1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

Large glass vessels filled with gallons of beer (heavy!) are all an accident waiting to happen. I have seen the same warnings about earlier BMBs, but they're all associated with the large ones. I can't see that being an issue with the little one. I've only got 2 brews in it so far, but it's the easiest small fermenter I've used. The properly sealing lid, wide opening, integrated airlock, screw-on cap, and spigot - especially the spigot - make it a breeze to use.

Yes, you use it as a primary, let the beer finish and settle, attach a bottling wand with a short length of hose to the spigot, and off you go directly into bottles. Weigh out priming sugar with a 0.1 gram scale, and tip it into each bottle individually with either a small funnel or a folded piece of paper.

MentalThinking said:

I absolutely adore the look of those LBMB's - though when I went looking to see if any Canadian retailers stocked them, I came up empty. I don't suppose anyone in Western Canada has got a hookup?

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I believe that the LBMB are a Northern Brewer exclusive. I have seen a Mr Beer version that is similar. Fermonster has a 1 gal fermenter, but I think it maxes out at around 1.2 gals. Maybe better than a 1 gal jug, but not as nice as the 1.5 gal LBMB.

MentalThinking said:

I'm looking to start brewing for literally the first time come spring, and I'm doing my research before I get started - the plan is to keep it simple and do stovetop BIAB. I've read a great deal on the topic - here and elsewhere - and I'm positive it's the best method for me.

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I know this is the "1 gal" thread, but I am a huge fan of 2 to 2.5 gal batches. I do 2.5 gal stove top BIAB using a 5 gal kettle and a 3 gal Fermonster. I also have some 10L/2.6 gal kegs, but bottling a smaller batch is not too much work.

CascadesBrewer said:

I know this is the "1 gal" thread, but I am a huge fan of 2 to 2.5 gal batches. I do 2.5 gal stove top BIAB using a 5 gal kettle and a 3 gal Fermonster. I also have some 10L/2.6 gal kegs, but bottling a smaller batch is not too much work.

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I'm likely going to stick with one gallon, not because I disagree with you, but because space is limited - both for fermenting and later for storing the bottled brews, refrigerated or otherwise. One gallon also allows me to try all the tasty recipes I've come across while doing my research

Plus, I'm trying to eat healthier and generally be more active these days, and while picking up homebrew as a hobby isn't likely to *help* that effort, limiting my pipeline is likely to make me more conservative in my consumption.

... maybe. Haha.

I exercise 6 days a week, and drink one pint per day. So I hear ya. It's far too easy to sample your homebrew all the time, especially if it's on tap!

I brew 2.5 gallon batches which get packaged in kegs of the same size, but I also try out recipes with a 1 gallon target volume. I bottle those in 500 mL swing-tops, so I'll get 6-8 per batch which is perfect. This way if I have a dumper, it's no great loss. And there's something around the house to take to BYOB restaurants as well.

I have a 1gal fermonster, they are easy to clean and you can get them ported to have a spigot. The non ported version has a build in dimple to make adding one later easier. The lid o-ring is a bit tricky to get in the groove.

ba-brewer said:

I have a 1gal fermonster, they are easy to clean and you can get them ported to have a spigot. The non ported version has a build in dimple to make adding one later easier. The lid o-ring is a bit tricky to get in the groove.

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Honestly, this is probably what I'll go for - I love the size and look of the LBMB, but easy cleaning, less weight, and plastic that is most definitely not going to shatter if I drop it is probably the best option. That and I have no interest in ordering a product from the states if I don't have to.

Do you find it works well for 1 gallon batches? I know it doesn't have quite as much extra headspace as the LBMB, but it seems fine, on paper.

I don’t know what the rules are link wise around here, but I just saw amazon has 1.5 gal mr. beer glass fermenters with spigot for 17.99. They look just like the LBMBs.

CaddyWampus said:

I don’t know what the rules are link wise around here, but I just saw amazon has 1.5 gal mr. beer glass fermenters with spigot for 17.99. They look just like the LBMBs.

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I found them - though oddly not when I specifically searched for them, they showed up in a 'related' option, haha - but the seller doesn't ship to Canada, so that's a no go. Pity, because almost every single Canadian fermenting option in the size I want doesn't seem to come with a spigot

I found a two gallon BrewDemon conical that looks lovely, but I definitely don't have the space for it. The one gallon Fermonster is available to me, but only without the spigot. Canadians drink a lot of beer! I'm sort of disappointed at the lack of options I'm finding for gear.

MentalThinking said:

Honestly, this is probably what I'll go for - I love the size and look of the LBMB, but easy cleaning, less weight, and plastic that is most definitely not going to shatter if I drop it is probably the best option. That and I have no interest in ordering a product from the states if I don't have to.

Do you find it works well for 1 gallon batches? I know it doesn't have quite as much extra headspace as the LBMB, but it seems fine, on paper.

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I have not done a full 1gal batch in this about .8gal I think. The picture is with 1gal of water inside, I was able to add another pint of water before it spilled over the edge. I would start with a blow off tube if I filled it up to 1gal until I knew what to expect from a given yeast and recipe.

It's super easy to find a container to ferment 1 gallon batches in. The trick comes if you want a "proper" fermenter, with a sealable lid, airlock compatible, and the elusive spigot. The Mr. Beer setup is annoying because it really has a faucet, not a spigot; a hose won't attach easily to it, and it has no locked OFF setting.

The BrewDemon actually has a seam right down the center of the cone where the tap is. I had one, and it leaked there. Another donation to the homebrew junk pile.

One of the simplest fermenters for 1 gallon is just a 2 gallon bucket with lid. You can easily drill a hole and attach your own spigot if you like.

ba-brewer said:

I have not done a full 1gal batch in this about .8gal I think. The picture is with 1gal of water inside, I was able to add another pint of water before it spilled over the edge. I would start with a blow off tube if I filled it up to 1gal until I knew what to expect from a given yeast and recipe.

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Awesome, thanks so much for the picture. Definitely helps me be sure of what I'm getting.

McKnuckle said:

It's super easy to find a container to ferment 1 gallon batches in. The trick comes if you want a "proper" fermenter, with a sealable lid, airlock compatible, and the elusive spigot. The Mr. Beer setup is annoying because it really has a faucet, not a spigot; a hose won't attach easily to it, and it has no locked OFF setting.

The BrewDemon actually has a seam right down the center of the cone where the tap is. I had one, and it leaked there. Another donation to the homebrew junk pile.

One of the simplest fermenters for 1 gallon is just a 2 gallon bucket with lid. You can easily drill a hole and attach your own spigot if you like.

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Thank you for your knowledge - I don't have the money to be contributing to my homebrew junk pile out the gate

I have very little DIY acumen, nor access to proper tools to be modifying things that I purchase at this time. I suppose I'm trying too hard to find the 'best' option - a spigot in a fermenter that's of the size I desire - rather than going with one that'll 'just work' - which'd be any plastic fermenter with an airlock and a mini auto siphon.

Remember, perfect is the enemy of good. DIY and one gallon brewing do go hand in hand, though.

A mini auto siphon with a clip - to hold it high in the beer when you initially pump - will work. Get a nice long length of hose so that you can locate the bottling wand well below the siphon level. You can start the siphon into the closed wand, then move your attention (and hands) to the wand and start bottling. Move the siphon progressively lower on the clip as you proceed. It's fiddly compared to a spigot, but doable.

Started to mention finding 1 gal. LBMB, with and without spigot at Northern, but see already answered.
I didn't find these at my usual store so I purchased a couple of 2 gallon buckets with lids. Was about to get another to drill and fit with a spigot when I heard about them here and order one. Wanted a 1 or 2 gallon bottling bucket. I'm too used to boiling priming sugar and racking beer onto it for bottling. May try fermenting in LBMB this weekend, but still unsure about bottling directly from it. Small enough batch to try sugar per bottling, but old habits are hard to break.

I'm a kitchen saucepan brewer as yet with hardly any specialist equipment. I brew in 1 gallon glass wine demis. One of the most useful things I ever found was a squeeze to suction syphon with a little wire cage net on the end. The width is exactly right for the top of a demijohn neck. A light squeeze and then it syphons and sieves at the same time to avoid hop entry. Easy to sterilise whole and keep in a ziplock. I bought it on ebay for a a small amount under £3. It means you can ferment in any container the right size at the beginning with no spigots or faucets.

If you type in this in your ebay then it'll come up:-

Multi-use Syphon Tube Pipe Hose For Home Brew Brewing Wine Beer Making Tool SK

McKnuckle said:

A mini auto siphon with a clip - to hold it high in the beer when you initially pump - will work. Get a nice long length of hose so that you can locate the bottling wand well below the siphon level. You can start the siphon into the closed wand, then move your attention (and hands) to the wand and start bottling. Move the siphon progressively lower on the clip as you proceed. It's fiddly compared to a spigot, but doable.

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... building on the above quote (read it again, as it contains good ideas, and provided for context) ...

I'm aware of two styles (there may be more) of mini-siphons, one can be fully disassembled. For the style that can be disassembled, I find they last longer if they are reassembled wet. I take the siphon apart for cleaning, store it dry. On bottling day, put all the parts in a sanitizer, then reassemble.

To sanitize the inside of the hoses, I run sanitizer through the assembled siphon, hose, and bottling wand. It's also a good way check for leaks, a degraded seal in the mini-siphon (check for bubbles in the hose), ....

"bonus" tip 1: prime the siphon (in water or sanitizer) before placing it in the fermenter. You will lose a couple of oz of beer; in exchange, you will not accidentally injecting air into the wort.

"Bonus" tip 2: cover the the end of the siphon in a fine mesh cloth to help prevent trub from entering into the siphon.

What do you guys do about yeast? I have shyed away from using liquid yeast because it doesn't seem to lend itself to one gallon batches. An entire tube is massively overpitching or I am left with two thirds or so of a tube of yeast that I don't have much of a use for. As such I try to use dry yeast as much as I can. But there are several yeasts that just aren't available dry.

I just used half a package of WLP004 on a gallon batch of 1.048 stout.

I have saved a bunch of the old White Labs vials from days past. Sanitize one, and carefully pour the yeast into it to fill. Screw on the cap, shake to mix well, and then decant the desired amount into your 1 gallon fermenter using a demarcation line drawn on the vial's label to estimate volume.

Half a package ("best by" April 2020, manufactured 4 months earlier) wasn't really an overpitch according to the online yeast pitching calculators.

Nick Z said:

What do you guys do about yeast?

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My method might not help some because I also brew a mix of 2.5 gal and 5 gal batches, but I harvest yeast slurry into a mix of 16 oz, 8 oz and 4 oz jars. I will pitch the slurry from a 4 oz jar into a 1 gal batch, or split an 8 oz jar across two (I am often making a pair of 1 gal batches in a day). I do sometimes harvest yeast from my 1 gal batches as well.

You could likely so something similar to "an overbuilt starter" with a new pack. A pack of White Labs/Wyeast has around 100B and the ideal pitch for a 1 gal batch is around 40B. I am thinking something along the lines of making a 64 oz starter, decanting all but 20 oz of liquid after it settles, then dividing that into 5 4-oz jars. Or 16 oz into 4 jars since they sell them in 4 packs. These ones with plastic lids are great: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ball-Smo...th-4-Ounce-Glass-Mason-Jars-4-Count/489764969

I've only done a half dozen or so gallon batches. In each instance I used a half a pack of dry yeast. I have a Food Saver vacuum sealer and just package and seal the unused half pack and refrigerate it for next time. Not very scientific but it works fine.

If I open a pack of liquid yeast I'll pitch half into my wort and the other half I make a tiny starter just to give the new yeast a comfy liquid home to live in. When it's done, cold crash in the fridge for a day, decant all the liquid and store the slurry in a 50ml centrifuge tube. When a new brew day comes around I make a 500ml starter with what's in the tube, let it ride, decant and pour half into a tube and the other half goes in the fermenter.

I followed the White Labs directions for making a starter but cut the amounts in half.

I pitched half the vial into the beer and the other half into the starter wort. After a day I poured off most of the wort and stuffed this starter in the fridge.

My concern is that the yeast will croak before I use it or, even worse, it will get an infection. I did not cap the starter jar. Just put sanitized aluminum foil on it. I read that if you actually put a tight lid on it the yeast could, over time, produce enough gas to explode the jar. I think it was on Drew Beechum's podcast.

Once chilled to fridge temp the yeast should stop generating CO2, just put the lid on snug and crack the lid momentarily after a day or two if you are worried about pressure build up.

Yeast will degrade in time but you can use a yeast calculator to estimate viability and do another starter to revitalize it.

McKnuckle said:

I've only bottled from mine once so far, but the spigot height was fine. You can let it ride until the last bottle, then just prop up the opposite end and gently tilt it to fill. When finished, all the crud is left behind and only a splash of beer. I initially played around with fitting a pickup tube on the inside, but simple proved best in this case.

They call this the "siphonless" BMB, BTW.

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I have 2 of these and they are great. They Make bottling easy to handle when by myself. The one time I used a regular one gal jug is the only time I have had a blow off.

McKnuckle said:

Weigh out priming sugar with a 0.1 gram scale, and tip it into each bottle individually with either a small funnel or a folded piece of paper.

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1/2 tsp of table sugar in a 12 oz bottle works fine. It's about 2.4 volumes of co2. No need to weigh each dose.

It's looking like I'm going to have to order my ported one gallon Fermonster from MoreBeer anyway - the only place I've found them available in Canada is Amazon, and they're the unported version. They're pretty expensive on Amazon, so even after conversion to CAD and shipping costs, I'm pretty sure it'll work out to about the same expense, but at least I'll have a built in spigot.

I considered getting a couple LBMB's instead of the Fermonsters, but international shipping from MoreBeer is 'at own risk' - and many reviews mention them arriving broken. So I'm not taking that risk.

I could possibly grab a bucket and add a spigot myself, but given that I don't own any sort of tools that'd aid in that endeavor, I expect that'd cost even more than just buying my Fermonster, haha.

Now to decide if I've got the space to justify ordering two of them at once, since shipping is likely to be the same regardless.

Edit: Typo

I'm thinking about doing a split batch with one gallon to compare different yeasts.
Is there any reason why I shouldn't use this ikea 1 litre carafe to ferment the smaller batch.

(I would find a proper plug and add airlock of course)

One gallon is 3.785 L, so a 1 L fermenter is too small to split that. You’d need at least 4 of them to break up a gallon.

While I’ve never split beer into less than a gallon, I’ve used the following for single bottles of mead, and as secondary for flavoring ciders. They’re a bit under half a gallon. Might not find the exact item where you live, but you’d be surprised at the reusable glass containers that you can find in the juice aisle.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Martinel...MIpLDNzcTs5wIVg5-zCh1T2QfEEAQYASABEgJipPD_BwE

McKnuckle said:

One gallon is 3.785 L, so a 1 L fermenter is too small to split that. You’d need at least 4 of them to break up a gallon.

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I'm thinking about 3.2L in my one gallon fermentor and 0.6L batch in this. But I think I will use some other bottle to ferment than the picture. Maybe a sparkling wine bottle...

HemanBrew said:

I'm thinking about 3.2L in my one gallon fermentor and 0.6L batch in this. But I think I will use some other bottle to ferment than the picture. Maybe a sparkling wine bottle...

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So everything went good yesterday. Now I have 2 batch fermenting with different yeasts.
So after few weeks I will taste the difference with us05 and s04.

How would you guys describe the difference with these yeasts?

BongoYodeler said:

I've used this priming sugar method on one gallon batches of red ale, stout, porter, and ipa and it's worked flawlessly. I used a level 1/2 tsp for the red ale and ipa, and a heaping 1/4 tsp for the stout and porter.

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Used the level 1/2 tsp sugar for a Goose Island Porter instead of the primer sugar drops this time. See how she turns out.

Many years at I used to make two gallon batches of barley wine. I would split it between three, one gallon jugs. Plenty of headspace.

All the Best,
D. White

I brewed one gallon batches for the longest time. Just recently i brewed my first 5 gallon batch. There is NOTHING wrong with brewing one gallon batches. I've NEVER made fun of or criticized anyone who brews one gallon batches. We are all home brewers. We are all part of a brotherhood/sisterhood. We are craft brewers. There is no difference between 5 gallon brewers, 2.5 gallon brewers, or one gallon brewers. We are all brothers, & sisters. STOP all this internal fighting!!!!

ReaperOnefour said:

I brewed one gallon batches for the longest time. Just recently i brewed my first 5 gallon batch. There is NOTHING wrong with brewing one gallon batches. I've NEVER made fun of or criticized anyone who brews one gallon batches. We are all home brewers. We are all part of a brotherhood/sisterhood. We are craft brewers. There is no difference between 5 gallon brewers, 2.5 gallon brewers, or one gallon brewers. We are all brothers, & sisters. STOP all this internal fighting!!!!

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There will always be someone who thinks any method that is not the one they use, has to be completely wrong. Like when many of us stared brewing we learned how to mash with a three tier system, and now many homebrew sites suggest BIAB as one of the best methods to start with. Considering I rarely brew more than 2.5 gallons at a time (when I do it has to be outside as the kitchen stove can't heat more that 3.5 gallon within a reasonable timeframe, and I like to brew throughout the year).
That said when I brew one gallon I can brew every week and not doesn't cost me a fortune, while brewing 5 gallons a week would hurt my bank account and probably cause my death when SWMBO sees all the bottles that would need to find a place to store.

I screwed up my last brew day. I planned a nice light lager, but had to do other things while I was getting the grain together and ended up adding 30% more base malt than intended. So I have a gallon, 1/3 gallon and 1 quart in fermenters to keep abv in the range I wanted. should still be a nice lager.

RevA said:

I screwed up my last brew day. I planned a nice light lager, but had to do other things while I was getting the grain together and ended up adding 30% more base malt than intended. So I have a gallon, 1/3 gallon and 1 quart in fermenters to keep abv in the range I wanted. should still be a nice lager.

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Sometimes a mistake is the best thing you have ever done.

Question for those of you who brew with extract on a regular basis:

Have you brewed, side-by-side, the same recipe but with different brands of DME (or LME)? If you did, did you notice flavor differences? What words would you use to describe the differences?

Please note that it's pretty easy to speculate that there are differences in the specific base malts used as well as differences in minerals in the water used to make the wort. Please hold off on any speculation.

For some background: I'm working on techniques for adding brewing salts in the glass in an attempt to "dial in" brewing salt additions with the first brew of a recipe. If you've done this in the past, I'm willing to listen to your experiences.

Hey folks!

Getting ready to pull the trigger and order my brewing setup to get this ball rolling, but I figured I'd ask here before I whip out the credit card -

Can anyone who uses the one gallon FerMonster attest to its quality?

Many of the reviews I've found are only initial opinions / observations, but they often speak to the flimsiness of the plastic. Given that it's going to cost me about $80 to buy two of them with spigots and stoppers after shipping, I'm a little wary of investing in something that's not going to last more than a handful of brews.

Also, has anyone tried the BrewDemon Baby? It seems perfect for our needs - one gallon brews with a bit more headspace than the FerMonster, without the whole glass shattering quality of the LBMB.

MentalThinking said:

Hey folks!

Getting ready to pull the trigger and order my brewing setup to get this ball rolling, but I figured I'd ask here before I whip out the credit card -

Can anyone who uses the one gallon FerMonster attest to its quality?

Many of the reviews I've found are only initial opinions / observations, but they often speak to the flimsiness of the plastic. Given that it's going to cost me about $80 to buy two of them with spigots and stoppers after shipping, I'm a little wary of investing in something that's not going to last more than a handful of brews.

Also, has anyone tried the BrewDemon Baby? It seems perfect for our needs - one gallon brews with a bit more headspace than the FerMonster, without the whole glass shattering quality of the LBMB.

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I don’t have the 1 gallon version, but I do have a couple of the ported 3 gallon versions. I will say the plastic is surprisingly thin and flimsy, but after 4 brew days I have not had any issues.

I have the 1gal version, but have not used them enough to truly make claims on how robust they are, but I think you will get more than a few uses.

If you drop one full of liquid from waist height I think all bets are off. They may not shatter as dangerously as glass but I also would not expect them take that without some damage.

I have a 5 and 6 gal carboy looking PET fermentors and they have been used for like 3 or 4 years. They do seem to be slightly thicker than the 1gal fermonster but do flex and give quite a bit. I would expect 1gal has less forces acting on them and can be thinner.