1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

A week or 2 is fine. A month or 2 is fine too. I've heard of people going longer than that successfully but that is about as far as I feel comfortable pushing it.

 

I always let it go 2 weeks.

 

Two weeks minimum, Doc - I usually run 3 weeks, but have been known to cut it earlier if I need some yeast for another beer. At the end of the time, toss is in the fridge for a day or two to cold-crash it. Then it's just rack and bottle!

 

Thanks fellas I was wondering because we are headed out on vacation for a week.

I just saw that mini kegs hold a 1 gallon and I think it would be easier to deal with than bottleing, anyone tried it and how did it work? I was thinking that doing natural carbination and gravity pour would be easy.

Thoughts?

 

Hey Doc,

The minikeg thing has been on my radar for a while to try out, I just haven't had a chance. There's some great youtube video's out there explaining about them, cleaning them, as well as the issues you may face.

A quick run-down for you:
1) If you look around your local stores, you may be able to get a keg (with beer in it) for slightly more than the cost of a new one.
2) You can't use Heinekin or Newcastle kegs, they must have the pressure vent on top. Good examples of these are like Bell Oberon in the minikeg or Spaten in the minikeg.
3) Cleaning them can be a pain.
4) You will need to use 1/3rd the priming sugar for carb - no more.
5) The beer will oxidize once the vent is open, otherwise you won't be able to get any through the spigot. Maybe not an issue if you'll be finishing it within a day or so, but after a week it'll have an off flavor..


So - knowing that - I'll suggest an alternative. Sadly, this is ANOTHER experiment that I've yet to play with, so this falls into the realm of "speculation", though I can say due to research it's fairly popular in England with cask style beers - that's the polypin.

The Polypin is essentially a plastic, collapsible 1gal cubetainer (like a square box/bag of wine) that can be primed (1/3rd the amount of sugar again) and allowed to pressurize, then poured from and allow the "pin" to collapse as the beer leaves, so you don't get oxidation issues.

Polypins are more aligned with cask style ales (low carbonation, English style beers) than American ales, but I don't see anything that would stop you from experimenting with them if you're curious.

I've amassed quite an amount of info on them if you're curious, I'd be happy to pass on some links.

All else fails, you're looking at 9-10ish 12oz bottles, which isn't bad at all to rip through. Sugar cubes might be a great substitution to batch priming with such a small amount.

In other news -

After having a few of the Brewfarm Funk#2, I couldn't help myself. After doing a fair amount of poking and playing with Brewtarget, I think I've got something close enough to take a swing with. That's going to get placed into the queue for sure.. Mmmmmm Belgian Saison.

 

BTW - while I'm thinking about it, all the small batch guys should go check out the article on the front page about using a base mash and then steeping different grains in the pot to create two separate beers from one base mash.

Great article, gave me lots of ideas from the perspective of creating two very different beers through a variety of techniques in nearly the same time I'd be doing just one beer on the stove top.

Can't wait to play around with some of those concepts in the future! Check it out if you haven't already had a chance:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/Increasing-Pipeline-Diversity.html

:rockin:

 

I've been thinking about using something similar for a 2-gal sized bottling bucket. The only pre-made bottling bucket I've found that size online is 9 bucks, plus 11 for shipping, so $20 total. I know I can get a bucket (or plastic can/jar like that one) for cheap, and the spigot assembly is like $4-5...

How hard is it to put it together? Obviously easy to do... That the wrong question. "How do you put it together?" would be a better question. Drill the hole to match the size, but then do you need any kind of caulk or rubber grommet to make a good seal to keep from leaking? I'd like to give this a try...


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If you get the right spigot - the RED one - it actually comes with two gaskets on the spigot, so you put one on the outside of the bottle, and one on the inside, then screw it hand tight. Test for leaks and use!

 

I like doing 1 gallon batches for smash beers to get a feel for a hop I haven't used before. Or if I have a really stupid idea that I wanna try.

Example, right now I feel like **** due to a cold. I think I'm gonna make something hearty like a brown ale with beef/ bouilion cubes because, it's 1 gallon.

 

Thx, sounds easy enough! I'll look for the red one, then...



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For the sake of clarity, this is the one I'm referring to - notice it's got two gaskets on it.

The red tip is sized at 3/8", and with a short section of vinyl tubing mates up perfectly with a bottling wand.

 

Yep, I get my small buckets with gasketed lid from my supermarket (Safeway in my case) for free. They are 2 gallon icing buckets. Drill the hole for a spigot and you are done.. BAM!!!

 

Comes in blue also, I put 3 into buckets already and my lhbs sells these for couple bucks apiece. Like sumbrewindude says, make sure it has 2 gaskets or itll do nothing but make a mess.

 

I am wondering if any I you guys have an extract recipe for a low ABV hoppy ale?

I think it would be good for drinking all afternoon big hops and low ABV.


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I'd go with Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde and late hop the snot out of it. It's 4%ABV and tasted great when I made it, then I reworked it for my AZB to boost it to 5.7%/55IBU to mellow out the alcohol. Now it's super tasty and sneaky as all heck - SWMBO has one and I have a great evening.

Need me to scale it (Centennial Blonde) to 1gal for you?

 

Sumbrewindude if you would not mind that would be great!
Can you include your hop the snot out of it schedule?
Thanks man


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Here's a quick rough stab *Forgive me Biermuncher!*

ex cent blond, adaptation with late hops - Blonde Ale
=================================

Boil Size: 1.067 gal
Boil Time: 60min
Efficiency: 70%
OG: 10.2 P
FG: 2.6 P
ABV: 4.0%
Bitterness: 26.5 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 3 SRM (Morey)

Fermentables
=================================
Name Type Amount
Dry Extract (DME) - Extra Light Dry Extract 14.000 oz
Briess - Carapils Malt Grain 3.000 oz Steeped
Total grain: 1.062 lb

Hops
======================================
Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Cascade 6.0% 0.125 oz Boil 60.000 min Pellet 14.1
Centennial 10.5% 0.125 oz Boil 10.000 min Pellet 8.9
Cascade 6.0% 0.250 oz Boil 3.000 min Pellet 3.5
Centennial 10.5% 0.250 oz Boil 0.000 s Pellet 0.0

Cascade 6.0% 0.500 oz Dry Hop 4.000 day Pellet 0.0

Yeast
======================================
Name Type Form Amount Stage
Safale S-04 Ale Dry 0.388 oz Primary


A couple quick notes -
This is an adaptation of Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde, which is a kickass Blonde and I encourage everyone to make the original. That recipe uses staggered hop additions, where this one uses a more IPA style addition of FWH/Late, which is what I prefer in my own ales. On the "0" time addition, I pull from the element and let it coast down to 180F while stirring and hold for 10min, then procede to cool down fully.

The original recipe uses Notty yeast, which attenuates down pretty far. I usually use US05 instead as I don't have to keep it as cool. If you can keep it cool and don't mind a little less attenuation for less ABV, I put in S04 as it'll stay clean if you keep in in the low 60's for ferm temps. If you can't, sub back in US05 and realize you're going to up the ABV to 4.3 and dry it out a little.

Also, in order to keep the ABV low I dropped the DME to 14oz, if you use the full pound, the ABV raises to 4.5% with S04, and 4.9% with US05.

Good luck!

 

Brewing tonight!

Who's with me? I've got a new session pale in the mashtun right now, trying some new things with water chemistry and some acidulated malt. Hoping to eat and get the kids scrubbed up while those enzymes attack the malt sugars...

:rockin:

 

Brewing tomorrow night! Good luck on the experiment.


Ken.

 

I got to get my mind made up on a recipe before I brew again their are so many !!!! Anyone have a suggestion ?

 

Beerlover - pick a style, then pick a beer. It's slightly easier.

I try to keep at least one dark and one light(ish) beer on hand at all times, then do something funky. So right now I just finished brewing up an APA (I was getting low on light colored beers), and will be bottling a red tonight also. Still have some of the brown in bottles, along with a mexican lager that will be good to open next week, plus a bunch of blonde also. Lots of choices!

I can't wait for the Keptinis to be ready to bottle, and my first real IIPA will go into dryhopping this week.

Now I need to start planning another three recipies for the next few weeks!



Edit -

So last night was a minor disaster of sorts. I broke tradition and try doing the sugar cube thing instead of my usual priming sugar amount - SWMBO picked me up some sugar cubes from the store (I specifically asked for the 0.5tsp ones) and set about putting them into the bottles.

I SHOULD have gotten the hint immediately, as the cubes wouldn't fit into the bottles without some serious effort. As I finished up everything (capping and the whole 9) I popped a sugar cube in my mouth and suddenly questioned the amount of sugar. Doing some math, I ended up at 3.6g per cube, or just under a teaspoon per. Crap. Opened all the bottles, poured back off what I could knowing that there was still a fair amount of sugar already in solution, rinsed all the bottles and resanitized. Rebottled EVERYTHING, and then put it in the "bomb-locker" for the next few weeks.

Man. What a pain, and to make matters worse, it tastes like an awesome Irish rye.

Well, lets see what the future holds!

 

Sumbrewindude, that sucks, and I feel your pain!

I have had to do something similar in the past, which is drop more sugar into bottles because I had under carbonated them...I hope you don't get bottle bombs...good that you put em in the bomb locker just in case!

Btw I just may have added a new homebrewer to the world - I went to the lhbs with my friend and set him up to brew his first batch of a 5-gallon hefeweizen (extract). The lucky bastard has a mansion of a house with soooo much basement space. (Folks with ideal fermentation temps in their basement make this apt-dweller rather envious). I'm gonna tell him to join hbt next!


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I know Domino make two sizes of sugar cubes....gotta read box not sure which brand your wife picked up



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I have no idea what brand, I know the box was pink and not the usual Domino yellow.

Hmm... Oh well. Honestly I don't know if it saved any time in the process, I usually make the sugar solution in the microwave then put it into the freezer while I'm sanitizing everything. Usually by the time I'm ready to transfer the beer to the bottling bucket it's cooled down enough.

The major reason I wanted to try it this time around was I had a few bottles that were under/overcarbed in the bottles and I wanted to have consistancy between bottles.

All this does is make me want to order up my regulator and fittings to get my kegs online. Consistant, definable carbonation would be really, really nice.


In other news -

Bought the first 12pack I've bought in a while tonight. Just wanted to try some new beer from some breweries. Actually was kind of sticker shocked when I picked them up - I've been getting used to spending 20$ and getting 3+ twelve packs of my own stuff.

I do enjoy sampling other's efforts, though.

 

I have a syringe that measures up to 5 cc's. I have often considered doing the math to figure out how much water to add so that I can prime in the bottle.

 

+1 on the keg hopefully if I get any extra money I'm going the keg way too everyone who kegs always says you won't regret move from bottles


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Anybody cold crash in small portions? I lack space to cold crash much beer in the fridge, and don't have a fridge set up just for that purpose. Yesterday put a gallon in an ice tea jug with bottling sugar and put it in the fridge for several days to clear it. I will then bottle right out of the ice tea jug with the sugar already mixed in. Does this make any sense ;-)....


H.W.

 

Let me know if it works interesting idea

 

I'm splitting a small batch into portions........ one this week, and one next week. I see no reason why it shouldn't work. My crashing jug is also my bottling bucket and my secondary, all in one....... secondary only in that it will settle out more sediment.

H.W.

 

So, slight issue last night. I brewed on Sunday, placed my jug in a big plastic bin, checked in on it last night to see if it was bubbling per usual, and turns out it was, just a bit too much. I had the blowoff tube in a pint glass which was now a nice brown beer color, and you can see that foam had gone about half way up the side of my container, the bottom of the bin was also covered in a lot of liquid. Probably lost about 1/8 of the liquid in my gallon jug. Cleaned it all up but a, what probably caused this? b: Anyway to prevent it in the future. Out of 4 brews this is the first time it's gone this bonkers.

 

After having made about a dozen 1 gallon kits, thinking of doing a rye pale ale for my first non-kit experiment.... so much variety!

 

Active fermentation with certain types of yeast can definitely make a mess, it's in their nature.

If you keep ferm temps low (mid 60's) and increase the volume of your fermenter so you have more headspace, you'll have no more issues with blow off.

FWIW, my favorite carboys are 4gal containers, and I'm fermenting about 1.5gal of beer - LOTS of headspace, and never had a kruesen go over an inch (even fermented hot).

 

I actually went the other way....I bought a kegging system and was going to build a fridge to hold it all. Then I decided I wanted to brew 2.5 gallon batches...of course that was 15 years ago and I didn't know that 2.5 gallon kegs existed so I sold it to someone who was starting out.

Now at 1.5 gallons batches I really don't think about bottling...its something I just do on brewing days.

 

I guess the pro here is that by priming a couple days ahead of time, you should have less stratification.

The downside is even though fermentation is slowed, it isn't entirely stopped, so it is going to be a little harder to guess how much sugar is left when it goes to bottle. I have had wines that were back sweetened, bottled still, and straight into the fridge. A month later they were sparkling.

 

bleme.....I was thinking the same thing but having not done this myself I couldn't put any personal experience behind it.

I think the amount of sugar left shouldn't effect his carbonation too much...it may take a longer to get the level intended.

 

The problem is you have no way of knowing how much work the yeast has completed on the sugar you added. If You added the appropriate amount of sugar for the carbonation level you want the best possible scenario is undercarbonated beer. Worst case, no carbonation. Either way it's unlikely that the yeast hasn't began its attack on the sugar you added.

 

I would never have thought that a significant amount of fermentation would occur at refrigerator temps...........

H.W.

 

I kinda have eyes on a blueberry wheat recipe

 

Don't do it!!! I brewed one 2 years ago and my wife has been bugging me to make it again ever since!

 

You are probably right... not a lot at fridge temps. I guess I didn't realize you were talking about in the fridge. Only one way to find out. Give it a try and report back.