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leesmith said:
What's the blow off jar contraption? Is it for yeast harvesting?
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It's a simple jar with two grommets, one for the blow off tube and another for the airlock. It's like a pseudo Burton Union, but the beer doesn't return to the fermentor. It works best with a really active yeast, especially second generation or higher. It usually yields an ounce of yeast which is perfect for the next batch.
 
MrG said:
Even on a one gallon brew do you do a yeast wash and harvest it?
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Yes, or you can just pitch directly on the yeast cake. Be careful though, there is about 4 times the necessary yeast in the cake as needed for an identical brew. You could always do something light and sessionable and then pitch a large beer on top of it.
 
MrG said:
Even on a one gallon brew do you do a yeast wash and harvest it?
Click to expand...


A gallon batch is like a 1 gallon starter. You could get 4 batches of yeast from the gallon. And 4 from each of those. That's 21 batches from a pack of yeast. Or a half pack. That's like 12 cents a batch.
 
hey guys, this is my first time posting and i'm in a bit of a pinch.

I've brewed a couple times before but that was almost a year ago and tomorrow i'm brewing my first beer in a while. i've decided to go small batch because i've been living in japan and space is tight. locking down all the equipment has taken a while but everything is finally here and i was just making last minute checks on the stuff when i realized i bought the wrong size muslin bags. instead of bigger grain bags, i have these tiny 6" bags that definitely wont fit anything. i've decided to ask the one gallon brewers for their advice on any alternate options? are there super easy ways to make the bags myself? could i just use a cheap pillowcase? it was pretty tough getting all this stuff in japan already and i'm freaking out cuz i'm not sure how to proceed.
 
EnderRoark said:
hey guys, this is my first time posting and i'm in a bit of a pinch.

I've brewed a couple times before but that was almost a year ago and tomorrow i'm brewing my first beer in a while. i've decided to go small batch because i've been living in japan and space is tight. locking down all the equipment has taken a while but everything is finally here and i was just making last minute checks on the stuff when i realized i bought the wrong size muslin bags. instead of bigger grain bags, i have these tiny 6" bags that definitely wont fit anything. i've decided to ask the one gallon brewers for their advice on any alternate options? are there super easy ways to make the bags myself? could i just use a cheap pillowcase? it was pretty tough getting all this stuff in japan already and i'm freaking out cuz i'm not sure how to proceed.
Click to expand...

Head to a fabric store and get a yard of nylon voile, that'll work. Otherwise look for a cheap nylon fabric shower curtain. Nearly the same thing.

All else fails, mash in one pot, and then pour through a strainer into another!

:mug:
 
MrG said:
Whoa, that's a lot of yeast. I gotta figure out how to make this happen.
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Make a batch, then bottle it. Get 4 pint-size mason jars. Sterilize them (dishwasher, boiling water, soak them in bleach overnight if you can't do one of those things).

Sanitize them. Sanitize the mouth of your gallon fermenter. Sanitize the lids of your jars.

Pour off as much of the beer on top of the yeast in the fermenter as you can, but leave enough to swirl it all into suspension. (Some will say pour it all off and add some distilled water. That's fine, too, but this is easier).

Swirl it all up into suspension. Pour the yeast slurry into the 4 jars and put the lids on. Label them with the yeast type, generation 1, and the date.

Refrigerate.

When you make your next batch, make a starter to get the yeast going again.

After that batch is done, do the same thing, only this is generation 2. Use all of your gen 1 yeast first (the next 4 batches). Then use all of the gen 2 yeast (16 batches). Do the same thing and label it gen 3 (64 batches). Etc.

Opinions vary about how many generations to do this. I have done 3 and it's fine, but you might be pushing it to go any further. Each time you do it, you run risks with sanitization and with yeast mutation. You'll eventually get a bad batch, so don't save the yeast if the batch has problems.

Opinions also vary about how long you can save the yeast, but I think it's longer than the conservative estimates.
 
sumbrewindude said:
Head to a fabric store and get a yard of nylon voile, that'll work. Otherwise look for a cheap nylon fabric shower curtain. Nearly the same thing.



All else fails, mash in one pot, and then pour through a strainer into another!



:mug:
Click to expand...


sweeeeet thanks. I just have another couple of questions

would a yard of muslin do the same? would the nylon melt?
 
EnderRoark said:
hey guys, this is my first time posting and i'm in a bit of a pinch.

I've brewed a couple times before but that was almost a year ago and tomorrow i'm brewing my first beer in a while. i've decided to go small batch because i've been living in japan and space is tight. locking down all the equipment has taken a while but everything is finally here and i was just making last minute checks on the stuff when i realized i bought the wrong size muslin bags. instead of bigger grain bags, i have these tiny 6" bags that definitely wont fit anything. i've decided to ask the one gallon brewers for their advice on any alternate options? are there super easy ways to make the bags myself? could i just use a cheap pillowcase? it was pretty tough getting all this stuff in japan already and i'm freaking out cuz i'm not sure how to proceed.
Click to expand...


6" bag does sound pretty small, but for a 1 gal extract brew, you're looking at about 3-4 oz of grain to steep. Not sure if you're doing extract, but might as well for a 1 gallon batch. See if your grains will fit, then worry about getting a bigger one.
 
ohiobeer29 said:
Just bottled northern brewer caribou slobber got 11 bottles out of it :)
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Let us know how it came out once it's ready! I've heard great things about the Moose Drool that I believe it to be based off of. I'm a fan of browns in general, but I've never had the original or this brew.
 
EnderRoark said:
sweeeeet thanks. I just have another couple of questions

would a yard of muslin do the same? would the nylon melt?
Click to expand...

1 yard should be more than enough. That is what I used for a 5 gallon BIAB before I stopped being lazy and made my bag.
As far as melting goes yes it can melt or scorch so most of us typically only have the bag in during the mash. If you have to heat up the mash, keep the heat low and stir constantly to minimize scorching.
 
Yreval said:
Let us know how it came out once it's ready! I've heard great things about the Moose Drool that I believe it to be based off of. I'm a fan of browns in general, but I've never had the original or this brew.
Click to expand...


I just finished my last of it and it was awesome after about 8 weeks in the bottle. It needs more age than a lot of brews.
 
I was going to do my smashing pumpkin ale small batch kit last night, but my biggest pot was 1.5 gallons... I was too worried about boilovers to try. Looks like I need a kettle.

Also are the 5 gallon kits splittable? It would be cheaper that way it seems.
 
Tonight I am celebrating 50 consecutive one gallon batches in 50 days! ImageUploadedByHome Brew1408845695.432760.jpg
 
I did two 1 gallon batches on the stove top yesterday back to back to nail down my water amounts. While I was doing that I bottled 1 gallon of graff, and 6 gallons of cider.

The only problem is I dig one batch with a 3 quart dribble sparge and the other one as a no sparge squeeze it like it owes you money.

The first came out 90+ eff and the second only about 75. The good part is that with my adjustments to correct for final volume, the SG we're pretty close


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Lol, thanks- a buddy of mine actually provided the name- BEFORE tasting, so I didn't take it personally. Slenders were wasatch brewery, the rest are uinta.
 
(originally in all grain, someone suggested moving here)

i have also started a thread on beersmith's forums:

http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php/topic,11688.0.html

but i get a lot more responses here, so i wanted to run it by you people. if you haven't clicked on the link, i just started doing one gallon batches as experiments for new ideas, and it hasn't been going well. my beer yesterday was a flaming disaster. I brewed a one gallon smash with 2.6 lbs of Vienna. going by beersmith's calcs, my pre-boil volume was 3.4 gal which I hit. OG on this beer is supposed to be 1.060, and my pre-boil gravity was supposed to be 1.039. I hit a preboil gravity of 1.020. that is not even close to the ballpark let alone near it. my efficiency for this brew was 35%. that's not even possible, the usual for me is 69%. why does beersmith show the estimated mash eff for this at 156%??? i know mash eff goes up as the batches get smaller, but can you really hit 156% efficiency in the real world? when i made this, the grain to water % was very low, the chance of having doughballs or something like that was none. it was a very very thin mash. something just seems off here.

one poster on beersmith questioned why my volumes are so high. it does look strange but it is correct. I have a 1.25 gal trub/chiller loss, and boil off 1.1 gallon an hour. so that's a 2.4 gallon loss out of a 3.4 gallon boil, leaving one gallon. all of this is in my equipment profile, so it should all be accounted for by BS correct?
 
i have an 8 gallon brewpot. the reason my system losses are so high is on purpose, i have a bigger than normal dead space so more trub remains in my kettle and out of my beer. and that is my whole point, all the gravities seem way off to me. i don't understand how beersmith is giving me a 3.5 gallon beer at 1.060 with only 2 1/2 lbs. of grain?
 
DId you check for conversion? Vienna only has Diastatic Power of 50.0.

I was playing with Munich this spring a failed to get full conversion and ran into the same situation. Now I pay a bit more attention to the grain Diastatic Power.
 
i did do an iodine conversion test. and again, not to beat a dead horse, but beersmith should also be accounting for this should it not? the only thing that i can think of and i'm not sure it would lead to a super low preboil gravity, but i am figuring out that 1 gallon batches lose heat in my igloo mash tun pretty quickly (another mystery that i am just starting to piece together) so my ending mash temp was low - start 148F, end 143F.
 
Yes mashing for a 1gallon batch in a 10gallon cooler leaves lots of dead air space. Sounds like you have the path for making changes and the why it happened on this brew.
 
sorry fuzzy, i should have made this part clearer. the temp problem is a mystery also because i have a 5 gallon mash tun for smaller batch sizes, not a ten gallon. and my one gallon batch size was really 3.5 gallons into the 5 gallon mash tun which doesn't seem like it should have lost temps like it did. i am going to be experimenting with pre-heating the tun but i really doubt that should be necessary. something else to get to the bottom of. i am still sceptical that this caused my miles off gravity numbers as the original question still remains and looks very fishy to me - does only 2.5 lbs of vienna in a 3.5 gallon beer really give you a 1.060 beer?
 
itsratso said:
sorry fuzzy, i should have made this part clearer. the temp problem is a mystery also because i have a 5 gallon mash tun for smaller batch sizes, not a ten gallon. and my one gallon batch size was really 3.5 gallons into the 5 gallon mash tun which doesn't seem like it should have lost temps like it did. i am going to be experimenting with pre-heating the tun but i really doubt that should be necessary. something else to get to the bottom of. i am still sceptical that this caused my miles off gravity numbers as the original question still remains and looks very fishy to me - does only 2.5 lbs of vienna in a 3.5 gallon beer really give you a 1.060 beer?
Click to expand...

You're right.....2.5 lbs of grain in 3.5 gallons of beer shouldn't give you a 1.060 beer. Here's is what i think happened. Now this is based on my testing Brewers Friend but I image Beersmith would be similar. Your OG gravity is based on the 1 gallon setting in BS. When I played around with BF's settings...ie.. a 1 gallon beer and various boil volumes the gravity didn't change because the final volume was the same...1 gallon. Now when I changed the final volume going into the fermentor the gravity changed.

I think BS is assuming your boil off is bringing you down to 1 gallon and thus a 1.060 OG....

Believe I'm not an expert so somebody else please chime in...

The efficiency question deals with 3 types of efficiency...Pre-boil, Post boil and Brew house efficiency. Your pre-boil gravity of 1.020 based on 3.5 gallons of wort is roughly 70%.

What was your post-boil gravity and volume?
 
BigRock947 said:
You're right.....2.5 lbs of grain in 3.5 gallons of beer shouldn't give you a 1.060 beer. Here's is what i think happened. Now this is based on my testing Brewers Friend but I image Beersmith would be similar. Your OG gravity is based on the 1 gallon setting in BS. When I played around with BF's settings...ie.. a 1 gallon beer and various boil volumes the gravity didn't change because the final volume was the same...1 gallon. Now when I changed the final volume going into the fermentor the gravity changed.

I think BS is assuming your boil off is bringing you down to 1 gallon and thus a 1.060 OG....

Believe I'm not an expert so somebody else please chime in...

The efficiency question deals with 3 types of efficiency...Pre-boil, Post boil and Brew house efficiency. Your pre-boil gravity of 1.020 based on 3.5 gallons of wort is roughly 70%.

What was your post-boil gravity and volume?
Click to expand...

well, this is somewhat embarrassing to admit but... i checked the gravity, threw it into the carboy, added yeast and promptly umm forgot what the hell the gravity was. at this point i didn't really care much anymore to tell the truth. i had corrected the screwed up pre-boil gravity with DME (a lb and a half!!!) and collected just over 1 gallon of wort. it really doesn't matter anyways with the smash experiments i have been doing as i am more just checking out the hop profiles anyways. as for your calculation of my efficiency for this brew being 70%, my normal efficiency is 69.3% so that would be almost spot on with my usual efficiency. so what the hell?

edit: and yes i see what you are saying that the software assumes that you boil down to 1.060. however that does not tell me how i am supposed to get to a preboil gravity of 1.039 when i got 1.020 preboil (which, as you confirmed, was what i should have got with my normal system efficiency of 69-70%. how am i supposed to get all the way up to 1.039???).
 
itsratso said:
well, this is somewhat embarrassing to admit but... i checked the gravity, threw it into the carboy, added yeast and promptly umm forgot what the hell the gravity was. at this point i didn't really care much anymore to tell the truth. i had corrected the screwed up pre-boil gravity with DME (a lb and a half!!!) and collected just over 1 gallon of wort. it really doesn't matter anyways with the smash experiments i have been doing as i am more just checking out the hop profiles anyways. as for your calculation of my efficiency for this brew being 70%, my normal efficiency is 69.3% so that would be almost spot on with my usual efficiency. so what the hell?

edit: and yes i see what you are saying that the software assumes that you boil down to 1.060. however that does not tell me how i am supposed to get to a preboil gravity of 1.039 when i got 1.020 preboil (which, as you confirmed, was what i should have got with my normal system efficiency of 69-70%. how am i supposed to get all the way up to 1.039???).
Click to expand...

It might help if I explain my system....I mash doing BIAB on my stove top in a 3 gallon kettle....my Brew House efficiency is 70%...

But my pre-boil efficiency is around 80%....BF adjusts my Brew House efficiency down based on my volume losses and low boil-off so my actual efficiency drops down to 70%

Most people say they are getting 70% or 75% or 80% efficiency which is probably true but that's more likely pre-boil efficiency and not into the fermentor or Brew House efficiency.

Here's a quote from the BF's FAQ page:

Brew House Efficiency: An all inclusive measure of efficiency, which counts all losses to the fermentor. This can be thought of as 'to the fermentor' efficiency.

So what I'm trying to say your actual efficiency is lower than what you think...your pre-boil is around 69% but your Brew House efficiency is probably around 55%.

In order to get the 1.039 gravity your pre-boil probably needs to be around 80%....

It took me awhile to wrap my head around Brew House vs. pre-boil vs. post boil.....hope it makes sense to you.
 
itsratso said:
(originally in all grain, someone suggested moving here)
my efficiency for this brew was 35%. that's not even possible, the usual for me is 69%. why does beersmith show the estimated mash eff for this at 156%??? i know mash eff goes up as the batches get smaller, but can you really hit 156% efficiency in the real world?
Click to expand...

No. And Obviously no because your results didn't even come close. What you did was create a math error for your self by confusing brewhouse efficiency with mash efficiency.

BeerSmith doesn't dilute OG based on volume. It looks at the Brewhouse Efficiency simply as extracted sugar that makes it into the fermenter. When you raise the loss to trub, BS keeps the OG constant and simply raises the mash efficiency to compensate. Eventually the mash efficiency exceeds 100%, which should tell you that you made an error.

I brewed a one gallon smash with 2.6 lbs of Vienna. going by beersmith's calcs, my pre-boil volume was 3.4 gal which I hit. OG on this beer is supposed to be 1.060, and my pre-boil gravity was supposed to be 1.039. I hit a preboil gravity of 1.020.
Click to expand...

So, just going through the numbers you posted, it looks like your system performed exactly as you expected.

You state an actual preboil volume of 3.4 gallons and SG of 1.020. That becomes a total of 68 gravity points, which divided by grist weight means you extracted 1.026/lb. This equates to 68% to 70% mash efficiency which allows some margin of error, but matches what you stated.

However, if you stated a BREWHOUSE efficiency of 69%, then that is simply not possible because your losses are just about equal to your yield. So, even if you have a mash efficiency of 100%, you still can't have a brewhouse yield of more than 51%.

The 35% efficiency number BS gave you is the calculated efficiency on the Fermentation tab, correct? Let's remember that this is the percentage or total available sugars that made it from the grain into the fermenter. Since you're already losing half the sugar to trub, the remainder is your mash efficiency difference.

A simplified version of figuring your brewhouse efficiency is the following formula:

BHE = (Sg x BV) / (Pg x GW)

BHE: Brew House Efficiency
Sg: Wort Specific Gravity, post chill (or post boil)
BV: Batch Volume, as measured in the fermenter
Pg: Potential gravity of grain
GW: Grain Weight

Based on the information you provided I estimated the post boil gravity. That means you got:

35% = (26.6 x 1.3) / (38 x 2.6)
 
i'm trying here brewfun, really i am. i got the 35% efficiency by simply adjusting the tot. efficiency number on the top of beersmith downward until i got 1.020 (what i actually got) for estimated preboil gravity on the mash page. that turned out to be 35% tot. efficiency.

edit: ok so i read through this enough times until my head hurt. so if i get what you are saying than my tot. efficiency actually was 35% for this brew, and my mash eff was 69%. usually my tot. efficiency is 69% so i was getting the two confused because the mash eff here happened by blind luck to be the same as my usual tot. efficiency. is this correct? or am i way off base here and if i am explain it to me like i'm a kindergartner please.

the big question in my mind still is why did this happen? other than missing on my mash temp nothing out of the ordinary happened here to account for why i would only get a 35% total efficiency?

also i don't understand this: "When you raise the loss to trub, BS keeps the OG constant and simply raises the mash efficiency to compensate. Eventually the mash efficiency exceeds 100%which should tell you that you made an error."

what i don't understand is what error did i make? that IS my loss to trub, i can't change the deadspace on my kettle? it is 1.25 gal. trub loss.
 
"edit: ok so i read through this enough times until my head hurt. so if i get what you are saying than my tot. efficiency actually was 35% for this brew, and my mash eff was 69%. usually my tot. efficiency is 69% so i was getting the two confused because the mash eff here happened by blind luck to be the same as my usual tot. efficiency. is this correct?"

Yes

"also i don't understand this: "When you raise the loss to trub, BS keeps the OG constant and simply raises the mash efficiency to compensate. Eventually the mash efficiency exceeds 100%which should tell you that you made an error."

what i don't understand is what error did i make? that IS my loss to trub, i can't change the deadspace on my kettle? it is 1.25 gal. trub loss."

Probably not a mistake you directly made. For me when the Mash efficiency is 100% or more I have to go into the mash tab and correct the pre boil volume. For some reason my BS likes to use a 5 gallon pre boil volume.
 
thanx for that. and so what do you correct the preboil volume to? until the estimated efficiency is under 100%? until it matches your true brewhouse eff (in my case 69%?) to something else? and should i be routinely doing this to all recipes or only those that go over 100%?

edit: just read that palmer says the sweet spot for mash eff is 75% so I guess shooting for that would be a good place to start?
 
I take what I want in the fermenter and add in what I am expecting to loose in trub and boil off.
So in your case 1gal in fermenter + 1.25 loss in kettle + 1.1 boil off = 3.350 pre boil

In the mash tab: what is happening for me is BS calculates the correct pre boil volume. But in the box where you enter you're measured pre boil, it defaults to a 5 gallons making the measured mash efficiency 245%.
 

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