1 gallon brews

So this may be sacrilege, but is there anyone out there doing small batch brewing to test recipes out? 5 gallons can sometimes create a "bottle neck" in my bottling supply.

If anyone does brew 1 gal batches what do you use as a primary? I have a 5gal bucket that I have done my 5 gal batches in, would that work?

I would aim for 2.5 gallon batches in a 3 gallon fermenter... You could do 3 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy too, just don't rack until it's to the bottling bucket...

BTW, a dozen Belgian bottles (750ml) holds 2.5 gallons... You'll probably get about that much (maybe a bit less) from 3 gallons of wort.

A lot of us do small batches from nearly 1 gallon to 2.5 gallons. Usually we use gallon wine jugs for tiny batches.






Some folks are using Montana Jars....They come in all different sizes including 2 gallons.

From here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/tepache-200053/

And here's info on turning one into a fermenter...


2 1/2 gallon Montana Jar Fermenter



Of course the metal lid in the one from the thread (from target) is important for making an airlock grommet space. Can't easily do it with a glass top.

Whatever vessel you find its best to have a half gallon headspace.Otherwise plan on using a blow off tube often.

Where does one find Montana jars?

Oh never mind I hit your link

I'm just starting 1 gallon brewing. The first is an extract w/specialty grains, a Roggensbier.

I'm using a 2 gallon plastic bucket from the paint dept at Home D. Keeping the temp under control for a 1 gallon brew is a snap w/I place it in a Colman Cooler w/some water and a 1/2 gallon block of ice (ice last's all day).

I've got 4 one gallon batches going now. Only thing I'm not sure of is if my siphon will fit.

Cool, I am about to go all grain. Had a meetup with some other local home brewers and the difference between extract and all grain is amazing. I am ordering a Ranco temp controller tomorrow for my freezer to make a fermentation chamber out of it to hold temps correctly ( live in Fl and my home gets wicked hot)

just scored 8, 1 gallon jugs from my grandmas house ( love you nana) gunna start playin as soon as i get airlocks and stoppers.

ps what size stopper work well in 1 gallon jars?

1ratdog said:

just scored 8, 1 gallon jugs from my grandmas house ( love you nana) gunna start playin as soon as i get airlocks and stoppers.

ps what size stopper work well in 1 gallon jars?

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i"d think 1 gallon jugs are gong to be lackin' head space. You may loose brew out the blow tube. That's why I'm using the 2 gallon buckets.

i like brewing up 3 or 5 gallon batches and then splitting them up to see how different yeast or diffferent fermentation temps effect the beer.

Reevy- 2 grandfather clocks? Whats up with that? Did you build them?

I have thought about doing this and taking recipes and adding my own twists. How do you figure out the calculations for everything. Is it simply split ? Say I am doing a single gallon batch, can I just cut all the measurements by 1/5 ? Is it that simple ? Assuming I am using a 5 gallon recipe ? Same boil times ?

Wingfan13 said:

I have thought about doing this and taking recipes and adding my own twists. How do you figure out the calculations for everything. Is it simply split ? Say I am doing a single gallon batch, can I just cut all the measurements by 1/5 ? Is it that simple ? Assuming I am using a 5 gallon recipe ? Same boil times ?

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Brewsmith will convert recipes to different batch sizes.

For significantly reduced batches, there will be a decent impact in your hop utilization. This is the main reason why folks commonly recommend using the software to scale... Just be sure you have boil off rates entered correctly.

I routinely do 2/3 gal batches in empty 1gal cider jugs for brewing experiments without any trouble. Yield of 4-5 bottles has been just enough for me to determine whether an experiment is worth pursuing in larger quantities while still allowing enough volume for friends to come over and express an opinion

I do lots of 1 gallon recipes to play around with new techniques and new recipes. I frequently have to use a blow off tube if I'm not diligent about keeping the temps in the mid-low 60s. I usually net about 10-12 12oz bottles from 1 gallon of beer.

Sometimes it sucks to make an awesome batch and only have 2 six packs but on the otherhand sometimes the beer is whatever or the recipe is a little off. It's much easier to drink 12 bottles of so so beer than 5 gallons since I don't like to dump anything. To date I have only dumped part of two batches.

I do 1.25 gallon batches for experimentation all the time (1,25 gals gives you a 12 pack). Like C-rider, I use the 2 Gallon HD buckets as fermentors. I use a 2 gallon coleman drink cooler w/ a paint strainer bag as my MLT.

I use the Mr. Beer fermenter. Works great for small batches.

I am presently in brewing purgatory (doing extract, but want to move to AG, but do not have the funds to pull the trigger all at once on MLT and boiler, etc.). If I experiment with 1 gallon batches, I would imagine I could mash in my boil pot using a muslin bag to hold the smaller amount of grains. Is this accurate?

Yes. That's also known as mini-biab.

I just ordered 2 - 3 gallon better bottles to start doing some smaller batches. I downloaded the Brewsmith software and it is pretty overwhelming. I am not up to all grain yet and still doing mini mash.

Great, you can watch the video tutorials and set it to match up your equipment. Have fun.

brieuxster said:

Great, you can watch the video tutorials and set it to match up your equipment. Have fun.

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Awesome. I didnt even notice the video tutorials. This will be easier than I thought.

I posted this on the forums over at Beersmith but it doesnt look like there is much activity over there. Wondering if someone can help me out. Maybe I will start a separate thread on this.

OK, my goal for now in using Beersmith is to brew smaller batches to experiment on. I am only up to brewing mini mash. I ordered a couple of 3 gallon better bottles to start messing with recipes and making up my own.

I always purchase recipes from the same store and they come with instructions that have me doing the following -

Two gallons of water to start steeping the grains
1 quart of water per lbs of grain to sparge (if that is technically what it is called)
Add another gallon of water to start the boil
Add malt extract
60 min boil, cool add to fermenter
Add water to get to 5.25 in the fermentation bucket

I simply use a 20 quart stainless steel pot. Strain/sparge through a collander.

I am setting up my equipment in the software and I have a few question and was hoping someone could help me given the information above.

1. What should I use as my efficiency ?
2. I have no idea what to enter in under the Mash/Lauter Tun.
Mash Tun volume is set at 5.02gal by default
Mash Tun weight is at 2.2lbs by default
Mash Tun Specific Heat is at .12 which is where it said it should be for partial mash. Correct ?
Mash Tun deadspace is at 0 which I think is correct
3. Top up water for Kettle ? I don't knw what I should put here. 3 gallons since I add 2 at steeping and one after the sparging ? or more because of the quarts per pound of grain I add also ?


Thanks for the help in advance. I appreciate it.

For efficiency, people generally calculate at 75%. I brew AG, so I don't know if this works for mini-mashes, but you can calculate your brewhouse efficiency yourself, post-mash and pre-boil, using a hydrometer: http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/. Dunno about questions 2 and 3 (I am depressingly ignorant about BeerSmith - I mostly us it to calculate IBUs and OG/FG. Will be interested to see what people say.)

boomtown25 said:

I am presently in brewing purgatory (doing extract, but want to move to AG, but do not have the funds to pull the trigger all at once on MLT and boiler, etc.). If I experiment with 1 gallon batches, I would imagine I could mash in my boil pot using a muslin bag to hold the smaller amount of grains. Is this accurate?

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Yes, as JohntheBrewist said, that's mini-BIAB, or you can do what I do - do a partial mash, put a colander over a big pot (or bowl), drain the grains through the colander, and the pour the sparge water over the grains. Works well for me. Of course, this means you needs several pots - one to mash/boil in, and one to heat the sparge water (I use a stockpot to mash/boil, and a wok to heat the sparge water, cause that's what we have). I try to collect 1.25 gallons of wort, which boils down to 1 gallon in 1 hour in my kitchen/climate. Very, very easy to do 1 gallon AG batches, its how I started.

I do mostly 1 gallon batches (small apartment). I started out using kits from http://www.brooklynbrewshop.com

The $40 kits come with everything you need to make a 1 gallon batch, and then you get to keep using the carboy, tubing, airlock, cap, etc.

Wingfan13 said:

1. What should I use as my efficiency ?
2. I have no idea what to enter in under the Mash/Lauter Tun.
Mash Tun volume is set at 5.02gal by default
Mash Tun weight is at 2.2lbs by default
Mash Tun Specific Heat is at .12 which is where it said it should be for partial mash. Correct ?
Mash Tun deadspace is at 0 which I think is correct
3. Top up water for Kettle ? I don't knw what I should put here. 3 gallons since I add 2 at steeping and one after the sparging ? or more because of the quarts per pound of grain I add also ?


Thanks for the help in advance. I appreciate it.

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1. Efficiency is a guessing game until you know what you're in for. BeerSmith2 defaults to 72% efficiency on my computer, so that's what I've been using. I've been hitting those numbers, so I'll keep it there for now.
2. If you're doing everything in the same pot (BIAB), then try to find an equipment profile that's as close to what you're actually using as possible. You'll basically be setting up the mash tun to be the same as your pot since you're not using a separate tun.
Mash Tun deadspace is how much you have left in the bottom of the pot after you've taken out your wort. If you had a ball valve or something to drain the pot, the volume that's left is your deadspace volume.
3. I think top up volumes refer to water that has to be added to get to a volume. So if you mash out with 2 gallons, sparge with one, and you get all three out (which you won't) but you need 4 gallons to go into your boil, your top up volume would be one gallon.

Barnacle said:

1. Efficiency is a guessing game until you know what you're in for. BeerSmith2 defaults to 72% efficiency on my computer, so that's what I've been using. I've been hitting those numbers, so I'll keep it there for now.
2. If you're doing everything in the same pot (BIAB), then try to find an equipment profile that's as close to what you're actually using as possible. You'll basically be setting up the mash tun to be the same as your pot since you're not using a separate tun.
Mash Tun deadspace is how much you have left in the bottom of the pot after you've taken out your wort. If you had a ball valve or something to drain the pot, the volume that's left is your deadspace volume.
3. I think top up volumes refer to water that has to be added to get to a volume. So if you mash out with 2 gallons, sparge with one, and you get all three out (which you won't) but you need 4 gallons to go into your boil, your top up volume would be one gallon.

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Thanks, I appreciate the help.

Sorry if this is a thread-jack but I just ran across this thread and thought it a good place to tell you how I've gone all grain for 1 gallon batches relatively cheaply. My MLT is a 2 gallon igloo water jug with a SS braid attached to the spigot. A SS pipe clamp works great for holding it on and for closing off the end. Total cost for everything was about $15. One major issue I ran across was keeping up to temp during mashing so I've found that if I pre-heat the MLT and heat the oven on low and keep the MLT in the oven, I stay pretty solidly on my mash temps. I batch sparge adding typically 80 oz. (about 1.25quart/lb grain), mash for 60-90m in the oven, add about 64 oz. of boiling water (brings it up to about 170F), set it for 20m in the oven again, lauter, add another 100oz.boiling or so, 20m in the oven, and lauter that. I end of getting about 1.5 gallons of wort (little less than 1g after a 90m boil). I recently purchased beersmith and this fits (I think... still kind of new to all of this) their single infusion batch sparge. I've used this method now 3 or 4 times and have been consistently hitting 75-80% efficiency and made some tasty brews. I ferment in 1-gallon cider jugs which sit in a keg bucket full of water to keep temps stable. 4 jugs fit in there nicely. I get about 8 12oz bottles when all is said and done. I really like this manner of brewing as it fits well in a small apartment and lets me try lots of different recipes and styles. If anyone is interested, I'd be glad to take some pictures.

Haputanlas said:

I use the Mr. Beer fermenter. Works great for small batches.

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Me too, I got four Premium kits for the price of three with free shipping off Amazon. They come with bottles and a West Coast Pale Ale beer kit which is very good beer. I think I ended up with less than $25 per kit, I love the pet bottles, you can feel the pressure inside and know when to start sampleing them and don't have to worry about botle bombs.

If you are brewing in a vessel without a lot of headspace, Fermcap-S is a necessity. No, I'm not flogging a product -- I'm just really, really happy I use the stuff. I've never had boilover or kreusen problems since I got it.

1ratdog said:

just scored 8, 1 gallon jugs from my grandmas house ( love you nana) gunna start playin as soon as i get airlocks and stoppers.

ps what size stopper work well in 1 gallon jars?

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6.5 size stoppers work well for 1 gallon wine jugs.

bourgeoisbee said:

6.5 size stoppers work well for 1 gallon wine jugs.

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Hopefully a mini auto-siphon fits as well, or I'll be scrambling when I try to bottle my 1 gallon apfelwein batches.

A 3/8" auto siphon will fit, but a 1/2" won't.

A #6 stopper works for putting an air lock on most gallon jugs.

We have a lot of customers who do 1 gallon fermentations. Most of them use a one gallon glass jug. The benefits of such a small batch are that you can experiment for very cheap, and you can do all-grain brewing with a regular kitchen soup pot. We developed a book, an equipment kit, and a bunch of all-grain recipe kits for this purpose:

1 gallon brewing equipment:
http://goo.gl/ZQVEf

All-grain ingredient kits:
http://goo.gl/cPm1Y