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Hydraman

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I would like to start brewing some "experimental" small 1 gallon, all grain, batches but seem to be having a little difficulty. What calculations do I use to scale down my grain bill? How much water should I use? Should I pitch the same amount of yeast as a 5 gallon batch? If not, how much? :drunk:

I've been searching the web for answers but seem to be coming up short. What I have found has been for extract batches, which unfortunately doesn't tell me anything about figuring out my grain bill.

Has any one else had this problem? Will someone please point me in the right direction? :D

Thanks for all the help!
 
Depending upon what you are looking to experament with, you might consider making a 5 gallon batch and splitting it into 5 different 1G fermenters. This would allow you to play with different yeasts, oaking, dry hopping, fermentation temperatures...the list is endless. I've tried doing the 1G batch on the stove all grain, and it wasn't good...
 
I've done quite a few 1 gallon AG batches and haven't had any trouble. One of the most important things is to be very accurate with your measurements, especially if you are using high alpha acid hops for bittering.
Stovetop All Grain Small Batch Brewing - Lustreking Brewing

I just use promash to scale my big recipe down to a 1 gallon sized batch, and you could use Jamil's pitching rate calculator to figure out how much yeast you need.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Steve
 
Thanks for the link. That has some great information in it. You said that you are using Promash to scale your recipe back, do you know if Beer Smith will do the same thing?
 
Perhaps I should expand on "it wasn't good" The beer itself was fine, but I missed my target gravity, target volume, target bittering....pretty much everything that I was going for. Although I guess if you had a mini-mash setup already you could probably do this with no problem, I prefer to just experament with 5G batches. It's never hard to get rid of one that you don't like...except that Vanilla Caramel Cream Ale.
 
I would go with he brewing a full batch and then experimenting from there. Then you can play with yeast and the such. Smaller batches are about as much work as a full batch and take as much time. I brewed a smaller batch once...once.
 
where does one find inexpensive fermenters for this?

I looked at northernbrewer and they wanted like $23 of a 3g carboy...too much if I want to get maybe 3 of these to do some test batches.
 
jezter6 said:
where does one find inexpensive fermenters for this?

I looked at northernbrewer and they wanted like $23 of a 3g carboy...too much if I want to get maybe 3 of these to do some test batches.
Click to expand...

Nowadays you can find 3 gallon water jugs that are <1> or <2> in most grocery stores for far less... I have 3 of them...I like the small squat ones myself....also that old mr beer fermenter gathering dust in yours or someone else's basement or for 50 cents at a garage sale works quite well also...after all, that's what it is, a mini fermenter(I did a section on the mr beer thread about doing small batch AG in them. You can also get small foodgrade buckets in the bakery section of most grocery stores...they have some in the 3 gallon range, just make sure you have a tight fitting lid.

All of these are reasonable options for 2.5 gallon batches...

For "six pacK" batches glass 1 gallon wine jugs work as well (that's what the basic brewing guys use.)
 
BuffaloSabresBrewer said:
I would go with he brewing a full batch and then experimenting from there. Then you can play with yeast and the such. Smaller batches are about as much work as a full batch and take as much time. I brewed a smaller batch once...once.
Click to expand...

lustreking said:
I don't find that to be true at all using my method.
Click to expand...


I agree with Lustreking..I do a lot of small batch brewing, it's about the same amount of work as doing a 5 gallon extract with grain.

There's lots of benefits to doing small batches, which I have posted on various threads.

Besides I get pleasure from the act of brewing, no matter what size batch I'm doing. I don't see any aspect of the process as "work" anyway. So if I'm spending a few hours making 5 gallons of something I know I'll want 5 gallons of, or 2.5 gallons of something a case of beer would be enough of, or testing/tweaking a recipe, it's all the same to me...fun

:mug:
 
Revvy said:
Besides I get pleasure from the act of brewing, no matter what size batch I'm doing. I don't see any aspect of the process as "work" anyway. So if I'm spending a few hours making 5 gallons of something I know I'll want 5 gallons of, or 2.5 gallons of something a case of beer would be enough of, or testing/tweaking a recipe, it's all the same to me...fun

:mug:
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. The only part of the brewing process that I view as "work" is the cleanup (and to a lesser extent, setup). The BiaB method greatly reduces the time and effort it takes to do these tasks.
 
Revvy said:
Nowadays you can find 3 gallon water jugs that are <1> or <2> in most grocery stores for far less... I have 3 of them...I like the small squat ones myself....also that old mr beer fermenter gathering dust in yours or someone else's basement or for 50 cents at a garage sale works quite well also...after all, that's what it is, a mini fermenter(I did a section on the mr beer thread about doing small batch AG in them. You can also get small foodgrade buckets in the bakery section of most grocery stores...they have some in the 3 gallon range, just make sure you have a tight fitting lid.

All of these are reasonable options for 2.5 gallon batches...

For "six pacK" batches glass 1 gallon wine jugs work as well (that's what the basic brewing guys use.)
Click to expand...

So all I need to look for is the 1 or the 2 for recycling code??
Sweet.
 
jezter6 said:
I have manboobs - so what's the deal with <7>
Click to expand...

Some people are worried about bisophenol A being present in it...I tend not to worry and use them for small batch brewing...I mean if I'm drinking the water it's just as dangerous...who wants to live forever anyway :D


It's being banned in several countries and a few states. Which means that water bottle manufacturers are turning to companies like the Better Bottle Compnay to produce their water bottles for them, which means more and more betterbottles are showing up as for deposite water spring bottles...which means that all the arguments against using water bottles are becoming moot and we have more fermenters for us to fill with our precious fluids!!!
 
One thing to think about...you can Lager with a mr beer fermenter in your own refrigerator....You don't need to have a dedicated on, and there's still room on the top shelf for milk and beer :D
 
Also...get the Designing Great Beers book. It has great chapters on calculating your grain bill. With the calculation methods used in the book, you can easily learn to calculate your grains and all hop additions (even lots of multiple additions) for ANY size batch.

I read this post with much interest because I have recently decided to start doing 1 or 2 gallon batches. I have used the above book to re-calculate several recipes to 1 and 2 gallon batch sizes and will be doing some 1 gallon batches soon. Good luck to you (and me!!)
 
i have a 2 and a 3g carboy for doing experimentals, if it's a 3g batch i just use the 5g bucket for primary then secondary in the glass.you can also find 2 and 3g buckets in the paint dept of most lowes/HD etc....
 
I was just going to say...I got stuck wandering around Sears for about two hours yesterday while SWMBO was with her sister getting senior pictures done, and I found both 5 and 2 G #1 plastic buckets in the paint/drywall section. They had lids for the fives, but not the twos...also if you have a restaurant supply shop near your house, check out the square plastic food storage containers they have, with airtight lid. We call them Cambros, but I don't know what they really are.
 
TerapinChef said:
I was just going to say...I got stuck wandering around Sears for about two hours yesterday while SWMBO was with her sister getting senior pictures done, and I found both 5 and 2 G #1 plastic buckets in the paint/drywall section. They had lids for the fives, but not the twos...also if you have a restaurant supply shop near your house, check out the square plastic food storage containers they have, with airtight lid. We call them Cambros, but I don't know what they really are.
Click to expand...

+1 on this.

You can always weigh down the lid if the seal isn't tight enough to keep from blowing off.
 
I was hoping to find something at Kitchen Company last night. They did have 5g carboys for $23 which I didn't need since I already have 2.

I will look around for the <1> and <2> at the grocery store over lunch today.
 

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