Smallest batch you ever brewed?

I'm planning a 3L batch with some experimental ingredients. Wanna see how it comes out before making a full batch and figure the 8 or so bottles I'll get can tell enough of a story.

Gonna rig up a 1 gallon glass jug with an airlock. It'll be nice to be able to brew inside in the stovetop this time of year.

Anyone else make tiny batches?

I'm doing basically the same thing, but I'm trying to get one gallon in the fermenter. There are a lot of variables I have had to figure out to make this work though... I have my second one gallon batch fermenting now. The first batch is in a secondary fermenter and hasn't been bottled yet. I will run my current batch through a secondary process as well...

dos beersmith or other brewing software convert to different size batches? if so that would be helpful.

Yeah, beersmith will resize according to what you need (I haven't put it to the test though), I'll be brewing some small batches late in the month. I want to try fine-tuning some recipes to try to clone hoogstratens' "poorter" -its one my favorites, but tough to find, and expen$ive to boot! I've tried finding clone recipes for this, but have yet to locate one.

Mr. Beer is handy in these situations.

I've done a couple 1 gallon AG batches. Here's my method:

http://brewing.lustreking.com/articles/stovetopallgrain.html

a couple 1 gallon batches of cider and big starters that i hopped and bottled it was good.

made a starter, once, in a drip coffee pot if that's legal. (?)

I made a one or so ounce brew in my airlock once...

I love making 1 gallon BIAB all grain batches. They are so easy and fun to experiment with different recipes. Unless it is a hoppy beer that I know that I want to make, I will always make a test batch before I spend the time making a 5 gallon batch. Buying in bulk helps a ton. I can get a 1 gallon BIAB all grain batches done in a little over 2 hours. It's fun making a batch after work. To answer the original post though, I have made a 1/2 gallon batch before just to get a 6 pack.

Bottling small batches kind of sucks. Getting the siphon started on the 1-gallon jug, then bottling it using a 5-gallon bottling bucket, has so far been pretty awkward. I need to build a special small siphon and bottling bucket before I bottle the rest of my 1-gallon batches. I have six of them ranging from 29 to 37 days in the primary and I can't summon up the willpower to bottle them

If you do single stage fermentation, get a bottling valve on your small fermenter and use cooper's carb drops, you can bottle right out of the fermenter. It's very easy and no racking or siphoning.

what I just did about 10 minutes ago was use a second gallon jug that I sanitized, racked from the primary, which was a 4l Carlo Rossi jug into the second jug. The second jug was only a gallon that I saved from apfelwein so it was a very tight fit, luckily I needed a hydrometer sample so I pulled off enough to make room for my priming solution. I then used the siphon to fill bottles, though when it was about empty it fell on me and spilled cran-apple win all over me. Other than the bottle falling on me, I would say it went OK.

ReeseAllen said:

Bottling small batches kind of sucks. Getting the siphon started on the 1-gallon jug, then bottling it using a 5-gallon bottling bucket, has so far been pretty awkward. I need to build a special small siphon and bottling bucket before I bottle the rest of my 1-gallon batches. I have six of them ranging from 29 to 37 days in the primary and I can't summon up the willpower to bottle them

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I have been thinking about this very issue. My first 1 gallon batch is ready to bottle. I think I'm gonna get a regular racking cane and rack from the 1-gallon 'secondary' fermenter into my regular bottling bucket.

HarkinBanks said:

If you do single stage fermentation, get a bottling valve on your small fermenter and use cooper's carb drops, you can bottle right out of the fermenter. It's very easy and no racking or siphoning.

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omg, I just had the same thought, verbatim. How'd you do that?

OK, what am I thinking now....

i made a quart of pruno, in the exacting jailhouse method. wasn't good, but atleast i didn't get it confiscated!

JMSetzler said:

I have been thinking about this very issue. My first 1 gallon batch is ready to bottle. I think I'm gonna get a regular racking cane and rack from the 1-gallon 'secondary' fermenter into my regular bottling bucket.

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Well, that's pretty much what I did. I grabbed my full-size carboy cap (the orange rubber thing with two protuberances) and pushed the racking cane through it about 8 inches and put that on the mouth of the jug. I put the tube into my 5-gallon bottling bucket, pressed the cap down on the mouth of the jug, and blew into the cap. It siphoned alright, but it took a bit more effort to get the siphon going. Hopefully I didn't contaminate the beer too badly.

The smallest i have made beer wise has been 2.5 gallons. waiting on stuff to arrive to do full all grain batches so i did 2.5 gallon biab of eds haus pale ale

I hadn't even considered the bottling logistics. I may just use my kitchen pots and gentle pouring for this firs Bach. 8 bottles won't last long, so I won't fear a little higher DO than normal.

ReeseAllen said:

Bottling small batches kind of sucks. Getting the siphon started on the 1-gallon jug, then bottling it using a 5-gallon bottling bucket, has so far been pretty awkward. I need to build a special small siphon and bottling bucket before I bottle the rest of my 1-gallon batches. I have six of them ranging from 29 to 37 days in the primary and I can't summon up the willpower to bottle them

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I have one of the one gallon autosiphons. I rack the beer to another 1 gallon carboy (If I didn't secondary the beer), and attach a bottling wand to the hose on the autosiphon, and fill the bottles that way. I prime using the carb drops.

lustreking said:

I have one of the one gallon autosiphons. I rack the beer to another 1 gallon carboy (If I didn't secondary the beer), and attach a bottling wand to the hose on the autosiphon, and fill the bottles that way. I prime using the carb drops.

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That looks like the best solution. I think I'll order one and be done with it

Hopefully I will be start 2.5 gallon batches soon, if I ever pick up a couple more fermenters.
I'm getting tired of having 5 gallons of the same beer. I don't have room to make 5 separate 5 gallon batches! Actually I do but my roommies yell at me if there is beer scattered all around

One other note... I'm currently planning to stop fermenting in my 1-gallon glass growlers. Since I am fermenting 1-gallon of wort, I always get a blowoff as pictured here...



I went to home depot and bought two 2-gallon plastic buckets with lids. I will drill the lids for a stopper/airlock and use them as primary fermenters to eliminate this problem.

Ha, that's exactly why I'm planning on 3L and not 1 gallon!

JMSetzler said:

One other note... I'm currently planning to stop fermenting in my 1-gallon glass growlers. Since I am fermenting 1-gallon of wort, I always get a blowoff as pictured here...

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I wonder how effective some Fermcap would be in that situation or if it still wouldn't be worth it.

I was thinking the same thing, use Fermcap next time and spare yourself the insane amount of blowoff. That stuff is gold, gold Jerry.

Fermcap would work but I would just as soon do the larger fermenter. I'd rather start with 1 gallon than 3 liters because my objective is to get at least six 12oz bottles out of each of these. Starting with 3L would cut that too close for me...

8 fl oz...beyyotchesss

DrinksWellWithOthers said:

I wonder how effective some Fermcap would be in that situation or if it still wouldn't be worth it.

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Very effective!

I just bottled my first 1 gallon batch last week. The bottling aspect wasn't any worse than it normally is. I made sure before I started to get a dip tube hooked up. All I did was head over to Home Depot and pick up a 3/4" internally threaded 90 degree bend PVC elbow. I saw someone on here recommend them, and it works perfectly. It screws right on to the back of a standard bottling spigot, and sits just off the bottom of the bucket. For something like 91 cents I got all the beer in the bucket save about a shot glass full, and that was mostly yeast and gunk that had settled to the bottom. I use a regular old racking cane to siphon, so it wasn't any harder to start, and it only took a few minutes to bottle and cap the 10 bottles I got out. Biggest pain was the cleanup

I've been doing a bunch of 1 gallon AG batches recently. It takes a lot less time to heat up/cool down than a 5 gallon batch, which makes it easy to brew and still take care of the kids. I've got a 50-lb bag of grain and a Corona mill, so I can grind up whatever I like. And I like the experimentation -- I've got one batch going right now with bread yeast. When it's just one gallon, why the hell not try it and see what happens?

As for bottling, so far I've been racking to a pot, then using a length of tube and a bottling wand, then cursing myself for forgetting that I have an autosiphon that, you know, helps in times like this. But my father-in-law has just given me a home-made stainless steel siphon starter for 1 gallon jugs. Hard to describe...it's a U-shaped length of pipe with an air bulb that lets you start siphoning. Think of a cross between a bottle of perfume and an autosiphon and you've got the idea.

I just completed 2 small batches of 1.5-2 gallons in my new winter spell test setup. Tried open versus closed fermentation. Bottling was a disaster, my bottling wand had something in it preventing me from shutting off flow and the seal on my autosiphon is not tight so I might have oxidized some brew.

If I was to move to no-sparging, I'd be able to cut time down to make it worth it (over a standard 5 gallon batch). So far I've got to work out some kinks working on a smaller scale.

So far, I've only done 4 batches and my lowest batch was 5.5.

I use the new 6liter brown Tap-A-Draft bottles. they stand up on end, a drilled stopper(forget what size) and an airlock and can do 1G and up to 1.25Gal batches. got them for dispensing and do not really like them so found another use. also since they are brown do not have to shield them from the light down in the basement.

How do the fermentation times compare to a full size (5 gallon) batch?

It's been a long time since I brewed. When I finally get going again, I'll be doing 2.5G or less batches and will some insight on that.

1 gallon in a BrewS(u)ck. Not that I'm calling it beer.