snipper_cr
Well-Known Member
So based on a few ideas posted here, my own research and work with Beer Smith, I have came up with the idea of Micro-mini all-grain brewing. Since I lack the equipment, space and BTUs to do a full all grain recipe, as well as the mouths to drink 5 gallons of beer, I decided to down scale. I have the designs to do 3 gallon batches which makes me pretty happy.
However, I want to do some experimentation and try different types of beer styles, which all grain brewing allows me to do. Also, its very scalable (to an extent, at least grain is).
I have an approximately 1 liter thermos which is AMAZING at holding heat. Basically I will use that as my mash tun, batch sparge and boil the wart that comes off of that, put in a 2 liter bottle, pitch yeast and add a few pellets of hops and vola'! Micro mini batches! Due to the size, even if something goes terribly wrong, I am not out a lot of beer that I have to waste (the money isnt what I am worried about).
Things that come to mind thinking of this: yeast and hops scalability. I've heard neither scale all that well and even if I do get a good beer using this method, there is not way to tell if a full batch would taste the same. Also, amount lost due to evaporation during the 60 minute boil. With a 5 gallon batch, half a gallon lost to evaporation is nothing. With a smaller batch, half a gallon is nearly all there is. Not sure how I can overcome that one. Especially when the overall batch may be around a gallon in total!
So thats what I've been thinking about recently and wanted to bounce these ideas off you kind folks. Any thoughts, inputs or suggestions? I think this could be really cool if it worked.
However, I want to do some experimentation and try different types of beer styles, which all grain brewing allows me to do. Also, its very scalable (to an extent, at least grain is).
I have an approximately 1 liter thermos which is AMAZING at holding heat. Basically I will use that as my mash tun, batch sparge and boil the wart that comes off of that, put in a 2 liter bottle, pitch yeast and add a few pellets of hops and vola'! Micro mini batches! Due to the size, even if something goes terribly wrong, I am not out a lot of beer that I have to waste (the money isnt what I am worried about).
Things that come to mind thinking of this: yeast and hops scalability. I've heard neither scale all that well and even if I do get a good beer using this method, there is not way to tell if a full batch would taste the same. Also, amount lost due to evaporation during the 60 minute boil. With a 5 gallon batch, half a gallon lost to evaporation is nothing. With a smaller batch, half a gallon is nearly all there is. Not sure how I can overcome that one. Especially when the overall batch may be around a gallon in total!
So thats what I've been thinking about recently and wanted to bounce these ideas off you kind folks. Any thoughts, inputs or suggestions? I think this could be really cool if it worked.