reducing the brewlength on brewferm christmas

[b.all]

The brewferm christmas beer is meant to make 7l of beer but this would mean quite a large loss of beer in the bottom of the fermenter and i find generally kit beers are nicer when you reduce the brewlength and get more body. would it be a bad idea to reduce the brewlength enough to ferment it in a 1 gallon demijohn or a 5 litre improvise demijohn? too much body considering it will already have quite a lot of body from the amount of extract to volume?

[Waffty]

Reducing the brew length will increase the OG, as you'll still need to add the recommended sugar, as Brewferm kits do benefit from the additional sugar. Having a high OG (around 8% to 9%) brings into question the yeast you'll be using, as some yeast doesn't cope well with high OGs but I think you'll be ok with Brewferms yeast, as it's known to work on higher strength brews.

You may also end up with a sweeter brew, as the yeast may have run out of 'umff' i.e yeast has an attenuation percentage around 65% to 75%.

One last thing, I'd leave the resulting brew in you keg/bottles for at least 6 to 8 weeks to condition.

[b.all]

this is the only brewferm beer not to require sugar as it's designed to make 7 litres of 7% beer. by reducing the brewlength i'd be heading for about 10.5% which i would have thought the belgian yeast would be able to cope with. i see your point about the attentuation dropping though, might yeast nutrient added after a few days of fermentation keep it ticking long enough?

[Waffty]

Ahhhhhhhh too many beers i.e I'd forgotten that the Xmas didn't need any extra sugar, just got my next abbey brew on my mind

Yeast vit will help to get your yeast going but I still think it may run out of steam i.e

Though yeast strains are able to ferment all the sugars in the beer, they usually don't get to. In contrast to a forced ferment test, beer is generally fermented at lower temperatures, with smaller pitching rates and without constant rousing. Because of that the yeast will not get a chance to ferment all fermentable sugars in the wort. Flocculation will cause it to drop to the bottom or collect on the surface where it doesn't have as much contact with the sugars anymore. Because of nutrient depletion and or high alcohol levels cells die before they get a chance to ferment every last bit of sugar in the wort. The result is left over fermentable sugars that play an important role in the character of the finished beer. The closer a beer's attenuation is to its limit the drier and less sweet it will taste. When looking at the attenuation ranges given for commercial yeast you will notice that the less flocculating a yeast is, the more attenuative it will be. This makes sense as the poorly flocculating yeasts will remain in contact with the wort for a longer time. The beech wood aging process used by Anheuser-Bush to brew Budweiser does exactly that without relying on poor flocculation alone; it maximizes the contact area between beer and yeast.

So pitching more yeast or rousing you existing yeast, could be an option ?

[b.all]

the brewferm yeast is very low flocculating such that if you even touch the bottle the yeast is instantly swirling throughout it so i would guess it should attenuate well. is it worth giving it a go in just a 1 gallon fermenter? i'd probably mix it up and then keep some of the wort back in a sterilised container in the fridge and add that when it's had a few days to go at the rest of the wort. that will give it enough head space also as it's likely to be bubbly.

[Waffty]

You could always go the otherway & double up your brew length i.e by buying two kits, pitch with two lots of water & use both yeasts, that would give you a more manageable 14L brew length.

As for the 5L idea, give it a go, all you have to loose is the price of the kit & all you have to gain, is a full bodied, excellent headed beer, that's to die for