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eadavis80 said:
Today I did my 2nd all-grain 1 gallon batch. Both of them were Brooklyn Brewing batches. I did their IPA a few weeks ago (bottled this weekend) and today did their oatmeal stout. The stout was on clearance at Meijer for $7.50, so I figured that's a fair price. No way I'd spend $15 on a 1-gallon kit given you only get about 10 beers out of them. While I really love home brewing, I just don't see myself doing any more 1-gallon batches. You go through all the work as a 5-gallon batch and yield 1/5th of the beer. I could see myself making 5 gallons of wheat and then splitting that into a couple of different styles - say raspberry and cherry wheats in different 1-gallon jugs, but I just don't think it's worth it. Plus, with the Brooklyn Brewing kits, they're all-grain so they take even longer than extract and you get way less. Have any of you had the two kids I made and if so, what were the results?
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The Everyday IPA was my first ever batch. It was good, not stellar but good. The kits from BBS or other shops (The Brewers Market out of Grimsby ON has some really nice kits) are great for getting your feet wet on the whole process, I did a lot of kits before diving into my own recipes. Was a good learning experience to narrow down my methods before moving on to worrying about the ingredients themselves.

I never minded the cost on the kits as bottle for bottle it works out the same-ish for a nice craft beer from the LCBO here in Ontario.

There's a shop in Toronto called Noble Hops (noblehop.com) and they sell 1 gallon kits for about ~$10, whereas most places sell for $12-$15 and up from what I've seen. Hell, the BBS kits at a shop up here run for over $20. I like their stuff but not when I can make it up myself for half the price.

The 1 gallon vs larger batch thing really comes down to space, time, cost, and choice.

I love the 1 gallon size as it's easy to do in our tiny apartment on a crappy electric stove, fit into our small closets for fermenting (and protection from curious feline overlords) and don't have to find much space for only 8-9 bottles or massive brew kettles or anything. Plus if I screw up an experiment (which happened my first time with extract) I'm only pouring a gallon down the drain not more. So not much to cry over :)

The larger batches are definitely a better value in $/time so if you have the space for the work and gear then go for it!! :rockin:

Another thing on the cost end: if you ever move from kits to making your own recipes, it's way cheaper to just buy the grains then ordering premade 1 gal kits. Not so sure on larger batches as kits for those are pretty cheap all things considered, but definitely worth it on the 1 gallon.

2 Row for example normally only runs for about $1.30-$1.50/lbs at many HBS. So depending on how complicated you want it to be you can do simple batches for under $10. A 1 gallon SMaSH batch especially can be super cheap depending on how much hops you add.

Calichusetts said:
BBS tells you to use way to much honey/sugar to carb with. No idea why they still haven't addressed it. They usually recommend (depending on the kit) 3 tablespoons of honey when 2 is far more fitting for most styles.
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Definitely, 2 tbsp is my default now for most batches after having so many fountains.
 
Do I have to buy a new 1 gallon kit every time? Can I use the same kit but different ingredients? Also, what do I do with the trub at the bottom? And, can I still carbonate after bottling? Sorry, very first time.
 
seancie1970 said:
Do I have to buy a new 1 gallon kit every time? Can I use the same kit but different ingredients? Also, what do I do with the trub at the bottom? And, can I still carbonate after bottling? Sorry, very first time.
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Once you have the equipment, all you need to do is buy an ingredient kit from somewhere like Brooklyn Brewers, or put together your own ingredients at your LHBS.

I dump the trub, unless I'm bottling and brewing on the same day, in which case I either pitch my new batch right on top of the yeast cake, or I use some distilled water to collect a jar full of yeast for pitching.
 
Wonderful thread that really got me started with small batch beer brewing.

In case someone is interested, I created a website with all my hints based on experience.

http://www.gallonbrewing.com

It's cool, because I was an absolute beginner when I started, so it contains answers to many things that may sound obvious to experienced brewers, but were really unclear when I started.

Enjoy!
 
dude1 said:
Wonderful thread that really got me started with small batches beer brewing.



In case someone is interested, I created a website with all my hints based on experience.



http://www.gallonbrewing.com



It's cool, because I was an absolute beginner when I started, so it contains answers to many things that may sound obvious to experienced brewers, but were really unclear when I started.



Enjoy!
Click to expand...


View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1422347981.706217.jpg

Where or how did you make the cap for the jug? Thanks!
 
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So I brewed last night and everything went pretty well. It was so nice to be inside instead of my freezing garage. It went faster than I thought (~3.5 hours). My boil off rate was less than I thought (0.4-0.45 gal/hour), but my efficiency was better than I thought (82%) so I ended up with slightly less starting gravity, but almost 3 extra beers (0.25 gal)! It's my first ever Belgian beer (out of almost 50 batches) and I added clarity ferm to reduce the gluten to give most to a gluten sensitive friend and the rest to my gf, so if I have a few sips of the whole batch, that will be a lot (not a fan of Belgian yeast).
 
seancie1970 said:
Do I have to buy a new 1 gallon kit every time? Can I use the same kit but different ingredients? Also, what do I do with the trub at the bottom? And, can I still carbonate after bottling? Sorry, very first time.
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Not unless you want multiple carboys :) but then again you can pickup extra from a hbs for about $8ish. As someone wise also mentioned, you can get just the ingredient kits since you have the hardware already.

Once you get the hang of cooking the kits, moving on to recipes and picking your own grains is fun as hell. :D

I still dump trub, have yet to try harvesting/salvaging yeast from a previous batch. That's on my to-do list for this year.
 
Opiate42 said:
I still dump trub, have yet to try harvesting/salvaging yeast from a previous batch. That's on my to-do list for this year.
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Do it. It's the ultimate cheapskate move. Plus you'll just *have* to brew at least every two weeks. :-D
 
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Update on my dogfish head world wide stout clone test bottle #2 came out great super strong!!!
 
Calichusetts said:
Well, belgians and big beers don't often go with "not too complicated" but here is a tasty Rye barleywine...consider adding bourbon soaked oak chips after a month. Trying to simplify it as much as possible:

3 lbs pale ale or Marris Otter (depends on if you want an american or english barleywine)
.5 lbs Rye
.25 lbs flaked barley
2 oz EACH: Caramel 20. 60. 120

Should come in over 10% depending on your system...good luck
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Well, my box-o-goodies from Midwest Brewing Supplies arrived yesterday... I got all the stuff I need to make this. I now know how I'll be spending a couple hours on Saturday. :D
 
I just through this together this morning while the kids had a two hour delay...haha

1 gallon carboy

1# dark dme
1 oz Simpsons crystal extra dark
1 oz Bairds Carastan
6g Fuggles for 30 min
Jolly pumpkin madrugada obscura dregs

It'll sit on a shelf for 3-4 months.
 
If you give time, yes...the yeast will stress while the Brett and bacteria start in the background. Over time the Brett will cleanup the garbage that the sacc kicked out from the stress.
 
Oberon67 said:
Well, my box-o-goodies from Midwest Brewing Supplies arrived yesterday... I got all the stuff I need to make this. I now know how I'll be spending a couple hours on Saturday. :D
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I'm boiling this now. I had to be generous with the sparge water... it took about twice as much as I thought it would. MAN this was a lot of grain for a gallon of beer... and the wort is already almost like syrup. As soon as I get this cooled down I'll take a hydrometer reading, but I'm sure it's heavy.

EDIT: the OG is 1.090.
 
Turns out the "syrupy" consistency of the wort was really just a lot of solids from the grain... I am concerned that I am fermenting a jug full of trub. Hmm.

At least the primary fermentation has kicked off enthusiastically. That's always encouraging.
 
Oberon67 said:
Seriously, I'm anticipating running this through cheesecloth before it goes into the bottling bucket.
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I would not do that. That's a good way to introduce a lot of oxygen. I would leave it in the primary jug an extra week and then cold crash the day leading up to bottling. Most of the solid stuff will settle out, and if it's reasonably dark you won't notice a little haze in the finished beer.
 
eadavis80 said:
No way I'd spend $15 on a 1-gallon kit given you only get about 10 beers out of them. While I really love home brewing, I just don't see myself doing any more 1-gallon batches. You go through all the work as a 5-gallon batch and yield 1/5th of the beer.
Click to expand...

From the perspective of the folks who sell 1 gallon kits, I think one of the major selling points is that it is possible for their customer to do their very first AG brew with the most minimal amount of equipment. Something like under $50 worth of equipment, plus you can use certain other things like stockpots and a strainer that you already have in your kitchen. For someone with zero experience brewing, and who doesn't yet have any of the 5 gallon brewing equipment, it is probably worth the extra cost for the kits in order to try this out and see if they like it, and to learn about the process.

You can manage to do a 1 gallon batch without any of the following:

-Hot liquor tank
-Mash tun
-hydrometer (if following basic kit recipe)
-dedicated brew kettle (just need 2 gallon stock pot on stove top)
-wort chiller

And I'm sure I'm forgetting some other tools that you use with larger batches. Although I think that it is worthwhile using a wort chiller on 1 gallon batches, versus the ice bath. I found that the fermentation goes smoother after I started using the wort chiller. After a little more time brewing, the 1 gallon beginners gradually picks up enough tools to enable them to make larger batches if they wish.
 
My first one-gallon batch was a rousing success. It was a Brooklyn Brew Shop "Everyday IPA," and it hit all the right notes. Good malt, good hops, good rocky head... yes, it was a little over-primed, per the kit specifications. I'll know better next time. The beer was all-around delicious.
 
Oberon67 said:
Seriously, I'm anticipating running this through cheesecloth before it goes into the bottling bucket.
Click to expand...

Worry about it after fermentation finishes, most of the time when the yeast drop out they take the trub with them.

Cold crashing will definitely help too.
 
One of my friends was making his first All Grain and the recipe called or graham crackers. He put them in the boil instead of the mash. Three years later, he still has about a dozen bottles, each with about an inch of graham crackers sitting on the bottom!
 
bleme said:
One of my friends was making his first All Grain and the recipe called or graham crackers. He put them in the boil instead of the mash. Three years later, he still has about a dozen bottles, each with about an inch of graham crackers sitting on the bottom!
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Easily fixed. He should mash another batch, and pour these dozen bottles into it, crumbs and all, at the mashing stage. It'll come out beer on the other side.
 
What BrooklynBrewing kits would you suggest the most? I've already done the Everyday IPA and Oatmeal Stout kits and want a new one.
 
Is a 3 gallon kettle to big for reg 1 gallon kits and other kits such as Brooklyn and mr beer 2 gallon refill kits
 
I certainly don't think so. I do my 1-gallon kits in my 5-gallon kettle. HOwever, I do my BrooklynBrewing kits as a BIAB technique, so I"m starting with 2.25 gallons of water.People use 10 gallon pots for 5 gallon batches, so I don't see any issue here.
 
banks741938 said:
Is a 3 gallon kettle to big for reg 1 gallon kits and other kits such as Brooklyn and mr beer 2 gallon refill kits
Click to expand...

Its actually perfect. When I started exploring big beers (12% and up) and longer boils I found it to be amazing. Still works well for smaller sizes and boils as well.
 
I found some great small-batch fermenters recently. I found these at Old Time Pottery in Independence, MO:

2.6-3.2%2BGallon%2BFermenters.jpg


The smaller one is 2.6 Gallons (10L) and was $12.99

The larger one is 3.2 Gallons (12L) and was $14.99

I bought a couple of each.

I did a Google search on "Alpine Cuisine" and it took me to a website for Aramco Imports. Aramco Imports is also on a label the bottom of these. No mention of these jars on that website. I think Old Time Pottery gets a lot of their products from inventory buy-outs and such, so availability of these might be limited. Worth a look if you have an Old Time Pottery nearby.

These look quite a bit like these larger fermenters sold by Beverage Factory. Same red plastic screw lid and bail handle, same plastic pour-spout insert under the lid.

Jim
 
About to try my first 1 gallon SMESH(kind of... I wanted the little abv boost/ dryer finish from the cane sugar)

1lb light pilsner
4oz cane sugar
1oz cascade
S-05

Hop schedule
60 min- 7g
10 min- 7g
Flameout-14g
 

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