Hello All

[Westsidekef]

Hi!
I just wanted to introduce myself. I have been wanting to get into home brewing for a long time but figured since I lived in a Condo that I'd have to wait. My Girlfriend found a kit and bought it for my Birthday that let's me brew small 1 Gal batches. And really, who doesn't have room for a 1 Gal glass jug...

So, I cracked it open on Sunday, downloaded the instructions and away I went. I'm pretty sure my grain was too hot in the mash, (because I didn't understand WHY it had to be in that temp range,) but the wort tasted sweet and there are bubbles coming through the airlock so I guess I'll get SOME kind of beer.

Anyway, I was so excited to get started I just jumped right in...and THEN found this site after it was fermenting and now I'm learning a lot for my next try.

I'll just ask my first question here for anyone that stops by. I have been looking at a lot of great recipes here that I want to try. If they are for a 5 Gal batch, is it safe to say I can just take 1/5 of everything (grain, hops, etc.) to brew my small 1 Gal batch?
Thanks!

Kevin...

 

[Homercidal]

Welcome!

First off, yes, you basically scale down a recipe by division as you would think. You would be very close that way. A lot of recipes are expressed in percentages of grain, hops additions, etc. so it works out fine.

Second, you may be ok with your kit. Some kits are Partial mash, where you need to have some of the grain resting in water at a specific temperature, say 154 degrees or thereabouts. Other kits just include crystal or roasted malts, which only need to be steeped and the water temperature is not critical as long as it's warm enough to do a good job of rinsing the sugars and roasted flavors from the grain.

Some people on here also brew 1 gallon batches, but I think you could scale up to 2.5 without too much trouble in a condo. At that size most people can prepare wort on the stovetop quite easily and there are fermenters of all sorts of sizes, shapes, materials, etc. that will work great.

But the biggest thing to work on is the fermentation temperature, IMO. Many beginners fail to realize how much higher fermentation temps affect the flavor of the beer. I highly recommend you read up on that and evaluate where you stand. For most ales the best temps are in the low 60s (15-16C if my memory is accurate), and that is the temperature of the WORT, not the air temp. The yeast will create heat during the fermentation, sometimes causing a rise in temp by several degrees!)

In any case, I hope you are having fun and you are making beer. Sometimes I just sit and marvel at how it all goes together to make something so wonderful.

Cheers!

 

[prandlesc]

Welcome. I re-started homebrewing last year with a 1 gallon kit, and made a very enjoyable chocolate maple porter. Then I bought a refill kit from the same company that was a saison - and it was good, too. My guess is if you decide to stay with 1 gallon batches is that you'll need to buy a few more glass jars for fermenting because ylu'' want to brew every weekend for two reasons. 1) You'll enjoy trying new recipes and flavors, and 2) a gallon only makes 10 beers - and you won't get to try much because your friends will all be asking for your great homebrews! You should look online for some brewing programs to play with. They'll help you scale your recipes. I recently purchased a program called Beer Tools Pro for my recipe creation. There are several programs out there and none are too expensive - and they'll help you think about how recipe changes effect your beers. My guess is that you'll step up to larger batches relatively soon - so if you're thinking about buying a dedicated kettle for brewing, think bigger than you need today for a 1 gallon batch.

 

[Westsidekef]

Thanks for the advice, guys!
I have already bought pretty much everything I need to start another batch this weekend! I was talking with the lady last night and we figured we could get into a bit of a rhythm brewing every two or three weekends with two fermenting jugs. I have been spending a LOT of time in these forums since last weekend, trying to absorb as much as possible...it's already becoming an obsession!
I have been messing around with an online software and I am going to check out a free trial of a couple of the others but I know I will use something like that for sure...I've already planned out the next, and next next style I want to try with inspiration from the recipe forums.
Anyway, I'll see you around here as my journey progresses!
Kef...

 

[Wipper]

Try looking at http://www.brewmate.net .Its a free downloadable software that works really well. You can enter in any recipe and scale it back to whatever size batch you want to make.

 

[manatron]

I too am starting using Brooklyn Brew Shoppe's kit and I can't wait till this Thursday when it's my day off so I can brew!

I'm lucky as my background makes it easy for me to adapt to recipes - so I'm trying my hand at two batches (Smoked Wheat (came with the kit) and a Hazelnut Honey Brown that I've modified from their Chestnut Brown recipe.

How has the proposed schedule of brewing every 2 weeks worked out for you? Ideally that's going to be my schedule too!

Happy Brewing.

 

[Pratzie]

Welcome to the home brew world!

Check out this link... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/1-gallon-brewers-unite-311884/

U'll find some good stuff here.

 

[manatron]

Thanks! I'll definitely check it out