The other day I went downstairs to get a beer from my keezer and realized that I’ve been pouring the same two beers for a LONG time. I went back to my homebrewing software and checked, and sure enough the two 5 gallon kegs have been in there since April of 2017. One of them isn’t even half gone yet. I simply don’t drink enough homebrew to make it worthwhile having 10 gallons of beer around. I also don’t entertain enough people to chug through that much beer.

Therefore, I’m going to make a change in 2018, and start brewing smaller batches. I’ve got one 3 gallon keg now, and I’m going to pick up another one after the new year. I could certainly use my big 5 gallon kegs for smaller batches, but that’s a LOT of CO2 to fill up the top of the keg for carbonization. It just makes a lot more sense to get a smaller keg and then fill it with smaller batches.

I feel like making smaller batches might get me more excited about brewing again as well. A 2.5-3 gallon batch is just over 20 pints. That’s a more achievable quantity, in a 3-6 month time period, to go through. I could even do 2 gallons of a small experimental batch and the keg size won’t be as much of an issue.

So now I just need to decide what I want to put on my brewing list for 2018. With winter still sticking around for a few months, I’m thinking a nice Scottish mild would be good. Especially with St. Patrick’s coming up soon.