When space is limited or there is no need for more then a couple of gallons of home brew, small batch brewing is an alternative to the typical 5 gallon brew sessions. This particular “all grain” set up is constructed to produce approximately 2 gallons of drinkable beer to be served via a 2.5 gallon keg.
A 5 gallon drink cooler is used as the “mash tun”. It has been modified with a ball valve and a stainless steel screen to filter the grains from the wort. Hot water is dumped on the grains and stays at a steady tempture for 60 minutes The fluid “wort” is then drained and boiled for 60min with various ingredients added to the boil at various times. The resulting reduced wort is then cooled to about 68f, put into a fermentor along with some yeast. It ferments for several weeks at 68f before racked to a keg and carbonated. The used grains are usable as animal feed.
