Another silly idea....mini brew scuplture for AG

So I've been thinking (shh, don't tell anyone) about making small batches of beer, 1 gallon or so sizes, enough for a 6-pack. Anyway, I got the idea from the last BYO magazine and I thought it may be great for me to figure out all grain on a small scale and if I like the process....then really diving into it.

And, if I don't want to make full batches, I can always test out a recipe before hand. Am I nuts, what to you guys think?

Can't quite see the point of putting all that effort into making a sculpture just to do 1 gallon batches when for no more work you can do a 5 gallon batch.

Yes it would be cool but it'd be a waste of time effort and money.

orfy said:

Can't quite see the point of putting all that effort into making a sculpture just to do 1 gallon batches when for no more work you can do a 5 gallon batch.

Yes it would be cool but it'd be a waste of time effort and money.

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I agree as it would not make sense for me to spend all that time making a batch of beer that could be drunk in the same amount of time.

I don't think it would be a waste to do 2.5 gallons if you are not comfortable with doing a full onset AG or if you dont have enough room. However, I have to agree 1 gall batch is, frankly speaking, foolish. Besides partly why I brew is so others can enjoy my beer too. Heck a six would only be enough for me alone.

- WW

I've been thinking along the same lines. I have a 10 gallon brewery already but sometimes I'd like to brew a one or two gallon batch to try a recipe or just because I'm brewing a big beer and don't want 10 gallons of it.

What I have in mind is a three tier along the lines of the B3 500 but small enough to brew just 1 or 2 gallons. I reckon it would be fairly cheap. Cheaper than explaining to my wife why I'm making beer in her kitchen

/Phil.

Not all of us live in houses and have garage or backyards.

I do 2.5 gallon AG batches and love it!! I don't have the room to do full boils for 5 gallon batches, so doing half batches works out great.

My biggest question is why on earth would you need a sculpture for such small batches? You could easily move those volumes of liquid manually. If it's truely to see if you like the process or for an occasional experiment, you could do what you want on a stovetop with a couple of pots.

rdwj said:

If it's truely to see if you like the process or for an occasional experiment, you could do what you want on a stovetop with a couple of pots.

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yeah, just the process....and it would be some what of a scuplture

I would like to brew beer on my desktop at work.

as in really make beer at work, or as in a game, kinda like old school drug wars?

Real beer. I would give up my second monitor.

I think my boss would object.

olllllo said:

Real beer. I would give up my second monitor

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now that is crazy talk

We need to start a new religion, call it "Brewintology" or something. Then brewing would be claimed as a practice reguired of our faith and any effort to stop us would be a violation of our religious freedoms.

Maybe I should get right on that.

I make 3 gal. AG batches because I don't have the space for a propane burner, full size keggles, or anything. It's fine, except I burn through the kegs faster.

Incidentally 98EXL, the guy who wrote that article for BYO also runs podcasts on the subject of beer, both audio and video, and he wrote the article based on some old podcasts. If you have itunes, search for Basic Brewing Radio and Basic Brewing Video.

*edit*

Brewpastor said:

We need to start a new religion, call it "Brewintology" or something. Then could be claimed as a practice reguired of our faith and any effort to stop us would be a violation of our religious freedoms.

Maybe I should get right on that.

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I think you're the right man for that job...


kvh

as much as I hate having to use my iTunes, I might just have to....then I have something educational to listen to in my car and work van while I'm doing nothing

The one problem I have with the podcast is that you really can't do ANYTHING ELSE while you're listening to it. It demands so much attention just to not miss anything. Driving to it might be ok, but don't try to surf the web or listen to it at work, you'll miss it all.

On the other hand, in one of the video episodes, he visits Charlie Papazian's house... walk-in lagering closet.... AHHGHGHHGHGHHH....

kvh

Brewtopia assembles his five gallon AG batches by brewing two 2.5 gallon batches and mixing. So, it's not impossible to do 5 gallons in a limited space.

I've given serious consideration to 2.5 gallon batches, espicially for high-gravity things like barleywine or a chimay clone where I'm not going to be drinking a bunch of it. If I every go with a smoked beer I'd probably do the same, just in case I don't like it.

One gallon is probably possible, but you'd probably find yourself wanting more than a 12 pack of any beer.

The reason why I'd make small batches is to A) figure out the ?AG method without major loss of ingredients, time, etc. I can work out things in brewing software. Baby steps. B) If in my trial and error time frame I make a small batch of something, I can make it into a bigger batch later on.

Or am I still crazy

I made 8 3 gallon batches this winter to test recipes. Worked great. I wouldn't go any smaller than that though. For me 3 gallon test batches are just right. They take about the same amount of time, but I don't sweat having to throw the odd one out if it doesn't turn out and if it does, its just enough to get a sense of how good it is.

The only problem is that if you make a good 3 gallon batch, you wish it was a 6 gallon batch.

98EXL said:

now that is crazy talk

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I was just thinking that, besides bed, my work desk is the place that I spend most of my time on earth. So why not brew at work?

*sigh*

the law,
work policies,
etc.

I think you could only have to worry about corp policy.....not the laws

building codes,
fire codes.

just put it under your desk, or under the floor if you can...I used to sleep under the floor at my old job sometimes

98EXL said:

The reason why I'd make small batches is to A) figure out the ?AG method without major loss of ingredients, time, etc. I can work out things in brewing software. Baby steps. B) If in my trial and error time frame I make a small batch of something, I can make it into a bigger batch later on.

Or am I still crazy

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I don't think you're crazy, but I think a 1-gal batch is too small. The relative percentage in ingredient volumes to make a gallon have the potential to throw you off considerably. Better put, if you have a hop or grain volume that is slightly mis-measured, say off by .5 or 1 oz, you could be way off your target at 1 gal compared to that difference in a 3 or 5 gal batch.

In short, make batches smaller, but not so small that you can't properly scale them up.

That said, if you want to try something CRAZY, like vanilla bean bourbon, or Rauchbier, or steep it in whatever, a 1 gal size might be nice to start with.

kvh

would be great for making starter wort