1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

boomguy said:

When I started in the 1 gallon arena I aquired a refractometer which is great for us since you only need a couple of drops to determine gravity. What I didn't know was you need to adjust your fg reading due to the alcohol in the wort. I thought I had a stuck stout at 1.026 for a couple of weeks, really it was at 1.012 or so. Lesson learned.

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Ah, no, I used a hydrometer. BUT it makes me think of something else: before bottling, I put the jug in the refrigerator to try and settle the trub some. I racked to the bucket and took the sample. So the temp was colder than it should be. I think my hydro is calculated for 70 degrees. That only accounts for a point or two difference though.

divrguy said:

That's a great place to look. If you were supposed to end up with say 1gallon of wort post boil and you ended up with about 1.35 gallons that could easily throw your numbers off because that's such a big difference in a small batch.

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I think next time I'll push the boil further and get my grains double crushed, or have them crush them then buy and take a rolling pin to them. I'm sure the beer will be good, just an APA instead of an IIPA

Also I was wondering about where you guys stop your boil just in case that's my biggest issue. You lose some to kettle cool down, so where about should I stop when I'm done the boil? Beersmith estimates that I should lose .22 gallons in cool down, so shoudl I push it well below 1.5 gallons remaining. Obviously I can only estimate how much that is but I'm pretty good at eyeballing distances.

I have a five gallon set up but I want to experiment so I saw this at TJ max. Thought why not. Looks like a great primary for one gallon hopefully I can find a bung for it. What do you guys use? This was 11$ is that a deal?

adamdillabo said:

I have a five gallon set up but I want to experiment so I saw this at TJ max. Thought why not. Looks like a great primary for one gallon hopefully I can find a bung for it. What do you guys use? This was 11$ is that a deal?

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I wouldnt say its a deal but looks like it would work. I got 2gal. ferm buckets frim my lhbs for $4

I was trying to avoid opaque buckets. LHBS had 3 gallon carboy or 1 gallon bottles but nothing in between. Where should I find 1 gallon recipes.

Looking at creating a recipe for a Bourbon County Brand Stout clone. Part of that is converting from a 5-gallon to a 1-gallon primarily for testing purposes.

Do I simply just divide the ingredient quantities by 5 and just use that for brewing an experimental 1-gallon brew?

Yep, recipes scale well so just divide by 5 and you should be good.

I use the spreadsheet below. Dividing by 5 is easy enough but a lot of the time I want to scale 5.25 gallons to .85 gallons.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AsJukKCXJXsEdFNpNC1Wc3hMYkVReUhVS0tCaVplenc&usp=sharing

bleme said:

I use the spreadsheet below. Dividing by 5 is easy enough but a lot of the time I want to scale 5.25 gallons to .85 gallons.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AsJukKCXJXsEdFNpNC1Wc3hMYkVReUhVS0tCaVplenc&usp=sharing

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You can also ratio the initial recipe volume to your desired recipe volume to get a factor by which you'd divide (which is what I'm sure the spreadsheet does, but I haven't looked at it).

For example: 5 gal batch/1gal batch = 5, so you divide the original 5 gal recipe by 5.

Therefore: 5.25gal batch/0.85 gal = 6.18, so you divide the 5.25 gal recipe by 6.18 to get the ingredient quantities for your 0.85gal batch.

Hope this helps!
Paul

This is my second brew day. Forgot to take an OG last time. Is it okay to take the OG reading straight from the wort in the boil pot once it has cooled? Should I boil with the lid on? It has a little hole in it so some steam can escape. Is it okay to stir my wort with a plastic spoon? Still considering to just pour directly into 1 gal fermenter jug from boil pot. Using sanitized funnel of course. Any and all advice is welcome!

muleskinner90 said:

This is my second brew day. Forgot to take an OG last time. Is it okay to take the OG reading straight from the wort in the boil pot once it has cooled? Should I boil with the lid on? It has a little hole in it so some steam can escape. Is it okay to stir my wort with a plastic spoon? Still considering to just pour directly into 1 gal fermenter jug from boil pot. Using sanitized funnel of course. Any and all advice is welcome!

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Take the og once its cool. Boil with the lid off, you need all of that stream to escape. Plastic spoon is ok as long as it isn't left in the boiling wort long enough to melt.

I always pour from the brewpot into my gallon jug through a funnel and haven't had any problems, make sure it's sanitized and pour slowly to avoid too much foaming. Good luck and have fun.

JollyIsTheRoger said:

Take the og once its cool. Boil with the lid off, you need all of that stream to escape. Plastic spoon is ok as long as it isn't left in the boiling wort long enough to melt.

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Thank you.

I found this deal on Ebay last night. $33 for two SS kettles shipped.

My LHBS just started carrying 2 gallon buckets so I'm probably gonna pick up a few even though I already have glass jars. They will likely make better for secondary fermenting anyway. What I think I'm gonna do when I get up to full operation is brew every weekend, if the beer a week in the bucket then rack to secondary for 3 weeks and for 2-3 more beers ferment on the trub. I would obviously be doing all the same basic style of beers with this method (don't want porter trub in a belgian, I tihnk) but I think it could be a fun experiment to see how it works out. For starters, no more blowoff tubes haha

Shake it or leave it? First time with dry yeast

Haha looks like a nipple

adamdillabo said:

Shake it or leave it? First time with dry yeast

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Leave that nipple alone..lol

Blow on it then softly pinch it

Darn it! I forgot to take an OG again! I'm a big dummy.

muleskinner90 said:

Darn it! I forgot to take an OG again! I'm a big dummy.

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Sometimes I go on a streak where I forget 2-3 batches in a row..... Lol

I'm a noob. I can honestly say I've never smelt anything like boiling wort. I like it. It does tend to stay in the nostrils for a while too.

muleskinner90 said:

I'm a noob. I can honestly say I've never smelt anything like boiling wort. I like it. It does tend to stay in the nostrils for a while too.

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Funny trick, put your head over the pot and take a huge breath after dropping in hops, then take a drink of your beer, tastes like total water lol

I have this after 8 hours from pitching the yeast! What should I do?

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

Also I was wondering about where you guys stop your boil just in case that's my biggest issue. You lose some to kettle cool down, so where about should I stop when I'm done the boil? Beersmith estimates that I should lose .22 gallons in cool down, so shoudl I push it well below 1.5 gallons remaining. Obviously I can only estimate how much that is but I'm pretty good at eyeballing distances.

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I stop with 1.15 gallons left in the boil...I use a 12 inch thermometer and have measured out different readings as they relate to the temp numbers...very accurate and since I late hop only, I take a reading at 30 minutes and determine where I need to go from there, I always hit the mark. I find that I literally pour everything in the carboy to get it just above the one gallon etching.

muleskinner90 said:

I have this after 8 hours from pitching the yeast! What should I do?

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Grab a new airlock, sanitize it and replace it. What temp is this at? In the future, use a blowoff tube. I always use a blowoff tube but since my basement is exactly 60 all winter, I hardly get anything into it. The summer or using Notty is another issue...

Calichusetts said:

Grab a new airlock, sanitize it and replace it. What temp is this at? In the future, use a blowoff tube. I always use a blowoff tube but since my basement is exactly 60 all winter, I hardly get anything into it. The summer or using Notty is another issue...

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I don't have another airlock. Can I take that one off, sanitize it and put it back on? The temperature is 67°. I can possibly get another airlock later today once my LHBS opens.

So here is what I did:

muleskinner90 said:

So here is what I did:

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That's perfect, exactly what you should have done

JollyIsTheRoger said:

That's perfect, exactly what you should have done

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Woo hoo! How will I know when to take the blow off tube off and replace with airlock? Will I need to pitch anymore yeast?

muleskinner90 said:

Woo hoo! How will I know when to take the blow off tube off and replace with airlock? Will I need to pitch anymore yeast?

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You can replace the airlock when the krausen starts to fall. You don't need any more yeast. There is plenty.

Also, you can add water to that tub it is setting in. It will help draw off the heat being produced by the yeast and give you more stable temps.

bleme said:

You can replace the airlock when the krausen starts to fall. You don't need any more yeast. There is plenty.

Also, you can add water to that tub it is setting in. It will help draw off the heat being produced by the yeast and give you more stable temps.

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Thank you so much! This hobby is crazy fun!

muleskinner90 said:

This hobby is crazy fun!

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Ain't it tho?

muleskinner90 said:

I have this after 8 hours from pitching the yeast! What should I do?

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Pull airlock, clean and put back on. No worries... Next time, use a blowoff tube lol cool huh!

divrguy said:

Pull airlock, clean and put back on. No worries... Next time, use a blowoff tube lol cool huh!

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Edit: should have read ahead! You already did.. And yes it is great fun this hobby!

Foam Control is your friend...aka Fermcap

dazed said:

Foam Control is your friend...aka Fermcap

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Wow! Didn't know that existed. Do you use it every time? When do you add it?

First one gallon batch is chugging along. Already a huge layer of yeast in about 18 hours.

Didn't take an OG. Think I was low. Maybe 1.035. Thinking of adding a high grav wort. Plenty if hops in it, 1 oz magnum 1 oz fuggle
Should I swirl

adamdillabo said:

First one gallon batch is chugging along. Already a huge layer of yeast in about 18 hours.

Didn't take an OG. Think I was low. Maybe 1.035. Thinking of adding a high grav wort. Plenty if hops in it, 1 oz magnum 1 oz fuggle
Should I swirl

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Am I reading this correctly, you are dry hopping two ounces of hops in a gallon batch?

If that's true, I'm not an expert, but that seems like a LOT

No not dry hopping.

.5 oz magnum 60
.5 oz magnum 45
.5 oz fuggle 20
.5 oz fuggle 5