all grain one gallon batches?

rockytop714 · Jul 12, 2012

I'm relatively new to the art of homebrewing, having only a few kit/extract brews under my belt. I am considering making the switch to all grain brewing, HOWEVER I'm also considering cutting my batch sizes back from the usual 5 gallon to 1 or 2 gallon brews so that I can experiment a little more with different recipes without the concern of having two cases of a brew lying around that I may or may not like.

My question, at this point, is about doing all grain brews in a one or two gallon size and what methods/equipment is most appropriate. I had planned on building my own 5 gallon mash tun/hot liquor tank set with a false bottom in the mash tun (which I will probably do, either way, at some point in the future) but I'd like some feedback on whether or not a 5 gallon mash tun would be work well for doing a one gallon batch or if it would be entirely too big.

The second part of this question, then, would be that, if the 5 gallon mash tun is too big for one gallon batches, would you recommend maybe building a smaller mash tun, say something in the 2 gallon cooler range, or just opting for the brew in a bag method?

sorry for the long winded post, but any help and advice you all can give me is graciously welcomed.

Thanks a lot! :mug:

CastleHollow · Jul 12, 2012

Having brewed a lot of small batches myself this past year, I'd recommend the BIAB method. Less muss, less fuss, and you don't have to worry about all the extra equipment for a batch size that small. It's a lot like extract + specialty grains, so it's an easy adjustment from extract to AG

mojo_wire · Jul 12, 2012

The 2 gallon cooler with a paint strainer bag inside method will work great. No extra construction to prep the cooler, no messing around with false bottoms or manifolds, easy to do on a stovetop. You can mash 4 pounds of grain and if that isn't enough, for another $10 get a second 2 gal cooler. Thats what I do, it works great for AG on 3 gal or less batches. I can do 5 gallon batches that are "almost" AG -- not quite a full volume boil and I might need 1 lb of sugar to get to a SG of 1.055 or so, but no extract.

Revvy · Jul 12, 2012

And I believe you should make a mash tun (And I've done Both BIAB and Cooler AG, and frankly I think you get better results, and it's MUCH easier using a cooler)....It's a lot less of a mess and fuss than BIAB.

A 5 gallon cooler mashtun would allow you up to 13 pounds of grain, which in a batch ranging from 1-2.5 gallon batches can make a pretty big range of beer.

Even a 1 or a 2 gallon cooler can be usefull in 1 gallon batches, if you really want

We have a ton of threads on brewing 1 and 2.5 gallon batches. Including this thread and this one.

I've put together a bit of a primer on small batch brewing here.

Heck you want a simple yet awesome small batch ag setup, especially for 1 gallon batches, and even for 2, get a 2 gallon or even a 3 gallon cooler.

Here's a brewing session I did this spring, using only my smallest cooler, and a stove top pot that held 3.5 gallons.

I am going to do a stovetop small batch kitchen sink brewing challenge. I keep my gear and grain at my girlfriends, but unpacking a box this week I found a hand full of grains. I also have a tiny bit of hops and yeast. I also have a 2 gallon cooler (which @ 1 quart/# of grain can mash 6#s of grains) I have a 5 gallon pot (that I only comfortably use it up to 3.5 gallons) my old Mr Beer keg and a 3 gallon better bottle. So my goal is to make 2-2.5 gallon batches with limited materials.

What I have on hand for ingredients are;
2.25oz Debittered Black Malt.
8 & 1/8 ounces flaked wheat.
6.5 oz flaked corn.
6# 10 oz 2-row
1.5# Dark Amber home toasted 2-row
.5# Toasted Amber 2-row
A box of quick oats, that I roasted a pound of for 40 minutes at 375
Hops
1/2 oz styrian goldings
1 oz Sterling
1oz Columbus
Us 04 and 05 yeast.
If I want I can always toast more of the 2 row....

Half pound of home toasted malt. Smells amazing.

Mashing the frst recipe now. "Kitchen Sink" Toasty Oaty Mild
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.037 SG
Estimated Color: 13.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.3 IBUs
Ingredients:
Amt Name
2 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1 lbs Home Toasted Amber (65.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Home Toasted Oats,
1.0 oz Debittered Black
2.0 oz Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM)
0.22 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [13.90 %] IBUs
0.5 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04)

Using the braid from my regular tun in a 2 gallon cooler

Counter Top Ghetto Tier (A little foot stool, my 2 gallon cooler and a graduated bucket in the sink.)

First Runnings

3.5 gallons of wort to boil down to 2.5
(Thank god for fermcap)

Adding the ridiculously tiny amount of our hoppy friends.

Getting ready to chill

With a garden hose/faucet adapter you can use your wort chiller indoors.

Yes, that's what you think it is. The perfect small batch fermenter.

A little O2 action

Yeast time.

Batch 1 is done!!!

wilserbrewer · Jul 12, 2012

I say BIAB....for only a gallon, keep it as streamlined as possible, unless you are the type that loves gadgets and a production???

Tinga · Jul 12, 2012

I have done sort of a hybrid of BIAB and cooler method. I bought a two gallon cooler at target for about $15 and some paint strainer bags. so mash normally in the little cooler but the bag acts as your manifold. super easy super simple. Depending if you save or toss the paint strainer bags it can be super simple clean up.

Mac951 · Jul 12, 2012

BIAB for sure. easy to vary mash temperatures, easy to control volumes.

Second step: BIAB larger batch and divide into several worts, and do hop/yeast experiments.

-Mac

zaphro · Jul 13, 2012

Quick question on small batches; would using a full packet of yeast be over pitching on a half batch? Any harm in doing that?

wilserbrewer · Jul 13, 2012

zaphro said:
Quick question on small batches; would using a full packet of yeast be over pitching on a half batch? Any harm in doing that?

Well technically you might be or are overpitching, but if you pitch the packet dry, it is said you are killing 30-40%, so likely not an issue IMO.

rockytop714 · Jul 13, 2012

thanks for all of the advice, it's been a huge help.

at this stage I'm thinking that a "hybrid" brew in a bag... in a smaller cooler would be my best option. seems to be the easiest, least time consuming, and most cost-efficient method, for right now. I do like gadgets and production and would probably consider "upping the ante" in the future but my wife and I are expecting a second daughter in October and, though I tentatively plan to do some brews this fall, I certainly won't have an entire day to dedicate to a brew.

@Mac951... I LOVE where you're going with this! part of my fascination with beer is how many varied results you can get by relatively small changes in the brew. So, I think that would be really interesting to try out.

Now... this brings up a few more questions, one of which has already been touched on; I plan to start doing yeast starters for my brews very soon. the question has been raised on whether a full packet of yeast in a one gallon batch is overpitching and I'd like to get a little more feedback on that. Wilserbrewer said that it shouldn't be an issue, if you pitch dry, but would a yeast starter be overkill?

the other two questions are whether or not a wort chiller would be necessary for a 1 or 2 gallon brew size, or would giving the brew pot an ice bath in the sink chill the wort enough to get to pitching temps? ...and, if you do a hybrid biab/small cooler mash, what would be the best way to sparge?

thanks again for the help. I look forward to hearing responses on these questions. I'm headed to the homebrew shop tomorrow with some birthday cash and would like to know what all kinds of goodies I should be looking into

Braufessor · Jul 13, 2012

I would also +1 BIAB. Don't buy/make a lot of stuff to set up for 1-2 gallon batches as you will likely eventually want to brew 5 gallon+. The other thought with experimenting/getting more variety - Brew 5 gallons, and then split to two fermenters, two different yeasts, different dry hops. Or, Take first runnings which are high gravity and make one beer with it, and take second runnings which are lower gravity and make a different beer with it. you can even add crushed dark malts (chocolate, roast barley, Brown, etc.) to the second runnings mash and get a dark beer after running off first runnings for a barleywine or an IPA or something. Brewing 5 gallons is not much more work (maybe less) than brewing 1-2. So, this would be a way to get a couple different beers from the same brew session.

Revvy · Jul 13, 2012

rockytop714 said:
thanks for all of the advice, it's been a huge help.

at this stage I'm thinking that a "hybrid" brew in a bag... in a smaller cooler would be my best option. seems to be the easiest, least time consuming, and most cost-efficient method, for right now. I do like gadgets and production and would probably consider "upping the ante" in the future but my wife and I are expecting a second daughter in October and, though I tentatively plan to do some brews this fall, I certainly won't have an entire day to dedicate to a brew.

@Mac951... I LOVE where you're going with this! part of my fascination with beer is how many varied results you can get by relatively small changes in the brew. So, I think that would be really interesting to try out.

Now... this brings up a few more questions, one of which has already been touched on; I plan to start doing yeast starters for my brews very soon. the question has been raised on whether a full packet of yeast in a one gallon batch is overpitching and I'd like to get a little more feedback on that. Wilserbrewer said that it shouldn't be an issue, if you pitch dry, but would a yeast starter be overkill?

the other two questions are whether or not a wort chiller would be necessary for a 1 or 2 gallon brew size, or would giving the brew pot an ice bath in the sink chill the wort enough to get to pitching temps? ...and, if you do a hybrid biab/small cooler mash, what would be the best way to sparge?

thanks again for the help. I look forward to hearing responses on these questions. I'm headed to the homebrew shop tomorrow with some birthday cash and would like to know what all kinds of goodies I should be looking into

If you follow the links I posted earlier you will see me using a hybrid BIAB/Cooler Setup with a grain bag and a folding steamer to lift the grain bag over the spigot. Like I said I've put a LOT of info on various forms of small batch brewing on this site, over the last 5 years, prolly more than anyone else on here.

In term of yeast the correct answer is, it depends on the gravity of the beer. Some beers you can probably get away with using a half pack or less, but some beers still may require MORE yeast, or a starter on liquid yeast....There's no generic answer. The Mr Malty Pitch Rate Calculator, is a good tool to use regardless of the size batch you're making.

With dry yeast you just fold up the yeast packet and chuck it in your fridge til your next small batch, OR drop it into the brew kettle during your next batch or boil it when making a yeast starter, yeast are cannibals, adding dead yeast or killing old yeast helps the fresh yeast do it's job better. It's an energizer.

As to chilling, it's up to you, having a wort chiller isn't necessary, BUT it can knock off as much as an hour to your brew day, AND we know, again regardless of the batch size, rapid chilling helps for clearer beer AND gets it into a fermenter fast giving the yeast a better chance to take hold BEFORE anything nasty does. But you can use ice too, just like countless kitchen brewers have done with 5 gallon top off batches.

Again, I have answered just about every question about small batch brewing countless time, I can't encourage you enough to follow the links I gave you. You'll find your questions pretty much already covered multiple times.

:mug:

Revvy · Jul 13, 2012

Braufessor said:
I would also +1 BIAB. Don't buy/make a lot of stuff to set up for 1-2 gallon batches as you will likely eventually want to brew 5 gallon+.

And SOME folks do 5 gallon AND small batches and have no problem having both larger gear and small batch gear...Some even have full sized AND small batch bottling buckets. Some even have full sized and mini wort chillers.

ReverseApacheMaster · Jul 13, 2012

I do BIAB for one gallon batches. It's just easier with the equipment I have. I mash in a bag in your standard 1.5 gallon stock pot and sparge/boil in my smaller five gallon kettle. It's very simple.

ddlr25 · Jul 13, 2012

I've been brewing all grain 5 gallon batches for over a year and just last week brewed a 1 gallon experimental batch. I had a great experience with it. I sewed a small bag out of a voile curtain that I purchased from Walmart to fit my 4 gallon kettle and did a BIAB brew session. I preheated the oven to 170 (lowest setting) and then turned it off. When I hit my mash temp I stuck the stock pot into the oven for 1 hour with the heat off. I mashed for about 120 minutes and it only went down 1 degree. I ended up with 65% efficiency. Worked out really well. Once the mash was done I put it on the stove and boiled away!

C-Rider · Jul 14, 2012

I"ve been doing 1.75 gallon batches BIAB for about a year now. I get between 15 and 17 bottles per batch. I use a 5 gallon cooler and the good old paint bag which washes out easy and can be used over and over again. Here is a short video I made. One thing I changed from the video is I use two coffee mugs to press and press as much of the remaining wort out of the grain. Using my fists in as in the video was hard as the grain is HOT, and my hands couldn't take the contact very long. The smaller the batch the easier it is to get the liquid out of the grain.

ryan_howard · Jul 22, 2012

I've really appreciated the different threads on small batch brewing. I'd like to get set up for 1-gallon fermenting mostly for experimentation. For example, I'd like to prepare a wort, then separate it into different fermenters with differs yeasts so that I can start to learn the qualities of different ingredients.

What would you say are the merits or problems of each of the following in small batch brewing:

1) one gallon glass jugs (I think they are typically a little bigger than a gallon)
2) 2 gallon plastic fermenters
3) 3 gallon glass carboy

Are there other fermenter options?

jrb03 · Jul 22, 2012

Look into the Brooklyn brew shop one gallon kits. They come with everything you need to make a one gallon all grain batch. Their everyday IPA is tasty. I got started in all grain with their kits, and still use the equipment to brew my own recipes. I recently bought my brother a kit for half price at Williams Sonoma who frequently has them on sale. I use the biab method though, not the sparge in the instructions.

Ghostly · Jul 24, 2012

ryan_howard said:
What would you say are the merits or problems of each of the following in small batch brewing:

1) one gallon glass jugs (I think they are typically a little bigger than a gallon)
2) 2 gallon plastic fermenters
3) 3 gallon glass carboy

Are there other fermenter options?

3 gallon better bottle is probably more readily available than a glass carboy (and safer). But I'd pick option 2, the bucket. I started with the jug, but it actually nets less than a gallon, and is nearly impossible to dry hop in. The better bottle is similarly tough in that respect.

Tinga · Jul 24, 2012

Ghostly said:
3 gallon better bottle is probably more readily available than a glass carboy (and safer). But I'd pick option 2, the bucket. I started with the jug, but it actually nets less than a gallon, and is nearly impossible to dry hop in. The better bottle is similarly tough in that respect.

the 3 gallon better bottle is a pain to clean since it's a square and it has all those weird grooves in it. I'm not sure why the better bottle has all those different shapes but after buying two i wish i could have gotten something else.

ReverseApacheMaster · Jul 25, 2012

If you can find two gallon buckets from a bakery that is probably your easiest option but I have no problem fermenting in those wine jugs. They are about 1.3 gallons so there is some headspace but you really want to use a blow off tube.

Ambiorix · Aug 17, 2012

I just picked up a copy of the book Beer Craft by William Bostwick and Jessi Rymill after hearing a segment on the NPR show "The Splendid Table." They do 1-gallon batches using a brew-in-the-bag stovetop method. I've been doing 5-gallon batches, but have wanted to downsize in order to try more recipes without ending up with huge amounts of beer. I also wanted a faster brew day. This book seems promising. It's well put together and includes 10 recipes with ideas for others. I also have a copy of the Durden Park Beer Circle book, Old British Beers and How to Make Them. That book has 1-gallon (UK) recipes that would be easily downsized to 1-gallon (US). Tons of wonderful recipes from British brewing history! I had the British Beers book in mind when I decided to pick up Beer Craft. I had been leary of scaling the old recipes up to 5-gallon batches without knowing how they'd turn out.

Calichusetts · Aug 17, 2012

As for the yeast packet talk...try doing a double brew day if possible...not much longer and two experiments in one day. That way you use a whole packet or close to it.

1 Gallon is not just for experimenting though. The ease and convienence is amazing. Your indoors so no worries about weather. Ferm chambers are cheap and easy to have for a 1-gallon carboy. Bottling is like 10 minutes (I use 16oz swing tops and get a 6 pack) and most equipment is already in your house. I save my beers for special occiasions or at least for a good night. I got 3 different batches ready for a party I am having tomorrow.

BUT, as for experiementing...its enlightening to say the least. Low cost and almost no anxiety about trying radical things. I once did a BoPils that tasted like a dirty bowl of Czech soup more than beer (still got one on LONG term aging to see if I can kill the spices). But I've also done some amazing experiments on my house brew: Fermentation at 61 vs 65; whirlpooling at 180 vs 160; different dry hopping combinations, hop teas, FWH and hop bursting. I tried to do this house brew once a week all year and its just amazing to have a side by side comparison of the same brew, literally same hops and grains, but maybe a 60 min vs. FWH without the 60 addition. I've gained so much experience that I wouldn't at any other size.

Even with that said, I do plan on moving up to 3 gallons. An 18 pack will go along way with me and with a newborn, I am having trouble with the once a week brewing.

djbradle · Aug 19, 2012

Here's my solution. Picked up 4 from Uline.com for 3.79 a piece and under 10 dollars shipping. Plus you can top crop easy.

I'll be doing 8 gallon batches with three of these used for test fermentation using various yeasts.

kingwood-kid · Aug 19, 2012

I suppose my turkey fryer can make 6-7 gallons, and my mash tun cooler could easily accomodate more than that, but my usual batch size is 2 to 2.5 gallons, fermented in a standard-issue 6 gallon ale pail. As long as you remember to sanitize the whole bucket and not just up to the 3-gallon line, it works fine. Sometimes I'll make a double batch and split it into two pails so I can play with multiple yeasts, or different flameout hops. Unless you're totally committed to exclusively brewing small batches, I'd buy the equipment for full-size batches and use that to brew with. Some 1 gallon glass fermenters would be pretty sweet though.

all grain one gallon batches?

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