1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

BigRock947 said:

I think I understand your question about 1 gallon recipes. Any proven recipe can be an 1 gallon batch, I've been taking larger recipes and down sizing them for a couple of years now. A 5 gallon recipe can be divided by 2 for 2.5 gallons or by 4 for 1.25 gallons. The ingredients will just be divided evenly but the procedure will remain the same such mash times and boil times.

Brewing software isn't really that expensive and there is plenty of free software plus some HBT users have set up some awesome spreadsheets to help too.

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i have ibrewmaster on the ipad, and it was less than 10 bucks, and its fine.

that said, i'm just nerdy enough to go find all the calculators, and use the calculations in Palmer's book, and build one myself, because it will help me to learn them all

BigRock947 said:

I think I understand your question about 1 gallon recipes. Any proven recipe can be an 1 gallon batch, I've been taking larger recipes and down sizing them for a couple of years now. A 5 gallon recipe can be divided by 2 for 2.5 gallons or by 4 for 1.25 gallons. The ingredients will just be divided evenly but the procedure will remain the same such mash times and boil times.

Brewing software isn't really that expensive and there is plenty of free software plus some HBT users have set up some awesome spreadsheets to help too.

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While I do agree with what you are saying, brewing software can be very intimidating to the new brewer. Second some things dont scale well, for instance I tried making a 1 gallon batch of "big beer" that called for 4 and some change [after scaling] of crystal 60 and it completely took over the flavor. I scaled by dividing by 5 and used the exact same processes.

On another not im contemplating turning one of the 1 gallon mini water coolers [the old school kind with a shoulder strap] into a mini mash tun. Next time I see one at the thrift store or goodwill I think im going to pick it up. I think it would be kinda cool to have a complete 1 gallon all grain setup.
Mayb it wound be more convienient to just find anothe SS stock pot and rig a thermometer, valves, and a piece of braid into it, that way i can goose and reduce heat easily.

huntingohio said:

On another not im contemplating turning one of the 1 gallon mini water coolers [the old school kind with a shoulder strap] into a mini mash tun. Next time I see one at the thrift store or goodwill I think im going to pick it up. I think it would be kinda cool to have a complete 1 gallon all grain setup.
Mayb it wound be more convienient to just find anothe SS stock pot and rig a thermometer, valves, and a piece of braid into it, that way i can goose and reduce heat easily.

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Or perhaps just get a paint strainer bag and a cheap pot and do 1 gallon BIAB on the stove top? I'm just sayin......

sunday afternoon, football, and a lunch of pan-seared steak, parmesan risotto with asparagus and mushrooms, and home brew.

omg... i love this new hobby

dadshomebrewing said:

sunday afternoon, football, and a lunch of pan-seared steak, parmesan risotto with asparagus and mushrooms, and home brew.

Omg... I love this new hobby

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go bears!

Yesfan said:

Do you mind posting a link to the Negro Modelo clone or the scaled down recipe here?

Is the clone pretty close to the original? Negro is one of my favorite Mexi-beers if not my favorite.

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UnderThePorchBrewing said:

have not made it yet it is from the clone brews book.
am away today thru sunday at my daughters college parents weekend will try to type in and post it from my iphone. once home will also try to post several i scaled down as well

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will be brewing it wednesday

Negro Modelo (Clone Brews) 1.25G

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
1.50 ozs 5.10 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 60 mins 1.034
1.00 ozs 3.40 % Caravienne Malt 60 mins 1.034
0.50 ozs 1.70 % Chocolate Malt 60 mins 1.034
1.65 lbs 89.80 % Munton's Light DME 60 mins 1.046

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.30 ozs 12.63 Hallertauer 60 mins 3.00
0.25 ozs 14.03 Tettnang 60 mins 4.00
0.12 ozs 2.54 Tettnang 10 mins 4.00

Yeasts
0.2 pkg Bohemian Lager Wyeast Labs 2124

thughes said:

Or perhaps just get a paint strainer bag and a cheap pot and do 1 gallon BIAB on the stove top? I'm just sayin......

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But Ive bone biab, and I wanna be like the cool kids with all the cool gear Plus if I could find two of them I could use em to fill both of my new fermenters at the same time. Making my brew day short and sweet
On an aside aldis had a cheap digital scale thats really accurate. Found it right next to this awesomely bright cider. $4.99 later I no longer have to hope i got it right on my crappy kitchen scale

Recipe taken from the extreme brewing book and scaled down

I've read a lot of posts in the thread about finding and/or scaling recipes. I didn’t see anyone mention one of the sites and methods I’m about to try so I thought I’d pass it on in case anyone else found it useful. I apologize in advance if this was already mentioned.

I like to look at the recipes at “The Beer Recipator”. Here’s a direct link to their recipe page: http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipes

Here’s the part I liked … if you find a recipe that sounds interesting enough to brew up a 1-gallon batch, just click on the blue “Resize Recipe” button and scale it to meet your 1-gallon needs.

I’m going to give four different brews a shot soon. My ingredients should arrive within the week!

If any of the results turn out well I’ll share the news here.

Regards,
Mr. B

All grain converted recipe i brewed scaled down to 1 gallon


Brewing Steps: DFH 60 minute IPA AG 1 Gallon
American Pale Ale
Type: All Grain
Batch Size (fermenter): 1.00 gal Brewer:Cheesecake
Boil Size: 1.54 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: BIAB 1 Gallon
Final Bottling Volume: 1.00 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage

mix .10 oz of simcoe warrior and ammarillo in container and gradually add in small increments over the full course of the boil.
Prepare for Brewing



Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment
Total Water Needed: 1.72 gal

Mash or Steep Grains

Mash Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1 lbs 15.7 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 80.2 %
6.7 oz Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 2 16.9 %
1.1 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.9 %

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Saccharification Add 6.88 qt of water at 156.7 F 150.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 F 10 min

Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort

Boil Wort

Add water to achieve boil volume of 1.54 gal
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.042 SG
Boil Ingredients
mix .10 oz of simcoe warrior and ammarillo in container and gradually add in small increments over the full course of the boil.
Prepare for Brewing
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.10 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 17.4 IBUs
0.10 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 26.6 IBUs
0.10 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 30.6 IBUs
0.10 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs


Estimated Post Boil Vol: 1.04 gal and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.064 SG
Cool and Prepare Fermentation

Cool wort to fermentation temperature
Transfer wort to fermenter
Add water to achieve final volume of 1.00 gal
Fermentation Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.2 pkg Ringwood Ale (Wyeast Labs #1187) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -

Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.064 SG)
Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 1.00 gal)
Fermentation
11/4/2012 - Primary Fermentation (10.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)
11/14/2012 - Secondary Fermentation (12.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)

Dry Hop and Prepare for Bottling/Kegging
Dry Hop/Bottling Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.20 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 12.0 Days Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
0.10 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 12.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs

Measure Final Gravity: _________ (Estimate: 1.016 SG)
- Carbonation: Bottle with 0.79 oz Corn Sugar

Since some people have experience with scaling recipes, I wonder if anyone has worked with the recipes in Brewing Classic Styles. They start with grain for 7 gallons of water for a yield of 5 gallons... if I'm understanding the book right.

Based on that, I've been scaling my 1 gallon recipes for 1.4 gallons (I've got a spreadsheet set up to quickly scale recipes) since it sounds like that's the grain bill I need to get a gallon... right? That part of the book is really confusing to me.

ReaderRabbit said:

Since some people have experience with scaling recipes, I wonder if anyone has worked with the recipes in Brewing Classic Styles. They start with grain for 7 gallons of water for a yield of 5 gallons... if I'm understanding the book right.

Based on that, I've been scaling my 1 gallon recipes for 1.4 gallons (I've got a spreadsheet set up to quickly scale recipes) since it sounds like that's the grain bill I need to get a gallon... right? That part of the book is really confusing to me.

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If you boil off two gallons in 60 minutes with your pot and burner then you will need 3 gallons to get 1 gallon. Boil off rates don't scale like the ingredients in a recipe. Do a test boil of water and that will give you a good idea of boil off rate.

They start with more for boil off and grain absorbtion

I usually have about 1.5 gallons preboil to get me to 1 gallon of wort. I am still playing with the burner settings though. I tried 1.25 gallons once and ended up with .75 gallons post(Didn't even notice till my gravity was really high, added a qt of water and mixed and hit my numbers dead on)

This thread is for those who want to share information on brewing 1-gallon batches. Other posts, especially those advising to just brew bigger batches or saying why the poster doesn't brew 1 gallon batches, are off-topic and will be deleted. Repeat offenders will find themselves taking a vacation from HBT.

If you see such off-topic posts in this thread, please hit the report button.

Agreed. It's not the volume that matters, it's the quality of the beer.

I'm a 5-gallon extract brewer with a number of friends who are doing 25-30 gallon batches. Suffering from "volume envy", I recently contemplated "moving up" to a 15-gallon setup and bought one of those neat 15-gallon conical sprayer tanks.

Then I thought a bit. My wife doesn't drink beer and I don't have a lot of beer-loving friends. As a result, by the time I'm done drinking a 5-gallon batch, I'm really ready for something new. A 15-gallon setup just isn't for me.

In fact, I just bought a 1-gallon kit from the Brooklyn Brew Shop as a way of trying my hand with an all-grain brew. So I guess I've, at least partially, joined the ranks of the 1-gallon crowd.

Don't panic. Relax and have a homebrew, whatever your batch size.

thughes said:

minikeg

or bump your recipe to 1.5 gallons and use:

TAD

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I looked at the TAD setup. Was wondering about the trub in the bottles getting mixed up when you lay the bottle on side. How do you keep them from rolling arond when on the side? Have one flat side?

Another thought is every;time you open the fridge you are letting all the cold air come rolling out the bottom. Yea I know that happens when you get a soda, or any other food.

JuiceyJay said:

hey guys! new here and to the home brew world
I found a starter kit from smallbatchhomebrew.com and it came with the drapers alley ipa kit (http://www.smallbatchhomebrew.com/Drapers-Alley-IPA_p_10.html)
the brewing process was fun and will put it in the fridge by wednesday.
everything went smoothly with the exception that i didn't have a hydrometer.

now what my real question is, if i dont want to order more of the small batch kits from that website and either order my own ingredients or find different kits....where do i go? or do i simply need to buy a 5 gallon kit and divide it into 5? i really liked the idea of making many different small batches at a time vs one huge batch.

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Do a little research on BIAB perfect for small batches as you can squeeze just about every drop out of the grain. You switch to AG. and w/software make your on recipes or scale down online ones. You buy just the ingredients you need. No need to worry about what to do w/the other 4/5th of a 5 gallon kit.

To prevent rolling, I'd pick up a pair of rubber door wedges. They should be sufficiently "sticky" on a glass shelf to keep the TAD in place. If not, there's a trick you can do with silicone caulk to provide a more tacky bottom.

C-Rider said:

I looked at the TAD setup. Was wondering about the trub in the bottles getting mixed up when you lay the bottle on side. How do you keep them from rolling arond when on the side? Have one flat side?

Another thought is every;time you open the fridge you are letting all the cold air come rolling out the bottom. Yea I know that happens when you get a soda, or any other food.

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2 tablespoons of sugar don't leave a whole lot of trub. TAD bottles have little "feet" molded in that keep them from rolling.

As far as letting cold air out of fridge every time you pour a beer? Just get a really large mug! (duh)

huntingohio said:

I have been searching for hours for proven one gallon batch recipies. It seems like there would be alot of support for a small batch section. So I did suggested it https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f22/we-need-small-batch-brewers-section-365395/#post4557091

please click and show support Id like to see it get off the ground so we dont have to hunt for hours, buy expensive software or sit doing calculus to put a recipie togather. Maybe if we make enough noise we will get our own little section

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Beersmith is only $20 and there are some free ones as well. That opens the world for you in proven recipes.

My order from northern brewer showed up today. Yay for my mini auto siphon and 2 more fermenters. Also ordered the black ipa kit. I'm excited to brew it.

I found Brewsmith confusing, a few too many details where I didn't quite fit in (the equipment seemed to change the calculation and I couldn't guess what the equivalent to 1 or 3 gallon stovetop all-grain) plus I already made a spreadsheet for scaling that I did a good job.

As for my Brewing Classic Styles question, I guess I was getting at should I just treat the recipes' grain bills as if they're for five gallons and ignore the mention of 7 gallons?

Yeas treat them as 5 gallon recipes

jwalk4 said:

go bears!

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Absolutely

cheesecake did you copy those from beersmith if so how did you do it? I have scaled down edworts pale ale and redheaded lover to post up for my 1 gallon buddies

I brewed a one gallon batch with rosemary (Rosemary's Baby). I have no idea how the spice with come across, so one gallon to the rescue. I'll post the recipe if it turns out.

ReaderRabbit said:

I found Brewsmith confusing, a few too many details where I didn't quite fit in (the equipment seemed to change the calculation and I couldn't guess what the equivalent to 1 or 3 gallon stovetop all-grain) plus I already made a spreadsheet for scaling that I did a good job.

As for my Brewing Classic Styles question, I guess I was getting at should I just treat the recipes' grain bills as if they're for five gallons and ignore the mention of 7 gallons?

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I really had a tough time with beersmith when I first got it too. I found it overwhelming and the equipment part confusing. Now, I can't even dream of NOT using it. It makes my batches so easy and really helped me understand beer so much more.

I love the way it scales and I also print 2 copies for my scaled down recipes, one in imperial and one in metric. I find grams WAY easier to deal with on a small batch!!

thughes said:

http://www.brewtarget.org/

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Nice. It's good to find brew software that's free and runs natively on my Fedora 17 system.

MTate37 said:

Brewed the BBS New Year Beer this morning. Efficiency was only 60% as opposed to the 75% efficiency I had for my last BBS recipe. I mashed about 6-8 degrees lower than last time. Might that be the reason?

Also ended up about a half quart low on the wort, even after using a quart more water that I did for my last BBS recipe. Not sure what happened there.

Strong clementine aroma, but not much clementine flavor in the sample I took. Maybe that will pick up a little after fermentation is complete.

I sure am enjoying these small batches, even if it does take about the same amount of time as a five gallon extract batch.

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I brewed my BBS New Year Beer on Saturday. It was my second batch, and done on pure faith because I haven't even tasted my first batch yet! It went pretty well - also the first time brewing without a recipe kit, so that was interesting.

MTate37, I'm curious what yeast you used. I didn't want to buy the liquid yeast, wyeast belgian strong, the recipe calls for, so I subbed safale s-33 for it. (Lol, phone just tried to autocorrect safale to "sad ale") I went back and forth between s-33 and k-58.

Things learned from this brew day: a nylon bag + colander is way better (and cheaper) than the 8" strainer BBS recommends, I need a bigger pot as 6 qts is not cutting it, and mashing in the oven lets me set and forget one part of the brew day, which was nice.

pabrimmer said:

I brewed my BBS New Year Beer on Saturday. It was my second batch, and done on pure faith because I haven't even tasted my first batch yet! It went pretty well - also the first time brewing without a recipe kit, so that was interesting.

MTate37, I'm curious what yeast you used. I didn't want to buy the liquid yeast, wyeast belgian strong, the recipe calls for, so I subbed safale s-33 for it. (Lol, phone just tried to autocorrect safale to "sad ale") I went back and forth between s-33 and k-58.

Things learned from this brew day: a nylon bag + colander is way better (and cheaper) than the 8" strainer BBS recommends, I need a bigger pot as 6 qts is not cutting it, and mashing in the oven lets me set and forget one part of the brew day, which was nice.

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My 6qt pot, stretched to the limit!

Yehaaw, here comes the boilover

I stated that before, BBS mashing temps are almost all the time at 152F. Obviously in combination with well attenuative yeast, it's resulting in dry beer.
So beware guys, if you like more sweeter, maltier taste, mash higher (154-156).

Leadgolem said:

Nice. It's good to find brew software that's free and runs natively on my Fedora 17 system.

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Penguin guy here too (Debian) but I can assure you that BeerSmith runs fine under WINE.

mirogster said:

Yehaaw, here comes the boilover

I stated that before, BBS mashing temps are almost all the time at 152F. Obviously in combination with well attenuative yeast, it's resulting in dry beer.
So beware guys, if you like more sweeter, maltier taste, mash higher (154-156).

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Truth!

pabrimmer said:

MTate37, I'm curious what yeast you used. I didn't want to buy the liquid yeast, wyeast belgian strong, the recipe calls for, so I subbed safale s-33 for it. (Lol, phone just tried to autocorrect safale to "sad ale") I went back and forth between s-33 and k-58.

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I did use the Belgian Strong. I hadn't made up my mind, but my LHBS actually had it in stock so I went with it. I thought I would have to save some, but the vial was three months old so Mr. Malty said to pitch the whole thing. Mr. Malty actually said to pitch 1.2 vials, but I was already boiling and it was too late to do something else, so I went with it.

Let me know how your first batch of New Year Beer turns out. If mine is good I'm thinking I'll do a bigger batch for the New Year, provided Santa shows up a little later this month and brings me a new all grain setup.

Hopefully brewing the black ipa kit from northern brewer today. And possibly another SMaSH not sure which hop I want to use this time

I'm having a tough time deciding what to brew next....what to do? What to do?

Thought of brewing a stout, then I thought I could add coconut to it. Now my head is spinning with possibilities.

cheesecake said:

Hopefully brewing the black ipa kit from northern brewer today. And possibly another SMaSH not sure which hop I want to use this time

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Send an update on the NB black IPA... I have been contemplating that kit as well.