Small batch question

Een seriously considering entering a couple competitions in 2012. Have messed with a few recipes, but never created my own. I've done a ton of recipe research, and have Beersmith2. Haven't played with it alot yet but will soon.
In fact, my first AG batch will be brewed as soon as I get the last few pieces of the puzzle, so I'll def be playing with it more.

My question is basically for a 1 gallon batch, is there anything special to take into consideration other than scaling down the recipe? I want to do 1 gallon batches so I don't waste a bunch of money on a crappy 5 gallon batch.

I would search, but thanks to my homebrew addiction, HBT is now blocked at work (time to start the job hunt) and when I search on my iPhone in the app it gets stuck on the search screen and I have to close, logout and a bunch of other BS

I've done a few small batches before and they are similar to a 5 gallon batch. I usually do BIAB method for small batches to keep it simple. Do you have a scale to weigh your grains and hops on? With a smaller batch you will be measuring smaller amounts of grains and hops. If you aren't too concerned with precision in your test batches and are just looking for a general idea of how the beer will taste you can guestimate your weights but you could have hop additions as small as .1oz.

yea i just bought a scale in anticipation for this little project. i'm sure beersmith will tell me this, but is there changes in fermentation on a smaller batch? i know i won't use the whole packet of yeast, but didn't know if the time frame was similar.

Don't waste time doing 1 gallon batches. Here's why:

1. You should spend time going over recipes about which people rave on sites like HBT. Go through the recipe database and see what those recipes have in common. EDIT: Noticed HBT is blocked. That sucks. Move to step 2.

2. You should spend time reading books like Daniels' Designing Great Beers and Palmer/JZ's book. Chock full of great information for formulating your own excellent recipes.

3. Scaling recipes is NOT LINEAR. Well, it is linear, except for hops. Because hops recipe scaling is NOT linear, you'll spend more money tweaking your 5-gallon scaled-up recipe to taste like the 1-gallon model than you've saved brewing 1 gallon for testing.

4. Brewing 1 gallon is as much a pain in the ass as brewing 5 gallons or 15 barrels.

So read a bunch of books that talk about award-winning, awesome recipes, read the websites where and when you can, and brew a full-sized batch already! Listen, beer is like pizza and sex: Even when it's not as good as it can be, it's still pretty damned good!

Please don't think I'm being a jerk. I'm trying to prevent you wasting a bunch of time trying to do something that ain't gonna work well anyhow. You dig?

Bob

I did one gallon batches for about six months to get better technique and to experiment. I would do around 3 or 4 brews a week and I'm a better brewer because of it. Hops are the main thing that will freak you out when you scale up, but honestly it's not that big of a difference.

And as far as yeast goes I used to use half a pack (unless I was using washed yeast of course).

yea Bob, thanks! I see what you're saying about the hops. Was thinking that small batches would be easier to mess with than 5g. But yea, now that its mentioned, I see how it is still a PITA. I'd just seen several of the "big guys" (Revvy, etc) talking about 1 gallon batches and thought it might not be a bad way to brew a bunch of different recipes and see what happens.

Monstar said:

I did one gallon batches for about six months to get better technique and to experiment. I would do around 3 or 4 brews a week and I'm a better brewer because of it. Hops are the main thing that will freak you out when you scale up, but honestly it's not that big of a difference.

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were you starting with a 5g recipe and scaling down, or did you start with a 1g and scale up? I see what Bob was saying above about the hops, but now that you mention this, it seems like if you could start with an established 5g recipe, and then scale it down for 1g, make changes, see how it is, and then revert back to the original recipe and add the additions, that doesn't seem as bad.

I was also thinking along the lines of getting better technique as well, hoping that 1g batches would help me become a better brewer as well as allow room for experimentation.

what is fermentation like? still 3 weeks? I'd guess so.

My internet is out at home (being fixed tomorrow am), and work blocked HBT, so all this is on my phone. will have better ability to search tomorrow night.

motleybrews said:

were you starting with a 5g recipe and scaling down, or did you start with a 1g and scale up?

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I was creating recipes, so I have since scaled them from 1g to 3-5g, depending on what fermenter I have avalable

motleybrews said:

I see what Bob was saying above about the hops, but now that you mention this, it seems like if you could start with an established 5g recipe, and then scale it down for 1g, make changes, see how it is, and then revert back to the original recipe and add the additions, that doesn't seem as bad.

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Well, if the recipe is already pretty well established, I don't see why you wouldn't do a 5g batch with your tweaks. As long as you don't go insane, I don't think you would mess it up much.

motleybrews said:

I was also thinking along the lines of getting better technique as well, hoping that 1g batches would help me become a better brewer as well as allow room for experimentation.

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Hands down the best reason to do it. Most people do what, 3-5 brews a month? I would bust out 15 easy in a month. Get home, heat strike water, brew, bed!

motleybrews said:

what is fermentation like? still 3 weeks? I'd guess so.

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Yea. You will find they end up going a lot longer sometimes though. Takes a lot of brewing to keep the fridge full.

Another thing thats cool is you can do crazy stuff like triple decoctions, etc. Stuff that is really a pain with 10 lb of grain becomes a cinch with 3-4!

I agree and disagree with what you fellows are establishing.

First:

Well, if the recipe is already pretty well established, I don't see why you wouldn't do a 5g batch with your tweaks. As long as you don't go insane, I don't think you would mess it up much.

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Truth. Adding a smidge of this and a tetch of that ain't gonna mess it up TOO badly. See my above comment about beer and pizza.

This, however:

I was also thinking along the lines of getting better technique as well, hoping that 1g batches would help me become a better brewer as well as allow room for experimentation.

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...I cannot condone. Brewing a skintillion different recipes or merely brewing more often will not, I say again NOT, make you a better brewer; it'll make you a brewer who's brewed a lot, which is by no means the same thing. I know brewers who brew twice a week who can't brew their way out of a paper bag. At the same time, I know brewers who brew once a month who are awe-inspiring masters of their craft.

Brewing the same recipe (or small stable of recipes) over and over, until you get the technique and skills of brewing 100% down pat, until you can get consistent results over and over again, now that will make you a better brewer. In order to properly learn something, remove variables. Then put variables back in.

Like this: Pick a simple recipe you like. Single-infusion, let's say SMaSH ale. Brew that until you think you've got it consistent, until you're getting blind-taste results from other people (NOT YOU) who think you keep giving them bottles from the same batch. Cool. You've learned how to brew that recipe well. Now say you want to learn about how Munich malt impacts a recipe. Brew the SMaSH, but sub in Munich for 20% of the grist.

See what I mean?

Moreover, there are dynamics and issues with batch size that impact equipment, which impacts technique. A 1 gallon grist in the same mash tun in which you brew 5 gallon batches will have totally different dynamics than a 5-gallon mash. If you're using different equipment, you're deliberately placing an obstacle in learning your craft. Neither situation is helpful in improving your skills: in the former, you're using a screwdriver as a chisel, and in the latter you're learning nothing about how to use the screwdriver because you're using the chisel.

Doing something different each time you brew isn't mastering your craft. It's playing around. Let me be abundantly clear: If that's what you want, THAT'S PERFECTLY OKAY. However, you appear to have an ambition of becoming a better brewer. Playing around isn't going to accomplish that.

Totally forgot about yeast, too. Properly pitching a 1 gallon brew length using readily-available commercial packaging is damn near impossible. You're almost always going to be overpitching, which is not the "Ahhh, forget about it" thing most people seem to have in their heads. Pitching the right amount of yeast is as important as any other ingredient.* For good pitching on the 1-gallon scale, you're going to be forced to pitch slurry.

Cheers,

Bob

* It will never cease to amaze me that some of the same people who will obsess over malt analyses and how many grams of hops to add at what time during the boil will just dump in any old amount of yeast and call it a day.

Bob said:

Doing something different each time you brew isn't mastering your craft. It's playing around. Let me be abundantly clear: If that's what you want, THAT'S PERFECTLY OKAY. However, you appear to have an ambition of becoming a better brewer. Playing around isn't going to accomplish that.

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I'm a musician and an audio engineer. Do you know how I got good enough to be able to pay my bills from these two disciplines? By doing what you would call "playing around." It might not work for some people, but its really a little unfair and misleading to say it won't work for anybody.

My method was actually a lot like what you described above. Brew the same thing 3 times in a week, and see how they compare. Then, add munich, or Carafa, or some wheat, etc. The knowledge of the effect that many different grains have on a batch is something I find invaluable.

And being someone that has brewed everything from 1 to 15 gallons, its all the same process. I don't forget anything on a brew day, and that's because of the crazy amount of brewing I did for 6 months. I also learned to have patience, and to RDWHAHB!

Everyone does everything differently!

All good points. Thanks to you guys I have a lot to consider.

My #1 goal in brewing is to become the best brewer I can. My entire reasoning behind entering competitions next year is not to win. Sure, winning would be great and all that, but I'm interested in the scorecards. I want to take the critiques, and work on them. By the time the first competition I plan on entering rolls around, I will have been brewing for almost a year, and will be very confident in my processes. I'm very comfortable with extract and extract w specialty grains. I purposely brewed and brewed and brewed a total of 8 batches (plus apfelwine) within the first 2 months. So I could get the hang of it.

In the next few weeks I'll have more open pails, and I will have gotten all my equipment together for AG. And I'll probably do the same thing...brew a lot.

But yea, once I get the scorecards in my hand, I'll take that beer, and focus on improving what the judges say, then enter it again. And repeat. I don't think that's terribly flawed logic. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to win, but really it's just a way for me to become better.

People like my beer, and I like my beer, and that's what's important to me. I could win every homebrew competition I enter, but if my beers aren't making me or the people that I share with happy, then those wins will be all for nought

motleybrews said:

People like my beer, and I like my beer, and that's what's important to me. I could win every homebrew competition I enter, but if my beers aren't making me or the people that I share with happy, then those wins will be all for nought

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Love that. Brewing beer for the love, baby!

Monstar, you have a point. However, I suspect that, unless you have an incredible amount of innate talent, you spent (and continue to spend) a LOT of time practicing your instrument.

I know when I studied music in college, I spent HOURS and HOURS every day in a practice room, playing scales, chords, etudes, preparing for recitals, etc. That's not playing around; that's WORK. Yeah, I played in ensembles and spent a lot of time just jamming and gigging. But what made me a competent musician was all that time practicing boring, repetitive stuff.

It's WORK that makes you better at what you pursue, not flailing about without structure. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

That said, I admit it's possible to become good at something by just playing around. But you need a lot more time and a good supply of innate talent to make that happen.

Motley, brew on, my friend! I hope you turn into the brewer you want to be, and it doesn't matter a bit how you get there.

Bob