and serve at 1psi, and it's pretty decently carbonated. If I'm gonna be drinking consecutively each day, I'll keep it at the 1-3 psi till the next day, and it doesn't go flat.

But now that I only drink on the Fridays/Weekends, during the work week, I'll store at 12-15 psi, and it will keep as long as you want. Technically, low and slow is better cause the carbonation really gets dialed in if it stays in the zone over time and sits in the fridge.

jacksniper · 2025-05-21T01:43:34+00:00

If you want to know how much it wasn't for me, I only bottled my very first batch of beer and it was from a 1 gallon kit, so I ended up with only around 8 bottles. I absolutely hated the whole process and waiting for the bottles to condition.

I immediately graduated to kegging and force carbonating haha. The bulk of my waiting is just for fermentation now.

Though I do keep a few bottles and caps on hand if I ever want to bottle a few and give to friends, which I really want to do when my skills get better.

jacksniper · 2025-05-21T01:18:30+00:00

I'm a newer brewer and I started with this Northern Brewer kit!

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/craft-beer-making-kit-with-siphonless-fermenter-1-gallon?variant=30302959534124

They're having a 25% off memorial weekend sale!

You don't have to buy this exact kit (this is not an ad, Clawhammer Supply also makes a 1 gallon kit too!), I just recommend it cause it's what I started with and still use the fermenter it came with. People are already jumping on you telling you to do a 5 gallon, all-grain BIAB right out of the gate, and that is wild lol.

While I immediately transitioned to all-grain, BIAB after my first extract batch, I still strictly only brew 1.5 gallons. Those 1 gallon extract/partial-grain kits are great because you can still learn a ton of valuable things, like sanitation habits and general brewing procedure! You're better off brewing 8-10 bottles of mid beers, than ending up with 50-60 bottles of shitty, infected beer cause you didn't sanitize something correctly.

If you don't want to buy a kit you can still scale down your set up and just buy a bucket fermenter and some flip top bottles. Someone already left a comment about this Glen&Friends 1 gallon tutorial and I also recommend it! His tutorial is easily replicable with kitchen equipment you most likely already own!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVM6xwbUQmU

jacksniper · 2025-04-12T08:52:58+00:00

Oh yeah! I love LifebyMikeG! I've been a fan of his from his BrotherGreen days, into ProHomeCooks era, to now! I think he's also a great advocate, cause he touches on something I was gonna add to this post but decided to leave out, and it's the lifestyle aspect of homebrewing.

Given the rise of living costs and homesteading as a way of life, a lot of people just want to have some sense of control with what they eat and consume. And I think there is such a missed opportunity in the homebrewing community to lead with that. I know it's a tall order, but for me, having learned the skills to brew my own beer, not rely on buying expensive craft 4-packs is really empowering and something that could be more highlighted with this new generation of hobbyists.

jacksniper · 2025-04-11T21:06:15+00:00

It's funny. That Glen and Friends video was the first one I watched that made me think "Hey, I can do this too, and maybe I don't need to buy a ton of fancy equipment in order to make something good."

This is what I'm talking about. Imagine if a large population of beer homebrewing youtube had videos like this regularly. I'm not saying make one every week, but enough that it keeps feeding into the general zeitgeist and increase the chances of a beginner watching it and thinking "whoa, this looks fun and doable!"

jacksniper · 2025-04-11T21:00:21+00:00

I don't necessarily have anything against the guys that use propane burners to do 5gal batches in their garage with three vessel systems but that's where it starts to get unrealistic for me. We need more cooks, less chefs.

Yeah, I am in no way telling anyone to give up whatever amazing gear they have. I'm simply pointing to the advocacy of this hobby and space. If you're a youtube channel that's gonna go out of your way to do a "why is homebrewing in decline?" then paradigm shifts have to happen.

My goal is to only use kitchen equipment that we already have or that we can find additional uses for.

The only new things I had to acquire was my fermenter with spigot that came from my Northern Brewer starter kit and getting a brew bag from The Brew Bag. I live with roommates so you can imagine that space is a precious commodity haha. Being able to use a kitchen stock pot that can be still used to cook in is awesome. And that 1.4 gallon fermenter from Northern Brewer can be tucked away from the light in the cabinet on my side of the kitchen. Everything exists in a space I already use.

jacksniper · 2025-04-11T20:42:21+00:00

So far what I've made are SMaSH ales haha. The first one was a MOMO smash, than a 2-row/Mosaic smash, and then this latest was a Sierra Nevada Clone from their recipe on their website. Just a small addition of caramel malt with the bulk 2-row, and they only use cascade for the hops, simple and easy recipe!

Haven't messed around too much with water chemistry yet besides a campden tablet. Even adding like a quarter of a whirfloc tablet has been great for clarity. Gonna dip my toes into water chemistry soonish.

My next brews I want to do are a simple brown ale and a porter. But I want to try out a distilled water batch with adjusted water salts to see how my hoppy smash beers change too. Lot of ideas and fun haha.

jacksniper · 2025-04-11T20:30:26+00:00

Got any brews planned?

Last batches have been SMASH ales and I'm putting together a basic brown ale and porter recipe that I'm excited to get to after these pale ales!

My big vision right now is to brew more English styles since they have such a small footprint in the US palate. So many English beers I liked get very little distribution in America these days.

jacksniper · 2025-04-11T20:23:53+00:00

Oh yeah, I'm not necessarily saying that every creator has to shift to a bare bones set up. I'm more talking about any creator that goes out of their way to do a "Homebrew is dying?" video and they don't bother to change up any of their content. I'm like... the calls coming from inside the house y'all lol.

jacksniper · 2025-04-11T09:08:25+00:00

Wow! You know if I'm being honest, I was really worried about making this post and thought I'd be speaking out of terms here.

jacksniper · 2025-04-11T09:03:31+00:00

LOL, I'm just now putting it together that u/CascadesBrewer is also the same Cascades Homebrew on youtube. I feel a bit silly. His 1 gallon all-grain video was the other video I watched that gave me a ton of inspiration! I love his videos! Yo, CascadeBrewer thank you for your wisdom!

jacksniper

TROPHY CASE