1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

^ Smart idea!

Well I don't have the time to read them all but I just wanted to add something. I just did my first all grain 1gallon brew. It was fun don't get me wrong. The only thing I have against it was that it only brews 1 gallon. I got the kit so I could experiment with things and not loose to much.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I will not buy and 1 gallon kit. I will just buy everything.

Jbird said:

Well I don't have the time to read them all but I just wanted to add something. I just did my first all grain 1gallon brew. It was fun don't get me wrong. The only thing I have against it was that it only brews 1 gallon. I got the kit so I could experiment with things and not loose to much.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I will not buy and 1 gallon kit. I will just buy everything.

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I agree, I wouldnt buy a kit for one gallon, but I love using it to put together my own stuff especially off the wall experiments and dialing in 5 gallon favorites

divrguy said:

I've heard guys do something like a yardstick divided by the boil time and then spread the hops along the stick so they have something to go by.

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That is a great idea, going to have to try that.

divrguy said:

I've heard guys do something like a yardstick divided by the boil time and then spread the hops along the stick so they have something to go by.

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Perfect! I'm going to try that!

Teaching a brewing class today at a library, its fun watching peoples expressions as they walk by and I'm heating up wort in the middle of the childrens section.

Are you screaming : "Surprise Mother...ers!!!" as well? I'd totally do that
PS. Damn, it's my dream job (even if it's voluntary) !

jongrill said:

Looking to do a one gallon DFH 60 Minute clone. The recipe calls for the hops to be added continuously over the boil.... Any tips on times or procedures?

Thanks!

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I brewed the 5 gal version if this . Some add a couple if pellets a minute and some split the total hops up to 10 min additions. Def try to use fawcett amber malt. Warrior, simcoe and Amarillo. Hops

he's baaaackkkk

hi guys... i got a weekend off.

today is bottling day (three batches)

and then, depending on whether swmbo has plans, i may get to brew tomorrow.


i'm soooo jonesing for a brewday i can't believe it.


it's been since before Christmas

dadshomebrewing said:

he's baaaackkkk

hi guys... i got a weekend off.

today is bottling day (three batches)

and then, depending on whether swmbo has plans, i may get to brew tomorrow.

i'm soooo jonesing for a brewday i can't believe it.

it's been since before Christmas

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Holy cow, thought I saw you on a milk carton somewhere lol. Since Christmas, Id be foaming at the mouth already! Been a couple weeks and Im dyin to brew again!

yeah, i know, but it's that whole job thing

you have to earn it while it's around to be earned, you know? with a little luck i can keep it up for a while, even though it messes with my brew schedules.

do they put missing brewers pic's on milk cartons or beer bottles?

dadshomebrewing said:

yeah, i know, but it's that whole job thing

you have to earn it while it's around to be earned, you know? with a little luck i can keep it up for a while, even though it messes with my brew schedules.

do they put missing brewers pic's on milk cartons or beer bottles?

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I meant to say on the side of a growler

that would work

Ostomo517 said:

I agree, I wouldnt buy a kit for one gallon, but I love using it to put together my own stuff especially off the wall experiments and dialing in 5 gallon favorites

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Yeah, most of the 1 gallon kits seem a little expensive to me. I'm all for putting it together saves me some cash and I seem to like a 1.5 or 1.75 gallon size a but better. 1.75 seems to be a good 1/3 batch size.

JollyIsTheRoger said:

Teaching a brewing class today at a library, its fun watching peoples expressions as they walk by and I'm heating up wort in the middle of the childrens section.

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Dude, that's awesome... I would go to the library more often if they had that here!! Lol

dadshomebrewing said:

he's baaaackkkk

hi guys... i got a weekend off.

today is bottling day (three batches)

and then, depending on whether swmbo has plans, i may get to brew tomorrow.

i'm soooo jonesing for a brewday i can't believe it.

it's been since before Christmas

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Wow, you need to brew something for sure Dads!

Hey guys how much grain do you use for this one gallon batch?
How much hops on average do you need?
I'm trying to build a beer and only do it in a one gallon batch. Just trying to feel I out on what I need to do this. I have done kit after kit so I know how to do that all grain and extract alike. I just want to make my own beer now.

JBird - just like the 5 gal batches you have done, the grain and hops vary on every beer. Since most beer recipes are for 5 gallons, find something you like, divide everything by 5, and go from there.

Jbird said:

Hey guys how much grain do you use for this one gallon batch?
How much hops on average do you need?
I'm trying to build a beer and only do it in a one gallon batch. Just trying to feel I out on what I need to do this. I have done kit after kit so I know how to do that all grain and extract alike. I just want to make my own beer now.

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Three ways

1. Use a recipe for a big batch and divide by 5.
2. Do all the math yourself from the ground up, using something like ray Daniels book.

3. Use software like beer smith or Ibrewmaster, especially since they both have the option to scale recipes

Option 1 is easiest for your first try, or option 3

I have to admit that this idea intrigues me. Is there a repository of 1 gallon recipes?

Some of the home brew sites have one gallon recipes, but mostly I just take a five gallon recipe that people like and divide by five for everything except the yeast.

I use mr malty for the yeast

If you have software it will scale everything for you.

ModlrMike said:

I have to admit that this idea intrigues me. Is there a repository of 1 gallon recipes?

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There are a bunch scattered through this thread, there is some on my blog below and my brewtoad. But mostly, just divide a 5 gallon recipe by 5 and its the same thing. The ones I have I optimized for 1 gallon, so there isn't 6.53oz of some malt, I just round them out and make the recipes from a 1 gallon mindframe.

dadshomebrewing said:

Three ways

1. Use a recipe for a big batch and divide by 5.
2. Do all the math yourself from the ground up, using something like ray Daniels book.

3. Use software like beer smith or Ibrewmaster, especially since they both have the option to scale recipes

Option 1 is easiest for your first try, or option 3

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Sounds good guys. I knew to divide by five just thought I would ask and see what you guys did.

One more thing... For doing one gallon batches, you will help yourself by converting to grams instead of trying to eyeball fractions of ounces and pounds.

I've done 5 gallon batches before, but started doing 1 gallon batches last month so I could do some head to head experiments of dry hopping with leaf hops vs pellets hops: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/1-gallon-ipa-experiment-dry-hopping-whole-leaf-vs-pellets-387678/

I just made another 1 gallon batch tonight. I used Galena at 60 minutes, and did additions at 20, 15, 10, 5, and 2 minutes of Amarillo, Centennial, Chinook, Galena, and Sorachi Ace. OG is 1.080 and IBUs calculate to 187. I pitched ~55 billion cells from a Wyeast 1272 American Ale II yeast slurry. After a week in primary, I'll dry hop with Simcoe and Amarillo in secondary for a week before bottling.

I want to keep experimenting with different factors and figure out how to make the ultimate IPA.

Problem with scaling could be omitted very easy, if all the recipes were 'coded' in % of grist and IBUs for hop additions. OG and FG given as usual.
No problem with imperial vs metric, 5 gal vs 1 gal vs 20 bbl.
I think we should ask people making recipes just to write'em that way!

Problem with scaling could be omitted very easy, if all the recipes were 'coded' in % of grist and IBUs for hop additions. OG and FG given as usual.
No problem with imperial vs metric, 5 gal vs 1 gal vs 20 bbl.
I think we should ask people making recipes just to write'em that way!

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That would be great for you AG folks, but where's the benefit to us extract brewers? Personally, I don't really see much problem with scaling as it is. Some of the numbers might come out a *little* wonky, but that's when you either convert to grams for a more precise measurement or just round to the nearest whatever, you know?

Jbird said:

The only thing I have against it was that it only brews 1 gallon. I got the kit so I could experiment with things and not loose to much.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I will not buy and 1 gallon kit. I will just buy everything.

Click to expand...

I don't bother with kits, even for 5 gallon batches. I'm probably going to do some small batches soon. I'm not sure they'll be exactly 1 gallon, though at the moment those are the largest small fermentors I have so it may end up at that number.

My reason for doing a small batch is that there are some styles I'd like to go all-grain for, but I don't have the space or equipment to handle an all-grain 5 gallon batch. I think I can get away with up to about 1.05 OG using an all-grain partial boil, but that'd be about it. I'm planning to try this on an American premium lager next weekend. After that, I think I'm going to try a couple barleywines. No way I can manage AG at those gravities.

It also hap[ens that I don't want to drink large beers very often, so it's a bit more sensible to make smaller quantities of it.

mirogster said:

Problem with scaling could be omitted very easy, if all the recipes were 'coded' in % of grist and IBUs for hop additions. OG and FG given as usual.
No problem with imperial vs metric, 5 gal vs 1 gal vs 20 bbl.
I think we should ask people making recipes just to write'em that way!

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It'd be convenient, but it's easy enough to divide those numbers out. I think it's more sensible to optimize for the common case. Most of the time, people are probably making the same size batch, so those folks don't have to do any math.

For me, I just enter the original recipe in beersmith (or whatever) and then scale it. The software can scale it, but I usually convert to PM and tweak things a little bit. Then I have two recipes: the original source and my own version. It's a bit of effort, but it helps me get a better feeling for the recipe.

mirogster said:

Problem with scaling could be omitted very easy, if all the recipes were 'coded' in % of grist and IBUs for hop additions. OG and FG given as usual.
No problem with imperial vs metric, 5 gal vs 1 gal vs 20 bbl.
I think we should ask people making recipes just to write'em that way!

Click to expand...

The other issue with that is for the person at the homebrew store, if someone comes in with a % grist recipe I either have to pull out some paper and figure it out or pull up a recipe calculator. 90% of the time I am happy to do it, but when there are 3 other people that need help it slows things down. That 10% is enough for me to say I would prefer weights and if someone is doing a 1 gallon batch I can do the math in my head for that.

btw... i've never, in my life, used a kit.

every batch, every brew, has been built by hand by scaling recipes, adjusting ingredients, and fiddling with things.

spent a lot of time on research, and bought a book specifically for one gallon AG brewers, and just jumped in.

oh yeah, i have a pretty good LHBS to back me up (right roger?)

I'm going to rack my cream ale to secondary and add vanilla this week. I bought one whole bean and plan on cutting it half and soaking it in vodka. Question is.... Is one bean too much for one gallon of beer?

off topic... is anybody else watching the blackhawks and redwings?

good game

jongrill said:

I'm going to rack my cream ale to secondary and add vanilla this week. I bought one whole bean and plan on cutting it half and soaking it in vodka. Question is.... Is one bean too much for one gallon of beer?

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I used 2 skinny beans in 2.5 gallons and it was plenty. Depends on the bean size.

Does that help?

Thanks for the awesome thread. Bad shoulder injury this past year and it'll be awhile before being able to lug carboys around. The 1 gallon sounds great, and I get to keep quite a variety of beers on hand. All grain to boot. 2 gallon cooler should be the right size? Really pumped to get back brewing again. Right now enjoying a 2 year old Blond Doppelbock.

JollyIsTheRoger said:

Teaching a brewing class today at a library, its fun watching peoples expressions as they walk by and I'm heating up wort in the middle of the childrens section.

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The steam from that cant be good for the books. I wish my local library did such fun things though. I would spend more time there and less time drinking beer. Or not.

Here is my first try. Was the Everyday IPA from Brookly Brew Shop. It looks great, was perfectly carbonated, just wasn't super tasty. Was missing some of the hoppiness and citrus flavor I like in an IPA. It's definitely serviceable though so I'll take that as a success my first time around.

Yep... That's a winner.

Now you can do it again with a different hop treatment and go for the flavor you want

Throw some hops in the boil at the very end for more flavor, and, drop some in the fermentor about a week before bottling. I love Cascade or Citra for this.

mkh said:

Here is my first try. Was the Everyday IPA from Brookly Brew Shop. It looks great, was perfectly carbonated, just wasn't super tasty. Was missing some of the hoppiness and citrus flavor I like in an IPA. It's definitely serviceable though so I'll take that as a success my first time around.

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Nice! -Done that one before, I thought it wasnt too shabby.

My last IPA involved alternating Simcoe with Cascade using Cascade in the fermentor. L'm thinking Simcoe might be too "Catty" for a 1 gallon batch. It's a potent hop.

mkh said:

Here is my first try. Was the Everyday IPA from Brookly Brew Shop. It looks great, was perfectly carbonated, just wasn't super tasty. Was missing some of the hoppiness and citrus flavor I like in an IPA. It's definitely serviceable though so I'll take that as a success my first time around.

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I just bottled my IPA tonight. Should be nice. It smaller really sweet.