Brewing Volumes & What I'm Finding is Right for Me!

My 30L and my 5L Fermenters

This could seem like a strange thing to write about, but bear with me as I discuss beer volumes and what it means for the average home brewer and what it's starting to mean for me! 

Firstly by the term "beer volumes" i'm talking about the amount or volume of beer that you or me the home brewer, produces on average over any given period. So this discussion is one about how much beer do we want to brew? And how much beer do we think we need? And how much beer can we reasonably consume over any giving period of time? These are all important and interesting questions as they determine what our home brewing setup is going to look like, as well as how much space we are going to need for both warm and cold storage and what type and size equipment we are going to purchase. And these questions often don't factor enough in our initial thoughts as we set off into the world of home brewed beer. More often than not these decisions are already made for us by the equipment that's already out there for sale. For example if you want to buy a beer making kits from Coopers Brewery you have only two choices, their 23L Standard Brew Kit or their 8.5L Craft Brew Kit. So what's wrong with this picture?

Coopers Beer Kits at diybeer.com

Well if you after either 23 litres or 8.5 litres of beer there is nothing wrong with this picture! But I've found from my own experience that this is not always the case so let me explain. These kits are no doubt designed to mimic the consumption needs of the average targeted user. So taking the kits above Coopers is saying that the average drinker of regular pub draught beers is going to want to have 23L of beer every time they brew, and the average drinker of craft bottled beer is going to want 8.5L of beer every time they brew, but is that reality for most people? No, probably not and I suspect that most people who get into home brewing from one of these kits more than likely goes in a completely different direction over time with the volume of beer they produce. Then there's the ridiculous idea that "craft" beer drinkers are somehow going to drink less than "regular" beers drinkers and so we see the introduction of marketing ideas that are projected upon us as though they are truth when in actual fact they are probably nowhere near the truth.

The only difference I have personally seen between these two kits in question is that the 23L kit is targeting people who are on a budget and will sacrifice quality of quantity whereas the 8.5L kit is targeting people who are not on a tight budget and who would rather quality over quantity any day of the week. So really we see a clever ploy by a company who knows that there is a segment of home brewers who are willing to part with more money for less beer if they perceive that beer to be of better quality than the general swill that is sold as part of the more budget minded standard kit! Phew, i'm glad I got that off my chest! But in all seriousness does this home brewing divide depicted above really describe two distinct groups of home brewers? Or is it just marketing malarkey designed to make more moolah for its inventor? I'm afraid its really more of the latter then the former, but that's where we need to see through all the marketing hype and understand ourselves and our home brewing desires better! We need to make our own decisions instead of letting companies make them for us and here's how.

Firstly, how much beer do you already consume right now? This is going to be the best indicator of how much beer you need to brew over time so for example if you currently knock off a carton of 24 bottles per month you will probably find that around 9-12L of finished beer is going to be close to your sweet spot for home brewing. With that in mind the 8.5L kit from Coopers may just be the right size for you! But just know that you don't have to brew the more expensive kits that are designed for its 8L capacity, you can also brew a whole range of beer quite cheaply by using different dry malt extracts for example. But be warned, once you realize how much better beer can taste that's brewed fresh at home, you may start drinking more! Now if you're a bigger drinker and consume say 2 cartons of beer per month, or you share a lot with friends or family, than you will want to go with a bigger volume of beer straight off the bat, and the 23L kits from coopers will be the better option for you. And as for the smaller kit, you can also brew whatever you want to over time, so you are not limited to the kits that are only on offer from Coopers. And lastly you could be one of those rare people who regularly consume a carton or more of beer every week! Firstly, my condolences to your liver! But seriously if you do consume more beer or you often provide beer for friends or family in larger quantities then you have two choices, you can either brew more often with one standard fermenter or you can brew less but brew with two fermenters or more. The benefit of consuming more beer then is that you can have multiple fermenters and as such multiple beer styles going at the same time.

But what if you fall somewhere in between? Well taking the two examples from Coopers diybeer again, the vessels they provide actually have a maximum capacity of 34 and 15 litres respectively and this is common with most of the fermenter types out there. Generally most fermenters have a volume which is a fair bit more than the advertised capacity and that's to allow for "head-space" in the fermenter so the fermenting beer has room for the "krausen" which is the foamy white head that will develop on top of your fermenting beer. The extra volume also allows for some variation in the volume of beer you chose to brew and most companies know that can vary depending on your tastes or the style you are making. So you can easily expand or even contract your beer volume in most fermenters as you see fit and a common example of this is that many brewers of pre-hopped beers kits that are designed for 23L of beer will often brew them to only 21L of beer in order to get a fuller flavour. And conversely some brewers will add extra malt and/or wort from steeping grains to 23L beer kits that will increase the overall volume depending on the desired final gravity of your beer. So you could brew to 25L or even 27L or more in most standard size fermenters.

Secondly, and we have already touched on this is, how often do you want to brew and how often can you brew? If brewing time is restricted, but you only consume a small to average quantity of beer than you might find that a bigger brewing setup to begin with will be better for you long term by allowing you to brew enough beer to cover the gaps between your brewing. This also works well for people who mostly drink only a couple of styles of beer like commercial lagers or pale ales. Conversely you may have time to brew every week or even every few days if your family and life commitments allow it so you may want to brew smaller but more often. The benefit of that is that you could then brew more styles and try new things more easily if you are so inclined.

Thirdly why are you home brewing? This is a question that only you can answer but it does have implications that will affect the amount of beer that you are going to want to produce. If you are home brewing in order to save money then you are probably going to also want to avoid buying commercial beer if possible which means that you probably should be looking at a kit or system that will allow you to brew the volume of beer you need to become independent, which means a bigger kit may be what your after. Or if you are home brewing because you want to dabble and experiment and you goal is not to get away from commercial beer but instead to replicate it and perfect it yourself than that will also dictate the size of the kit or system you go with, and you may find a smaller kit is what you really want. Either way your reasons for home brewing should be considered carefully before any purchase you make.

And lastly you need to factor in to your decision the reality that you are probably going to drink more beer when you first start brewing yourself! I know from my own experience that my beer consumption has probably increased 10-15% since I started home brewing and that's because I've always got large quantities of beer at hand now. I am one of those people who used to deliberately strict the amount of beer in my house in the past because I knew that if I had it, I would drink it! So I would mostly buy beer in six packs to limit my consumption, and now that I home brew, well, that's something i'm still working on! But a lot of us are like that and this is definitely something we need to take into consideration. 

My First Brewing Kit

I will finish with a brief history of my brewing volume choices and how I've evolved in my first year making home brew. My first "kit" was a 5L small batch kit I bought from a shop in Sydney. It came with a 5L glass demijohn and pre-packed all grain beer kits. The first home brew I made in July 2019 was a pale ale using one of these kits and it was an amazing beer! I made plenty of mistakes but it turned out awesome, the only problems I had was there was only about 4L of finished beer and trust me that didn't last that long! And the kits were pretty expensive at $25 each so I wasnt really saving much money. I liked the idea of brewing small and brewing lots of different styles more often but I wasn't prepared for the reality that I literally would not have enough of the finished product to make my brewing enjoyable and It wasn't much cheaper than store bought beer!

So I went and purchased a 23L Coopers beer kit and started brewing 23 to 25L batches of beer from pre-hopped kits. But I soon found myself with large volumes of beer that I didn't really enjoy! I was now saving money but the beer sucked! Man if only I had thought this through a bit more before I started buying stuff! What I really wanted was a ten litre kit that gave me roughly a carton of beer every batch but was also awesome tasting beer that would keep me out of the shops and saving money! Not too much to ask i think! So over the next six months I bought more and more gear and tried different brews such as Fresh Wort Kits, which are professionally brewed beer that is un-fermented and sold in 15L containers, it is delicious but very expensive! All the while I wasn't 100% happy with both the quantity and quality of the beer I was making, I wanted to brew less beer but better beer, and I wanted to brew more styles as often as I could.

My Current All Grain SetupJune 2020

So where am I now as of June 2020? Well it's taken nearly a year but i'm happy to say that I've finally found the system that I think is the right fit for me. For fermenters I have two Fermenter King Juniors from Keg-king that are 19 litre vessels which will allow me to ferment 12-18L batches of beer which is looking like the sweet spot for me now as I've started to brew better beer. I can ferment either kit beers using liquid malt extract cans as the base, mix them in my coopers vessel and ferment them in the fermenter king juniors. Or I can brew complete all grain beers to 19L using my 30L brewing kettle with the brew-in-a-bag method and ferment them out in the same vessels. I still use my 5L demijohn from time to time but as I've grown in brewing confidence I've found it's not so necessary and eventually it will probably only get used to make yeast starters.

My New 19L Fermenters

So if I could start all over again with the knowledge I have today what choices would I make? Who knows! I'd probably buy the right size fermenter to start with and i'd probably go straight into all grain brewing from the get go, but that's the benefit of hindsight. At least I've learnt some valuable lessons from my first year, and I have equipment that can be repurposed over time so it's not a complete loss. And even if some of my beers were not as nice as i'd hoped, they were beers that I made myself, in my own home, and that experience rather than put me off has spurred me on to bigger and better things!

Happy brewing!