1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

For gravity readings I use a refractometer and Saun Terrill's sight to get decent ABV #s.

 

Cracked a bottle of LIVID today to celebrate a successful brew day. Mr. Murphy did not come knocking, and everything went very smoothly. Being that this is the inaugural bottle of the second all-grain batch, I gave it an aggressive pour, not knowing what to expect from it... Pic one shows a four finger head.... Holy cow!! The head was thick, pillowy, and lingered for a long time, and a tight lacing dried to the glass from the very top to the last sip. Pic two and three are close-ups of the head from the top-down view (the latter with natural lighting) and the last pic is just before putting the glass to my lips for the first taste.

LIVID was dry-hopped with Simcoe, and the hop comes through with a strong and pleasant aroma. Taste is just as great as the appearance and aroma. The higher ABV is masked well by the balance of hops and malt... An incredible beer!

EDIT: Spelling and sorry for my crappy camera

 

OOooooooooooooo - that looks tasty. Well done, Craig!

Yep, I'll have to brew that again soon...

Going over items for tomorrow - boy is it going to be a busy morning; apple smashing, hop picking, and Graf brewing! Can't wait!!

 

Thinking about doing a SMaSH this afternoon with Styrian Goldings and maybe MO. Anybody ever scaled down a Styrian Stunner variation?

I figure 2lbs of base grain and 3 additions of 5.5g hops sounds about right.

 

Harvest Graf 2014 is in the fermenter!

Busy morning of shredding, pressing, picking fresh wet Fuggles, and then the boil. Wasn't sure where the cider would end up, so I managed to guess short on the grain. Oh well, the 1+gal "beer" ended up a a healthy 14.5P, on to which 2gal of fresh pressed cider was poured.

OG going in is 10.2P, pitched with T58 - I may put in some Candi syrup once primary fermentation slows down, just to boost it back into the 13's.

Was strange measuring hops by the ice-cream bucket vs a gram scale....

Brew on!

 

Getting this to the top

 

I'm planning my brewing cycle. Got supplies for at least 3 batches probably 5, potentially 6. I'm gonna start with a belgian dark strong that's gonna murder someone which should be ready by Christmas time. Then i'm gonna make an IPA

I got some nice yeast so I'm gonna experiment with yeast washing so I can keep my yeast and keep my costs down.

 

I brewed my first ever batch last night (Northern Brewer's Smashing Pumpkin). I made mead for years in 1 gallon batches so I have the equipment for that set up.

I went to the local brew store for the first time yesterday to pick up some sanitizer. I mentioned to the guy that I was going to be doing 1 gallon batches and he pretty much sneered at me saying that small batches like that are really only for experimenting. That I should do 5 gallons if I really want to brew.

That was the first and last time I will go to that store.

 

Just a note on the bombers - I can't drink 'em alone either, but use one of those wine stoppers for the beer bottle and it stays quite fresh for the next 24 hours.

 

That kinda attitude wears thin real quick. Hopefully you have another local brewshop? If not, Morebeer.com offers good prices and free shipping, helpful when you are buying ingredients in smaller increments.

 

I think this is my favourite thing about 1G brewing; deciding on four brews for the month. If I was brewing bigger batches and only brewed once a month I think I'd have pretty heavy anxiety about settling on one recipe.

 

I hear you Pearlheartgtr. Same thing happened to me when I used to live in DC. Went to a LHBS in northern VA and they gave me the same snotty treatment (despite the fact that their store was the size of a shoebox). Took my business to Maryland Homebrew in Columbia, MD and what a world of difference. The guy spent 30 minutes with me crafting two separate one-gallon partial mash recipes and measuring out tiny bags of grains. If no LHBSs are nearby, check out morebeer, NB, AIH, etc. They are all starting to package things in smaller 1-gallon kits now, or at least offer smaller increments like Homebrewcraig said. Good luck!

 

Have a question about strike temperature for mashing in a cooler. I've been heating my water to about 168 before dumping it into the grain, and the temperature always seems to drop about 20 degrees by the time I've mixed it. I've been heating the cooler first by letting some hot water sit in it for 20 min or so.

So if I want my mash temp to be a little higher than 150, is it okay to do a strike temp above 170? Will that add tannins or other bad flavors to the brew?

 

Bad things don't start happening until above 178 degrees.

 

My initial question is how big is the cooler vs how much grain if you're loosing 20F on the mash in? My second question is what volume are you striking at? If you're using less than 1.5qt/lb, I'd recommend going up in strike water (I use 1.5qt/lb, but some use less/more - I'm using volumes I'm comfortable with).

Even with a 5gal round cooler mashing in for a 1.5gal batch, I never had more than a 10F drop from initial strike. The only thing I can think of would be not having enough water for the strike (less thermal mass), or having a crazy huge cooler (10gal for a 1gal batch) where you're trying to heat the deadspace.

Disclaimer up front, I tend to mash in wet vs other on here - that's because I want to try and keep my mash volume and batch sparge volume close to the same amount. It makes the time to get to temp similar between the two volumes, and lets me plan ahead.

The main thing I'd be concerned with putting hotter than 175F-180F water into the cooler up front, is that you WILL distort the plastic liner inside the cooler at some point. May not be the first one, but eventually you will. It's not great for the cooler (pulls the plastic away from the foam), and I'm not wild about heating plastic that high - not saying bad things will end up in the wort, but with my luck I'd grow a third arm and wonder where it came from.

Have you tried mixing in immediately at 10F over your desired temp? You'll loose a little heat no matter what, but I'm betting that by letting the water sit in the cooler (without something like tin foil to trap the heat down) you're trying to heat up the entire cooler (without grain) with just the little water that's in it.

Get the water in the cooler, mix the grain immediately, and put some tinfoil over the works. Leave it alone for 30min and check it again!

 

Just got home and checked the Graf, krausen has dropped! WOO! Smells wild through the airlock, need to rack of the DPA to a keg and then get that Graf conditioned.

To keg the Graf, or bottle in Bombers... Hmmmmmm what do, what do...

 

One thing I love about 1 gallon jugs, so much easier and less sketchy to dry than larger carboys.

 

That's a great idea! I usually use my round carboy rack, but occasionally I'll need to dry more than one jug at a time, and I usually just wait and do one at a time. I have a few funnels, so this will remedy that... Thanks!


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Cool idea there

 

Question for 1gallon batches. When doing all grain, are 2.4 L (2.5qts) of water for mash, then 3.8 L (4qts) for sparge the norm?

I was dead on with these numbers on my first batch, but had to top off with water on my second one.

 

Depends on a lot of things.

How large is your grain bill? Grain will absorb some of the water.

What is your boil off? You want to match all this up to get your desired volume when all is said and done.

To put it in perspective, I just finished a IIPA last night. A little over a 3 lb grain bill with a 61 minute boil. I get about a .65 gallon per hour boil off. Collected 1.75 gallons. I get 1 gallon filled and a hydrometer/sample with virtually nothing left over.

I did a 4.2 quart mash and 4.2 quart sparge.

 

Volumes will change a little depending on grain bill and hop usage.

I can tell you for a FACT I was surprised at how much wort you can loose to massive (relative of course) hop bill. I made note of it in my notebook so I can offset a few extra cups upfront if necessary.

 

Anyone have any links for 1 gallon recipes?

 

Homebrew Exchange has a good selection of 1 gallon recipes.

http://homebrewexchange.net/recipes_pico

 

I just finished my very first one gallon brew. Went with a BIAB on a portable convection top (Wasn't the best to get a boil). I ended up brewing a honey pumpkin saison. Pretty excited to see how this batch turns out.

 

Glad I decided to take a look at this thread (though I've not read all 121 pages). Doctor recently put me on medication that restricts me to 3 "drinks" per week. No way to do 5-gallon batches and have any sort of variety. I'm taking the tips and advice, scaling down some recipes, gonna have at it!

 

Sounds like you need a new doctor!

 

Time to pull out that 40oz mug!

 

My thought exactly!

 

I'd recommend that you pick up a Brewing Software, such as BeerSmith or BrewTarget.. Both of these have a scaling feature which will allow you to take a 5, 6, or whatever size recipe you find and scale it down to a one gallon size. I use BeerSmith and scale recipes I like down to 1.5 gallons, because I use a 2 gallon fermenting bucket and I want to ensure I do not have blowouts.

 

I wrote my own convertor. Not all recipes are 5 gallons and I don't always brew 5 gallons. I have done 1gal, 2gal, 3gal, and 5.5gal. Plus, nearly every recipe is in ounces and my scale is in grams. Feel free to use it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsJukKCXJXsEdFNpNC1Wc3hMYkVReUhVS0tCaVplenc&usp=sharing

 

Thanks for this, it's going to be a great help.

 

Never got around to this (plan to this afternoon), so I thought I'd throw it out there one more time.

 

Burninator - what's your typical effeciency?

Most of the Styrian Stunner recipes I've seen have a large bittering addition, mid flavor, and lighter aroma. Sort of a 4/2/1 ratio, so if you're using 16g of hops, you'd be looking at like [email protected]/[email protected]/[email protected] Any english pale base malt would work - MO's always good, Golden Promise might be a fun substitute.

You going to use S04 or Notty?

 

Thinking of doing a SMaSH of Vienna and possibly Willamette. Want something that isn't too hoppy and I have 1.5 oz of Willamette in the freezer. Might go with 4 lbs Vienna and 05 for yeast

 

While I'm really new to this, I'm operating under the assumption of around 70%. Last 2 beers I brewed came in nearly where I wanted them, assuming that rate, and the last one came in a little higher.

I didn't have as much Styrian Goldings as I remembered, so having already picked up a couple pounds of Vienna, I went with Czech Saaz, instead. At 2.4%AA, I think the additions you described above are approximately right.

I went about 0.4oz at 60min. Just starting to boil. So I'm thinking another .25oz at 10min and the same at flameout.

I have US-05 and Belle Saison on hand (real brew day is next week...this is mostly for kicks). Thinking about using the 05 and then pitching an amber on the yeast cake next week.

 

Styrian Goldings is supposed to be a Czech Fuggles, if memory serves - or is it EKG? It's one of them, and for some reason my brain's foggy.

Saaz is a different animal - but in my opinion, I love Saaz - almost more than Fuggles/EKG. If you did a Vienna/Saaz smash, it'll be great. I did a Vienna SMASH with Northern Brewer and it was awesome, I'd be the subtle Saaz addition with Vienna would be perfect.

Definitely US05 over Belle, but those are both great yeasts.

Sounds like you have some GREAT beers to brew here soon!

 

Thanks for the reassurance! I really wasn't planning on winging it tonight, but I guess that's how it goes. I love Saaz, too. Went pretty light with it. MyBrewCo has me right above 30IBU, which is straight down the middle. Should give me a good idea of what I'm doing with both the hops and the malt.

Maybe I can even time this to toss on something bigger when the amber is done. Maybe a Cascadian.

 

That's what I do typically with IIPA's, make something medium and then save the yeast slurry and repitch that.

I used to pitch right on the cake when I was brewing every weekend, but now that summer/fall's here (busiest time in our fam with projects and activities) I don't brew as often, so I put the yeast slurry (trub and all) into a sanitized mason jar and into the fridge. Once the slurry's in the fridge for a while, it separates out with yeast on top and trub on bottom. Just pitch the yeast portion and tada!

I've stored yeast this way for 2-3 weeks and it's always taken off gangbusters once I pitch it.

Man, I need to brew. Okay, I really need to drink what I've already brewed, but I want to brew again.

Working on an idea for an American Mild (not a session IPA, something lower than an APA)

 

I normally brew 5 gallons at a time but I have been giving serious thought to doing some 1 gallon brews. It makes sense to me that instead of 5 gallons of the same thing I could split up the ingredients I would need for those 5 gallons , and with a little imagination and a few extra ingredients I could concievably brew either up to 5 different beers or 5 variations of the same one , at once. Only one gallon of each , but still 5 gallons total , and there would be a good variety to try when they finish up. I may give it a try sometime.