1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

Sometimes the simplest approach yields the best results.

fuzzy2133 said:

Sometimes the simplest approach yields the best results.

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I've been homebrewing for 10 or so years and this statement becomes more and more important as the years go by. I'm rarely brewing with more that 2 malt and 2 hops - forget the weird stuff like fruit, seasonings, etc.

hello, old friends

it's been a very long time, no brew.

how'z trix?

happy to see this.will read through it learning to brew my first gallon beer soon

dadshomebrewing said:

hello, old friends

it's been a very long time, no brew.

how'z trix?

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hi there dads, fellow N.I. brewer! I read alot of posts of yours early on in the life of this thread. Glad that you made your way back!

Hey Dads/Craig!

I'm slacking so bad.

Hard to argue with over 12gal of beer in the basement, just need find some time/friends to drink it so I can brew!

Dang summer getting in the way...

great thread useful info. I'm a new brewer with a few questions check out my thread if you guys get a sec

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/first-time-brewer-do-i-have-enough-brew-481491/

Hi again SBD!

So many empty fermentors you have...

I got back from my month-long trip to Miami a couple weeks ago and began the re-gearing.. I put in almost 100 hours of overtime in 4 weeks, the padded paycheck sure comes in handy. Just waiting for the mailman to deliver, and then I'm back in the game. Now I'm planning the first ten recipes so I can buy ingredients in bulk. Your LIVID is in the first ten

This thread just keeps getting longer... Haven't been reading it for a while, but I have been brewing small batches. What I've been wondering is yeast re-use. At the moment I have a 4-jug system. My brewday is also my bottling day, so I can use yeast slurry from the previous beer. Works like a charm with ales and I can keep 3 different yeast strains active all the time. The question is, what to do with lagers? I can't be brewing a new lager every time the previous one goes into lagering, I'll drown in lager. And worse, run out of bottles. I haven't had good results with yeast washing (small batch problem, perhaps?) so would be nice if I wouldn't need to do that. How do you guys handle yeast re-use?

Craig - Man that's awesome to hear. I'm a little humbled to see you're including LIVID in the top 10; I think it's great and so do those that have had it. So much so I'm trying NOT to brew it again in a 3gal. Just so many ideas and recipes running around my BrewTarget database. Man you're going to have a great time when you get started.

Honestly, and this is just silly, but I've been stressing over my CO2/Temp Controller setup for my beer keezer project. Kegs are just hanging out filled and conditioned, they need to be chilled and hooked up to serve. I'm still enjoying the bottles if you can believe that!

Something nice about being able to pop the top on a new, cold brew. But that's offset by how damn convienient it is to rack to the keg/seal/pressure/and forget.

I've probably said it 20+ times by now, but if you don't care about your CO2 to style and are happy with the 2.3-2.5 of most commercial American beers, DO THE SUGAR CUBE TRICK. One for a 12oz, two for a bomber. Done. Happy. Moving on...

Riha -

I don't yeast wash, but I do collect the slurry and hold that. I've held slurry from batches for up to a month and have had successful pitches with no issues. From what I understand, yeast washing usually benefits most if you're looking at long term storage.

I tried to time/develope my recipes so that I'd use at least one of the slurries within a month. Brewing every weekend in the winter, it wasn't hard to have a home for US05/S04/Notty/S33/etc. Now in the summer, where I've been busier than I want, I've knocked it down two only two slurries both usually ales.

AFA lager yeast, you've got a few things going against you, but remember that the beer doesn't need to lager (or cold condition) on the yeast cake. You can lager off in a keg, in bottles, or even in secondary if you want/do it.

The problem with lager yeast is -
1) You already pitched usually a double batch right off the bat.
2) It's very fine, so you'll need to cold crash the crap out of it to get it out so you can save it.
3) Depending on the D-rest, you could have some tired yeast already at the point you want to try and save it. Stressed yeast still work, but they don't work as well as happy, healthy yeast.

IMO, it's easier and better to just pitch a new package of fresh yeast for the next round of lager. Keep in mind, though, I don't do a lot of lagers - maybe 1:10 brews I do would be a lager. I don't have cold storage enough to keep cranking them out, and the turnover rate on ales is so much faster.

I like Saflager W34/70. I'd really like to try the Swiss lager Fermentis has, but I'm not interested in 500g of lager yeast.

Hi SBD,

I will do the sugar cube trick... I remember seeing that there are two sizes.. I want the smaller of the two, correct? I am using retired Grolsch bottles, which are 16 oz... Will one sugar cube carb the extra 4 ounces enough, or should I split up some cubes into quarters? Course, I can always experiment

My new kettle should be here this week.. I ended up picking up the 35 quart SS Tri-ply... The added cost was negligible compared to a non-tri-ply and I can probably do a full 5 gallon batch with it.

Hey Craig!

I think you'd be fine with the smaller cube in a 16oz bottle. You'd end up on the 2.3 side or slightly less, but still more than enough without being typical BMCish carb.

As a heads up - my pot is 6.75gal measured, and works awesome for a 4gal boil. Knowing that I have at least a gallon worth of evap on my 1hr boil, I'd be inclined to tell you to lean toward the 10gal pot size if you're considering a 5gal AG pot. You'll be real close with a 8.5gal, where with the 10 you could just crank and forget.

Up to you of course.

SBD, how did that Keptinis turn out? I didn't see a taste report. Worth brewing again?

Today the mailman brought me the Victoria grain mill.. Got it from Discount Tommy at the recommendation of a few people from the board. In the next week I will be making my own ugly junk!

Far as pot size goes, I am not tied to any particular batch size, I can always tailor to fit my gear. I really like the scaling feature of Brewsmith!

I have 8, 5 and 2 gallon pots and no problem doing any size batch. So far my biggest was 5.25 gallons of an all-grain 8% black IPA.

I like the idea of have multiple fermenters and bottles with different recipes at different stages. I think the difficulty will come when different fermenters need to be kept at different temperatures. Nevertheless, I totally agree. If brewing were 'work' it wouldn't be a hobby.

brewed rum runner this morning happy I went with a blow off tube as there was blow off when I got up this morning. looks good so far will see how it goes

Craig - Keptinis was definitely a beer that got better with age. Just now it's really starting to really come together, where before it was really boozy. I'll likely make it again, maybe in the fall along with some Sahti. Both ought to be great for the icefishing season.

Wolfej50 - Yep, having a rolling pipeline is awesome for small batches, you'll always end up with something new before you even realise it!

Over the winter I brewed every weekend, and had 4 carboys going at once - man that was fun, first month and a half was a little boring but before I knew it I was bottling on Sat and saving the yeast to re-pitch for the batch made on Sunday. Made quite the stockpile in the basement, I'm still drinking beers from March. Let's me have some time in the summer, too, I find I'm not brewing as much with all the activities with the kids.

Ohiobeer - Look forward to hearing about how it tastes! That was one I was thinking about trying, and I'm due for a darker beer here soon...

thanks I'll report back with tasting notes

I read to help with good head and carb to add a little yeast when bottling and priming I read dry yeast us-05 is good to use for stouts any thoughts on this?

ohiobeer29 said:

I read to help with good head and carb to add a little yeast when bottling and priming I read dry yeast us-05 is good to use for stouts any thoughts on this?

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Unnecessary. There'll be a ton of little yeast rarin' to go when you get to bottling.

Use the proper amount of sugar, cap 'em tight, and store them someplace warm for a few weeks, and you'll have all the carb you need. Head retention and it's properties are more related to protiens in the brewing process than the yeast.

cool thanks

Anybody have any experience on the 1-gal level with bourbon oaking a RIS? I brewed up a 2.3 gal batch, which after racking off the trub gave me just under 2 gal (was hoping for 2 even, but underestimated the amount of trub that dropped out!), with a final abv of 10%. I racked it into two 1 gal glass jugs to bulk age for a while, and want to add some bourbon-soaked oak chips to one of them. I bought 1 oz of medium toast French oak chips... But not sure how much to use and for how long.

I've seen many 5 gal recipes call for 4 oz, so I'm thinking of just using the whole 1 oz. Was thinking of soaking in Makers or maybe Knob Creek for a few weeks to a month, and then putting the chips in the beer for...? A week, two, more? I guess the common sense answer would just be "to taste", obviously... But just wondering if any of you had any experience with something similar and what amount and time worked for you. Thanks!

I was also considering adding some other extras to bulk age, including vanilla beans, cacao nibs, and/or star anise. Maybe to the other (non-oaked) gal, or maybe with the oak/bourbon as well... Thoughts? I made it with some molasses, and also had 9 other malts for a whole complexity of flavors (I figured with a beer like this, "go big, or go home!", and it's just two gallons so no biggie if it doesn't turn out well. But tastes good so far, and will be better with some age and mellowing of the alcohol, I think), so it already has a lot going on. Not sure if even more flavors would help or hurt...

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My experience with oak chips ended poorly and required MONTHS of conditioning just to get down from #2 pencil status. I used .5oz of medium french oak chips (Carlson), bourbon soaked for 3 weeks before adding them in for 5 (!) days to the secondary.

The effect was WAAAAAYYY overpowering. All tannin from the oak, no bourbon.

Knowing what I know now, I'd tell you to be very cautious with the chips. If you go with the oak CUBES you'll be in better territory as they don't release the "oak" as fast as the chips.

If you use the chips, boil/steam them first to get the bulk of the tannins out first, then add them. Sample constantly, and when you've reached the level you want, rack out or pull the chips. The margin of error on a small batch is very tight, vs a large volume.

If you're interested in adding bourbon/rum/whatever do it at bottling. I like the little 50ml bottles in the liquor store, they're easy to measure out and I'm not stuck with something I won't drink.

I used 1/3 of an oak spiral soaked in bourbon and left it for a week or two. Amazing. Though after a year it is almost gone. Might want to try half a spiral for two-three weeks. This should not be overpowering and still shine for a few years.

I already bought the chips, so I'm going to just go with those over the cubes (on the advice of the LHBS salesman - but forget his reasoning now) or spirals. Good advice about boiling or steaming them first, SBD... Did you do that in the above example, and they were still too tannic after that, or are you saying you didn't do it, and that's why you'd recommend it now? Thx...

Gonna now go look up the best technique to "blanch" (for lack of a better word) the chips, as I bought some Makers today and am ready to start soaking them!

I brewed it in May, left it over a month in primary, and plan on bulk aging for at least until sept, at which point I'll bottle (which reminds me... After 3-4 months sitting in a 10% beer! think I should at new yeast when bottling? I'm thinking probably?). I don't plan on drinking the first one until at least Xmas, so they'll have a few months in the bottle to mellow by then. And I do hope to save a few to see how they age over the next few years, so do want the flavor to last/integrate well over time...


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Well, after reading multiple articles on adding oak, it does look like most recommend cubes over chips, as said above. Guess the lesson learned is to ask the question before purchasing anything! Now that I think about it, I think the reason the LHBS salesman favored chips is because they work quicker. I have plenty of time to age this RIS, though, so I should have not listened to him. Oh well, I'll still give it a try.

Looks like most boil the oak in water for a couple to 15 minutes, I'll probably go 15... Thinking this may extract more of the upfront oak tannins, and therefore I can leave them in the beer longer than otherwise. Thinking one week before I start tasting (with only one gallon, don't want to have to taste too often!), then every couple days from there.

And it sounds like one oz will be too much for only one gal of beer (even at 10%)... I think 1/3 to 1/2 oz will be better...


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Fats -

I DIDN'T boil the chips, which was the start of my undoing, I have a suspicion. Definitely boil/steam them first.

Second mistake I think I made was after soaking the chips, I added everything including the soaked bourbon to the carboy. I'm pretty sure that's what sealed the deal in my case. I'd heavily recommend just adding the soaked chips, and not the alcohol. If you want the bite/flavor of the bourbon, add it back in at bottling.

The thing about chips is they've got a ton of surface area, so they release the oak so much faster than the spirals or the cubes. Next time I play with oak it'll be either cubes or spirals - no chips.

Gotcha - thanks. I did boil just 1/3 oz chips for 15 min, let them dry a bit, then poured 1/4 cup Maker's Mark over them to cover. I'll take your advice and only add the chips (but will use the makers in some sort of cocktail, of course!). I'll let sit on the chips until I get the oak taste I like, then I can always dose with more makers if the bourbon flavor isn't enough...



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Exactly - you can always add the bourbon in later to taste. Good luck! (and that pic looks dang tasty as I'm stuck at work..)

I like doing 1 gallon brews, gives me a chance to try out many more of the thousands of recipes out there. I may have made a mistake tho, I tried branching out into a 1 gal batch of cider (another thread) and it may have flopped (I should have known better than to try to make an alcoholic drink for the wife!). So if the cider can't be resurrected, I'll just go back to beer (Stouts, Porters, IPA's, etc.).

I'm a big fan of stones ruin ten and southern tier 2 x one any ideas on what to add to this to make it remotely close to these. here is what I have to work with
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/northern-brewer-s-white-house-honey-ale-1-gallon-recipe-kit.html

sorry double post

Ohio - So I'm going to assume you're referring to Souther Tier 2xIPA, as the Stone's Ruination is a IIPA. Either way, the kit that you have is not going to work well as a base to make either. You've got the wrong style of beer (and english ale base), with the wrong yeast (Windsor is a low attenuation yeast, you need something like US05 or Wyeast 1065, or whitelabs 001 Cali Ale), and the wrong hops (English low AA hops).

You really need to find a good solid IPA kit, and build off of that. I'd make your kit as is, and then get a good IPA kit and supplement it with more hops and some additional DME/Dextros to boost the ABV and thin the beer out. Any of the "C's", Simco, etc would be a good start.

sumbrewindude said:

Ohio - So I'm going to assume you're referring to Souther Tier 2xIPA, as the Stone's Ruination is a IIPA. Either way, the kit that you have is not going to work well as a base to make either. You've got the wrong style of beer (and english ale base), with the wrong yeast (Windsor is a low attenuation yeast, you need something like US05 or Wyeast 1065, or whitelabs 001 Cali Ale), and the wrong hops (English low AA hops).

You really need to find a good solid IPA kit, and build off of that. I'd make your kit as is, and then get a good IPA kit and supplement it with more hops and some additional DME/Dextros to boost the ABV and thin the beer out. Any of the "C's", Simco, etc would be a good start.

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thanks

one week yet before I take the fg reading can't wait.how everyone else doing ? any new brews?

Still slacking terribly.

Trying to clean out the bottles from the cellar and build the kegerator so I can get the 3 kegs that are waiting cooled down and serving.

Haha. So I bought flowers for the wife but realized I didn't have a vase. So I guess you can say I brewed up a present for her. She loves it.




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My mother is coming to visit in a few weeks and I have 6 different brews for her to try, one for every day of her visit!!!

1-Gallon Dyslexics UNTIE!

Sorry that's all I've got.

Breadontap said:

Haha. So I bought flowers for the wife but realized I didn't have a vase. So I guess you can say I brewed up a present for her. She loves it.

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now this is love.