5 Liter - 12 Bottle - Brewing Experience (Facts & Pearls)

Hello,

So I have been brewing for over four months now with the Go Pro Small Batch Brewing Kit:

Here is what I have learned and I hope it helps you if want to get started to brew beer cheaply.

1. The "Little Big Mouth Bubbler(LBMB)" holds about 4.5 liters. This comes to the top line and leaves enough air room for good fermentation.  Trub and yeast will typically take up about .5 liters in waste.  This leaves about 4 liters to bottle with.  Adding a little liquid with fermenting sugar in the secondary should allow you to bottle 12 bottles of beer at a time :)
2. The LBMB is a joy to clean because of the wide mouth.  There have been some negative comments posted on the quality.  I have not experienced that and I now own 4.
3. I have purchased a small stainless steel pot that has worked out perfectly for me.  See Amazon link above.  If you fill the pot to the lowest handle rivot, you are starting with exactly 6 liters of water.  With 1/2 hour boil, you will loose about 1 liter. Leaving 5 liters of wort.  That allows for some waste to hit the 4.5 liter mark in the Little Big Mouth Bubbler.  Also 5 Liter brewing makes the math much easier :)
4. I find that a 30 minute mash @153°F or 67°C (partial mash or BIAB) and a 30 minute boil is all I need for these small batches. 30 minute mashes have been validated by others and they seem to work just fine.  30 minutes provides just the right amount of hop addition flexibility.
5. ***Very important to watch the boil and prevent boil over because this leaves little clearance. You just need to catch the first sign of "hot break" and take the pot off the heat and then put back on and you will be fine.***
6. Right now I find Safale US-05 fermenting at 64°F degrees x 1 week is clean and dependable.  Carbonate in bottle x 1 week then refrigerate x 1 week and you have good beer in under a month :).
7. Start to finish including measuring and clean-up is around a 2 hour process :)  If one only used extract then I am certain the entire process from start to finish could be under an hour!
8. Expect 80% brewhouse efficiency and 60%(LME)-70%(All Grain) attenuation with this system.  
9. 1000 mg of grain/extract will produce about 50 PPG in 5 Liters averaging 5% ABV (4% LME to 5.5% all grain). This translates to 1% ABV per 200mg of grain or 250mg of LME.  How cool is that!  
10. Your mileage may vary a bit because of all the brew variables (ex. technique, grains used, yeast choice and fermentation temp.) but you should come close to my stats above.
11. I am going to make a video soon to show the process from beginning to end.

Cheers!

Jim