1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

Sharkbrewingco said:

I am thinking about getting a mill (Cereal Killer) also. Some recipes require grain that I can't get from my LHBS. Problem is that I need to buy at least a pound while my recipe requires ounces. I know I can substitute grains, but will the beer be the same. Also with the mill, I can buy the grain now. Then mill and brew at a later date if need be.

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Yeah... I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on a Barley Crusher (BeerSmith.com has a pretty good deal on them!)

Small quantities of grains will keep much longer un-crushed. I'm also considering buying a 55 lb. sack of base grain for a long SMaSH series (thinking maybe Vienna!)

jimdkc said:

Yeah... I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on a Barley Crusher (BeerSmith.com has a pretty good deal on them!)

Small quantities of grains will keep much longer un-crushed. I'm also considering buying a 55 lb. sack of base grain for a long SMaSH series (thinking maybe Vienna!)

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My LHBS has the mill I'm considering for about $100. I'm going to look at it before purchasing it. I am also thinking about adapting it to a smaller 2 gallon bucket since I will only milling a small amount. I currently buy grain for 3 batches of beer. Sometimes I don't get to that 3rd one for some time. Like you said maybe by milling my own, the grain will stay fresher. I can't recall at the moment, but I seen where you can buy in 10 lb. increments.

I am curious to know if any one who brews 1-2.5 gallon batches uses a burner or stove top?

I was at Costco the other day and the bakery there gave me a couple of buckets: a 2-gallon bucket that will probably become a fermenter or a bottling bucket, and a 4-1/4-gallon bucket which I think will become my grain milling bucket. It's the same diameter as a 5- or 6.5- gallon bucket, but considerably shorter.

Sharkbrewingco said:

I am curious to know if any one who brews 1-2.5 gallon batches uses a burner or stove top?

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I've done a one 1-gallon stove top brew, but it was about 5 years ago! It was my Avenue Irish Ale (recipe a few pages back!) It came out great!

I'm planning on another 1-gallon stove top brew soon... I have the ingredients, but I want to build a temperature controller for a mini-fridge for fermenting first!

@sharkbrewingco
I will use my cooker(stove top) for anything under 3 gallons if 1) I am not in a hurry,or 2) the weather is not too cool.
We do not have gas lines in the houses here in Thailand, so when I do chooses to use the big burner,I just disconnect the cooker from the gas bottle and hook the burner up.

Sharkbrewingco said:

I am curious to know if any one who brews 1-2.5 gallon batches uses a burner or stove top?

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I use all three of my wife's stock pots, her good stainless strainer (the medium-sized one, which nests perfectly in the mouth of the tallest stock pot) and our gas stove in the kitchen.

banks741938 said:

I've been doing a lot of research to find the best priced kits including shipping online and think I may have found one. Just want to know if anybody else has used them before. They are perrys brewer. Here is the link https://perrysbrewer.com . I like northern Brewers kits and brooklyns kits just really hate buying a kit for $14ish. And turning around and paying $7.99 for shipping. Perrys has free shipping and kits have grain bag and caps. There also on eBay to. Thanks guys!!!

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Guess no one has used these guys before.... Seems like a great deal. I'm gonna try them out

I recently bought a couple of 5L carboys, and have brewed with BIAB to fill them. It's all been going great, and I love the 2½-3h brew days, but there's one thing that bugs me, and that's all the sediment I end up with in the bottom of the carboy.

I mill pretty fine since doing BIAB, and on bigger batches I don't really care. When I do 10L batches, I use a 15L bucket. For 20L batches, I use a 30L bucket. Grain flour can tag along all it wants, plenty of space! But I want to maximize what I get out of those 5L carboys.

Any techniques to counter this?

I've been considering letting the already chilled kettle sit for an hour or two, sealed up as well as I can do it, to let everything settle out. It'd push the limits on brewing on a weekday after work thou, I'd probably end up pitching around midnight, and then have some cleaning up to do. Could it sit in the kettle over night maybe? Or is that pushing it in terms of possible infections?

Sharkbrewingco said:

I am curious to know if any one who brews 1-2.5 gallon batches uses a burner or stove top?

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I have no issues doing my 3.5 gallon batches on my stove top. I actually have to turn down the heat once it starts to boil as its a little too vigorous. I use a megapot so that almost all the pot is on the element.

Sharkbrewingco said:

I am curious to know if any one who brews 1-2.5 gallon batches uses a burner or stove top?

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My stove top has a power burner that I have brewed 5 gallon batches on. One of the reasons I like these smaller batches is the fact that I can easily do them on the stove in bad weather.

Gonna take a stab at brewin this weekend, got two one gallon kits for Christmas.

banks741938 said:

I've been doing a lot of research to find the best priced kits including shipping online and think I may have found one. Just want to know if anybody else has used them before. They are perrys brewer. Here is the link https://perrysbrewer.com . I like northern Brewers kits and brooklyns kits just really hate buying a kit for $14ish. And turning around and paying $7.99 for shipping. Perrys has free shipping and kits have grain bag and caps. There also on eBay to. Thanks guys!!!

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If you're in canada, noblehop.com does one gallon recipe kits for 10.99 including caps. Bags too I think

phug said:

If you're in canada, noblehop.com does one gallon recipe kits for 10.99 including caps. Bags too I think

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These kits are very similar. They have grains bag caps and priming sugar.

Oberon67 said:

So since I added the amylase week before last, this batch has been steadily churning away with obvious yeast action. It's been about six weeks on the primary now, and I'm wondering how long it's going to take to settle down.

I understand the rules are different for big beers, and patience is called for. I believe it.

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IF you have enough volume to fill a secondary i would do it IMO. Just wait for a stable FG so most of the yeast and trub has dropped out.

banks741938 said:

Guess no one has used these guys before.... Seems like a great deal. I'm gonna try them out

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If you order 3 kits from Brooklyn, I believe shipping is free.

Sharkbrewingco said:

If you order 3 kits from Brooklyn, I believe shipping is free.

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Didn't know that I'll have to check it out

Sharkbrewingco said:

I am curious to know if any one who brews 1-2.5 gallon batches uses a burner or stove top?

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3 gallons is the most I do on the stove top. Even then I don't get a decent boil going with 18,000 BTU's. However I am using a cheap stock pot from the commercial kitchen store. I'll have to check its size compared to a mega pot.

fuzzy2133 said:

IF you have enough volume to fill a secondary i would do it IMO. Just wait for a stable FG so most of the yeast and trub has dropped out.

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It's still visibly fermenting... I'm watching the bubbles... but I can cold-crash it if need be in order to rack to secondary.

This looks like a nice add-on for small batch brewing. I'm not too fond of the 2 gallon buckets (air leaks), and the 1 gallon jars (no head-space), so these would probably solve both issues. Negative being more pricey than both: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/small-batch-big-beers-booster-pack.html

Just received the ingredients for my first 1 gallon batch - a scaled down version of a stout I came up with and brewed as a 5 gallon batch last brew day

I have the Irish moss tablets rather than the loose powder that you have to measure out. I know that I use a full tablet for a 5 gallon batch, but what should I do for a 1 gallon batch?

1/5th of a tablet or just throw the whole thing. It's up to you.

That's what I thought but wanted to make sure there wasn't a concern about using too much.

So I brewed my first batch today it is a one gallon kit from Brooklyn brew shop (Everyday IPA) it went pretty smooth I used an electric cooktop. Couple of observations, when sparging the grains at some point it almost seemed like the water stopped or slowed down significantly flowing through the grains, also when transferring the wort from pot to fermentor the screen in the funnel kept getting clogged with debris to the point the flow stopped, the only thing I could think to do was pull out the screen rinse then dunk in sanitizer then start again. I may try a grain bag and do BIAB next time.

imp81318 said:

That's what I thought but wanted to make sure there wasn't a concern about using too much.

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It looks pretty cool sometimes if you use the whole tablet in a gallon.

BarkingSpider said:

This looks like a nice add-on for small batch brewing. I'm not too fond of the 2 gallon buckets (air leaks), and the 1 gallon jars (no head-space), so these would probably solve both issues. Negative being more pricey than both: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/small-batch-big-beers-booster-pack.html

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NB is great picked up a ton of great stuff at NB

I almost exclusively buy from northern brewer. I always seem to get better deals there... On 5 gallon extract batches at least.

Brewing up a hopslam like clone I think I have caught the brewing bug

imp81318 said:

I have the Irish moss tablets rather than the loose powder that you have to measure out. I know that I use a full tablet for a 5 gallon batch, but what should I do for a 1 gallon batch?

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I use a whirlfloc tablet. I would use 1/5 of the tablet, yet I just cut the tablet roughly in half to keep it simple. To get 1/5 you would have to crush the whole tablet which to me is defeating the purpose of the tablet.

Daveyg said:

So I brewed my first batch today it is a one gallon kit from Brooklyn brew shop (Everyday IPA) it went pretty smooth I used an electric cooktop. Couple of observations, when sparging the grains at some point it almost seemed like the water stopped or slowed down significantly flowing through the grains, also when transferring the wort from pot to fermentor the screen in the funnel kept getting clogged with debris to the point the flow stopped, the only thing I could think to do was pull out the screen rinse then dunk in sanitizer then start again. I may try a grain bag and do BIAB next time.

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I have experienced the same thing when it comes to transferring through the funnel into the fermenter. I would get another person to hold the funnel, pour in the wort and stir like crazy when it starts to drain slowly. A good way to aerate your wort. How big is your funnel? I have a 9 inch funnel, so it can hold a large volume.

Sharkbrewingco said:

I have experienced the same thing when it comes to transferring through the funnel into the fermenter. I would get another person to hold the funnel, pour in the wort and stir like crazy when it starts to drain slowly. A good way to aerate your wort. How big is your funnel? I have a 9 inch funnel, so it can hold a large volume.

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It's a pretty large funnel maybe too large.

I finally cold-crashed and racked my Hop Gravy barlewine to secondary today, to get it off the HALF-GALLON of trub in the primary fermenter. It was overdue, because I had originally pitched this batch on 1/31/15. Two and a half months later it was still showing slow but steady yeast activity.

Upon sampling, I found that the wort tasted like hops. Not great hops, but hops, mainly bitter. Also there was a bit of roasty character from the caramel malt I'd put in. Other than that, nothing. I blame this on the pinch of alpha amylase I was obliged to use to restart the fermentation about a month in.

Hoppy roasty water... no alcohol to speak of, either. I got it into a half-gallon growler for use as a secondary, and added a couple tablespoons of brown sugar to help it out a bit. We'll see.

I'm just glad to get my gallon jug back.

Daveyg said:

So I brewed my first batch today it is a one gallon kit from Brooklyn brew shop (Everyday IPA) it went pretty smooth I used an electric cooktop. Couple of observations, when sparging the grains at some point it almost seemed like the water stopped or slowed down significantly flowing through the grains, also when transferring the wort from pot to fermentor the screen in the funnel kept getting clogged with debris to the point the flow stopped, the only thing I could think to do was pull out the screen rinse then dunk in sanitizer then start again. I may try a grain bag and do BIAB next time.

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all normal things that happen during your first time sounds like it went pretty well overall

So here is a pic of my first batch, removed the blow off tube today and put on the airlock.

Daveyg said:

It's a pretty large funnel maybe too large.

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Yeah, the funnel I have looks too big, but it does the job. Just have to keep stirring. It aerates and cools (a little bit) the wort. It all depends upon how much hops were used in the batch. The lid for my bucket fermenter has a big enough hole in it to hold the funnel. Makes it easier for the second person to hold it fill pouring and stirring.

Here's my Hop Gravy barleywine in primary, cold-crashed and ready to rack.

Can anybody shed light for me? How much corn sugar to prime a gallon at racking time? Thanks!

mohawk said:

Can anybody shed light for me? How much corn sugar to prime a gallon at racking time? Thanks!

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Dunno from corn sugar, but I find that two tablespoons of honey does quite nicely for a one-gallon batch. I warm it in the microwave so I can measure out the right amount.

1/5 of 3/4 cup. That's 3/20th of a cup. We funneled 1/2 cup into hydrometer tube, measured how high in cm that was, and did the math to figure how many cm to get 3/20th of a cup.

Or if you have a scale, use an online calculator and do it more accurately.