1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

Looks like an interesting brew definitely interested to see how it turns out

Any of you use BIAB 1 gallon batches? never done BIAB as I normally use my cooler mash tun for 5 gallon batches. Thought about experimenting a little bit with 1 gallon batches by using the BIAB method in a 5 gallon pot. Any tips or advice?

Yup. I only do biab. Less equipment, quick brew days. For tips and tricks go back a few pages and look for my Google doc link.

I also do BIAB for my one gallon batches. The first kit I got was an All Grain kit and it included the bag, later recipes & kits wanted me to do it different ways requiring 3 pots or so. After doing it they wanted I remembered using the bag, so for the last few recipes, I used the bag instead and it worked out fine plus saved time and having to clean additional pots.

ohiobeer29 said:

Looks like an interesting brew definitely interested to see how it turns out

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Tried that and an amber(ish) made early November last night (calling my amber the Halloween Hangover light ale). Meh, was okay but think with that malt pile I'm going to lessen up on the hops a bit possibly. Going to let the rest age a little longer, maybe it's juts too young still. Had a nice mouth feel but think the hops and malts were battling each other. The amber turned out nice though, little biscuity and easy going down, fresh and crisp. For a random collection of leftovers it was damn tasty for catching up the SO on the Star Wars original trilogy :rockin:

60 minute mash @ 152F (might drop this to 150 next time)
582g 2row
22g amber malt
200g Vienna
52g Crystal 45L

4g Simcoe @ 60
3g Simcoe @ 30
3g Simcoe @ 10

Yeast: Nottingham

Thanks for everyone's help. Since my son was born, my brew days have been less, but, I hopped on this thread, and am back in action via one gallon AG!

I ended up buying a two gallon cooler for a mash tun.....put my grain in a bag for ease of clean up..... Brew day was fun, quick, and easy clean up!

Welcome back. As long as I do my prep before hand, my brewdays are super simple. Maybe 30 minutes of "active time", usually done before 4 hours passive time. Hurry up and wait!

Doing my first barleywine atm, 20 minutes into the boil. Will sit on it for at least 6 months before sampling. Will likely age the rest for a year or more.

hehawbrew said:

Thanks for everyone's help. Since my son was born, my brew days have been less, but, I hopped on this thread, and am back in action via one gallon AG!

I ended up buying a two gallon cooler for a mash tun.....put my grain in a bag for ease of clean up..... Brew day was fun, quick, and easy clean up!

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I use a 2 gallon Coleman stacker cooler for MLT. I'm working with shortened mashes and short boils (45 min and 25 min).

I love barley wine. Haven't made one in a while just because I hate waiting that long.
I used to get those one gallon, extract, bomber barley wine kits from northern Brewer to hold me off between my big AG batches.

I'm only on my second batch and had a lot of loss through the blow tube. I'm using the one gallon jug that come with the kits. This one is a porter and I ended up with about 3/4 of a gallon of wort after the boil. I did not top it off because I figured the extra headspace would actually be better. Nope. I lost about a bottle through the blow off. When you start with 3/4 gallon, a bottle's worth of loss is a lot. Is there anything I can do to prevent this, besides getting a bigger primary? If that's what I need to do, can someone give me ideas of where to find one? I was going to get one of the little big mouth bubblers from NB but they are always out of stock.

You can use Fermcap in the fermenter to control blowoffs

Or get a 2G plastic bucket to contain the krausen & blowoff. I've been having this issue too.

TheDarkestLoki said:

I'm only on my second batch and had a lot of loss through the blow tube. I'm using the one gallon jug that come with the kits. This one is a porter and I ended up with about 3/4 of a gallon of wort after the boil.

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How hard a boil were you doing? That's happened to me a few times when sampling too many of my previous experiments while brewing and letting the boil run too high

I've turned down the heat to a gentle rolling boil but I did a 60 minute boil instead of the 45 minute boil as the directions stated. Most things I've read recommend doing a 60 minute boil so that's what I went with. I going to boil some water to figure out my boil off before my next batch.

phug said:

You can use Fermcap in the fermenter to control blowoffs

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Didn't think of this. Thanks for the suggestion

Haven't done a barely wine yet I'll have to watch and see.how yours go that might be my next brew

I want to say some one posted a barley wine pic and the yeast trub layer was nearly a 1/2 gallon. Poster mentioned he should have ran the cold break through something to strain it out.

Cool thread. I'd love to say I've read it all but its 578 pages...

Anyway, I've got everything to do my first 1 gallon batches. Doing one cider, very simple stuff. Just apple juice and Nottingham yeast. Also doing a full grain batch of peanut butter porter from Brooklyn Brew Shop. I've got 2 gal buckets for primary and gallon jugs for secondary so I can get some more batches going in primary. Should be able to keep up a nice assembly line of different brews. Kettle to bucket to jug to bottle, wash rinse repeat.

Good weekend coming up

How do you 1 gallon brewers take hydrometer readings without wasting a significant part of your batch?

I make a little extra for the OG and then use the nasty sediment bottom dregs for my FG.

Use a refractometer. The ease of being able to take mash, preboil, post boil readings is very useful.

PADave said:

How do you 1 gallon brewers take hydrometer readings without wasting a significant part of your batch?

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Preboil readings go back in and my volume is increased by 3 hydrometer readings to account for it.

I'm considering buying a few of the brooklyn brew shop kits and brewing them here and there for the heck of it. Anyone brew these regularly and have any suggestions on which to do? Also, I don't want to dedicate a cooler for a mash tun since I won't be doing 1 gallons too often (not much space) but I have read mashing in a pot and putting it in the oven to hold the temperature.. does that work pretty well?

Alright, I started brewing in September and found this forum around that time. In the time it's taken me to actually read through this whole thread, I've brewed 9 one-gallon batches. I started with 3 NB kits, did a partial mash with leftover extract for batch #4, and have been doing AG BIAB since then.

I've been able to sample about 5 of them so far and 4 have been pretty decent, so I'm happy with the results so far. Just purchased a grain mill as well and have some grains coming in soon, so looking forward to my next few batches (think I have the next 5-8 planned out pretty well).

That's all I got for now, just a general thanks for all the good info in this thread. I'm sure I'll be posting more with some questions now that I feel caught up.

treacheroustexan said:

I'm considering buying a few of the brooklyn brew shop kits and brewing them here and there for the heck of it. Anyone brew these regularly and have any suggestions on which to do? Also, I don't want to dedicate a cooler for a mash tun since I won't be doing 1 gallons too often (not much space) but I have read mashing in a pot and putting it in the oven to hold the temperature.. does that work pretty well?

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Yes the oven works well. Just preheat to the lowest (170 for most ovens) and turn it off when the pot goes in or a few min before. I have only done this with full bodied beers and they gain 1-2 degrees over an hour for me.

Wrapping the pot with old jackets, towels or old blankets is another option. I have experienced only 2-3 degree temp drop this way however that is brewing BIAB for a 3 gallon batch in a 5 gallon pot. YMMV

flyfishnevada said:

Cool thread. I'd love to say I've read it all but its 578 pages...

Anyway, I've got everything to do my first 1 gallon batches. Doing one cider, very simple stuff. Just apple juice and Nottingham yeast. Also doing a full grain batch of peanut butter porter from Brooklyn Brew Shop. I've got 2 gal buckets for primary and gallon jugs for secondary so I can get some more batches going in primary. Should be able to keep up a nice assembly line of different brews. Kettle to bucket to jug to bottle, wash rinse repeat.

Good weekend coming up

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I love Brooklyn brew shop. I've made a bunch of their stuff and have loved each one. I use a lot of their stuff as a base and create my own from there out.....

Hasn't done the peanut butter Porter though....you'll have to let me know how it taste.

Just to let everyone know someone did just start a small batch brewing Facebook group and they are trying to grow the group. The group is: small batch home brewers hope to see some of you join the group.

What do you all do for bottling? Still use a bottling bucket, or is it reasonable to hook up my auto siphon to a bottling wand? Read through the thread a little and saw some mixed opinions.

I've done the mini auto siphon with the bottling wand. Using the big auto siphon will lead to tip over issues unless you take serious precautions

jweyer16 said:

Just to let everyone know someone did just start a small batch brewing Facebook group and they are trying to grow the group. The group is: small batch home brewers hope to see some of you join the group.

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There's a group called mini-mashers as well.

treacheroustexan said:

What do you all do for bottling? Still use a bottling bucket, or is it reasonable to hook up my auto siphon to a bottling wand? Read through the thread a little and saw some mixed opinions.

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I'm still having issues with my small batch setup for bottling. I tried the regular autosiphon and have not been able to do it without significant oxygenation. How do you guys use your autosiphon, to a bottling bucket, or straight to a bottle wand?

I cheated the other day and used some dry ice in a plastic coke bottle with some success. Slightly under the target carb rate, but it was simple to do although I'm used to such careful procedures... Go to my post history for more info. I DO NOT recommend doing this for glass, they will explode and hurt you. Nor do I advise this without taking precautions. Smash the dry ice into salt flake sized bits so they sublimate quickly. You must weigh these out carefully using a high precision scale. If you cannot do all of those things, do not attempt it.

With my 1G batches, I started transferring/siphoning/racking the beer from the 1G jug using a racking cane and a siphon hose to a 2G bucket with a spigot & bottling wand installed on it. While it's siphoning into the bucket, I then add my sugar mixture for batch priming, and then use that for bottling. That's worked out the best for me. A lot less mess and I do have another container to wash afterwards, but that's not really a big deal either.

Wow, Very Well Said

2 gallon bucket primary with spigot. Bottle right out of there.

I've been contemplating trying to rig a bottling spigot into a gallon jug cap but I doubt the dimensions will work out

RPIScotty said:

2 gallon bucket primary with spigot. Bottle right out of there.

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Do you prime each bottle individually or mix your priming sugar into the primary, if you prime in the primary do you get much extra sediment?

I have bottle directly from the primary before by priming each bottle individually but even for 10 or 12 bottles it is a bit tedious. Much easier to use siphon into another bucket to prime.

Mix into primary slowly no sediment long as you mix slowly I've had no priming issues this way

5-10gal brewer here, bought a BBS kit on clearance sale at Bed Bath and Beyond, figured for the low low price of $15 it was worth it just for the equipment. It was quite fun actually, I have already scaled down some recipes I have wanted to try but didn't want 2.5/5/10 gallons to drink.

I can brew on a week day now: Come home for lunch, heat water, mash in, place in 150deg oven. Get home from work finish the sparge and boil while cooking dinner. Chill in ice bath while eating dinner.

schiersteinbrewing said:

5-10gal brewer here, bought a BBS kit on clearance sale at Bed Bath and Beyond, figured for the low low price of $15 it was worth it just for the equipment. It was quite fun actually, I have already scaled down some recipes I have wanted to try but didn't want 2.5/5/10 gallons to drink.

I can brew on a week day now: Come home for lunch, heat water, mash in, place in 150deg oven. Get home from work finish the sparge and boil while cooking dinner. Chill in ice bath while eating dinner.

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Welcome to the dark side young Anikin.

I'm still having issues with my small batch setup for bottling. I tried the regular autosiphon and have not been able to do it without significant oxygenation. How do you guys use your autosiphon, to a bottling bucket, or straight to a bottle wand?

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I need to bottle about 4-5 bottles of a CAP I have lagering now, but want to then lager the rest of it for a few more weeks. So I'm wondering about bottlin this few bottles as well. I usually use my 5 gal bottling bucket for even 1 gal batches, but that's when I rack all of it for bottling. I don't have a 2 gal bucket.

So I was thinking about using the auto-siphon attached to tubing directly to a bottling wand also. Any one else do this? Would then get some coopers tabs or sugar cubes for priming per bottle...

schiersteinbrewing said:

5-10gal brewer here, bought a BBS kit on clearance sale at Bed Bath and Beyond, figured for the low low price of $15 it was worth it just for the equipment. It was quite fun actually, I have already scaled down some recipes I have wanted to try but didn't want 2.5/5/10 gallons to drink.

I can brew on a week day now: Come home for lunch, heat water, mash in, place in 150deg oven. Get home from work finish the sparge and boil while cooking dinner. Chill in ice bath while eating dinner.

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Yes! It is instant gratification brewing. I can brew every week now without having to neglect my family! Lol

jweyer16 said:

Just to let everyone know someone did just start a small batch brewing Facebook group and they are trying to grow the group. The group is: small batch home brewers hope to see some of you join the group.

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Just joined