1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

1 gallon batches? sounds more like a glorified yeast starter...

kidding, i brew 1 gallon batches for experimental beers. works great!

 

I just brewed my first 1 gallon batch today but have a feeling there will be many more to come as 5 gallons will be difficult at the new place I'm moving to. Brewed some Caribou Slobber

 

In process of brewing my first gallon batch! With my own homegrown hops too!

I've been brewing 5 gallon batches for a while and there is a learning curve scaling down to 1 gallon batch!

 

is there a drawback of using a 5 gal carboy as fermenter vessel for 2 gal batch?

 

Headspace not so good. Get a 2-3 gallon carboy/bucket.

 

or almost a 12 pack. ! mAYBE possibly a good experimental batch? Dumping or having a mediocre 5 gallon batch would be terrible comparably.

 

Check your bakeries around town. They usually have 2-3 gallon food grade buckets they throw away on a regular basis.

 

I usually do this in 2 quart fruit juice bottles. I usually brew in some cheap 4 gallon water bottles I found at Sam's Club. That gives me a 3.5 gallon batch.

 

What's the learning curve? The process is the same, the ingredients are the same....the ONLY difference is that there's only 1/5 of them.....and the fermentor's smaller....

 

The learning curve for me is the "in the kitchen" I started brewing on my 3 tier gravity system doing 5 gallon batches. I brew on that really efficiently so the transition to the kitchen had me a bit turned around....

 

Gotcha!

 

can someone help me understand why headspace is an issue?

 

Northern just started to list 1 gal beer kits and fermentors

 

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...er-kits/1-gallon-small-batch-starter-kit.html

 

The greater the headspace the more beer is in contact with oxygen. Oxygen is the enemy of beer. It turns it to liquid cardboard.

During initial fermentation there's lots of co2 being produced. And it's heavy and settles in that space protecting the beer. But once the beer is racked into a secondary, there's less co2 to protect the beer.

So eliminating the headspace post fermentation is important.

Look at for example a carboy, it's wide towards the bottom like a bucket, but at the top it narrows towards the neck. When racking 5 gallons of beer/cider/whatever from a 6.5-7 gallon bucket fermenter, you move it into a 5 gallon carboy typically...Actually it's probably 5 and 1/2 gallons...somewhere towards the neck is the actually 5 gallons, and then there's the space on top....which is the headspace.

Think about surface area now...Look at the bucket or the wider area of the carboy. That's a lot of surface area to have air touch the beer. Now if you are using a proper sized secondary, you have a much smaller surface area coming in contact with the beer. Also the oppurtunity for what co2 is available to fill the tinier headspace.

I hope I'm making sense, but I'm getting druck on apfelwein.

 

Because if you're like me, you now have kraussen in your air lock. Any ideas on how to salvage this batch?



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You can either take the airlock off, clean it up real good, and put it back on (might take a few times till fermentation slows down). Or you can ditch the airlock and put on a blow-off tube.

Either way, you have so much going OUT right now, there is no way for anything bad to get IN so your beer is fine.

 

Does the blow off tube need to be air tight? The largest vinyl tubing OD I could find on short notice was 1" and the carboy mouth looks more like 1 1/4".

Anyways this is what I rigged up. I hope it lasts till fermentation dies down. Also, this is my first brew



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Jesus, the stuff just keeps coming! Anything else seems wrong to you guys?

Temp is 70F (a tad bit high but not crazy, recipe calls for 65F), no starter, no re-hydration. Should I have scaled back on the amount of yeast? I used one full pack.



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Looks just like mine do!!! I was starting to think I was doing something wrong!

So I just use a blow off tube. Then, I took some hook up wire with a piece of paper towel on the end so that I could clean out the gunk in the tube.

But anyways, glad to see this thread. I like the one gallon method and started with Mr beer, but then got a kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop (Brooklynbrewshop.com). Now I have 3 1 gallon carboys, 3 gallon brew pot and a 2 gallon Mr Beer.

 

Most 1 gallon brewers use a forth to a half pack at a time. It might do the same thing but it saves some $$$.

 

My s 05 comes in 11.5 Oz packs. I tried 2 oz, and 4oz and got the same results - gushing out just like his. I guess one gallon carboys just don't have enough head space....

 

It about temp control...I got two batches with 05 just finishing up with no blow out. I've used notty a ton with blow outs every time but you can control it with 05

 

My basement typically runs in the low 70s. Which is probably a little in the warm side.

 

S'all good, 24 hours later and the yeast monster has subsided.


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FWIW, the 3-piece airlocks seem to handle blowouts better than the "S" bubble airlocks.

 

Couldn't just use a blowoff tube and not worry abou the airlock? Either that or go with a 3 gallon carboy?

 

Space is limited, so the airlock's appeal is that it makes everything neat and tidy. I thought about getting a 3 gallon carboy, but then I worried that too much head space would cause off flavors. Also, this is my first brew, so I didn't really know what to expect.

 

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This is the colour after 32 hours. I know I have to play the waiting game, but will it eventually become clearer after it sits for 2 weeks?

Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated.

Edit* it's a brown ale*

 

It will clear up. It will also be lighter in a glass than it is in the jug.

 

Looks a lot like my brown ale I do...it will clear over time but cold crashing it for a day or two will accelerate this. I started doing two cold crashes over the course of fermentation (before transfer to secondary and before I bottle) and I can watch TV through most of my ales. Putting the bottles in the fridge for a couple weeks before you drink will solve any lasting issues with clarity as well.

 

This headspace issue is one of the reasons why we chose to go with 2 gallon buckets. With a 1.25 to 1.5 gallon worth of wort there is the right amount of headspace so blow-off is never an issue. Plus they are light, durable, and easy to clean.

 

Here are my recent small(er) batches. The 2 gallon buckets from AHS are perfect.



In the bigger bottles on the right is a Dunkelweizen brewed with Hallertau and fermenting with Danstar Munich. Left of that is Dunkelweizen brewed with Cascade and fermenting with Wyeast 3068. Small bucket up top is OktoberFAST. Buckets on the bottom are Caramel Stout and Cascadian Dark Ale.

 

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That's crazy, 1 day later and it's already clearing up.

Good call on those buckets guys, they look smart.

 

Here's a 1 gallon smoked ale with gnome protection. Never used this smoked grain before, so one gallon to test it.

 

Nice, I like your security system.

I hadn't thought about using smoked ingredients in brewing. I may have to move up my plans to build a cold smoker.

 

HELLO
Like you i'm not up to brewing 5gal batches. I'm hoping to get my first boil going this weekend. I'm starting at the 2.5gal size. I'm worried about making 5 gallons of expensive garden food. LOL So, we decided to start in the middle and work towards the bigger size down the road. Looking forward to making a oatmeal choco milk stout.
Your not alone as for small brewing.

 

Haha this is great!

Will be starting my own 1 Gal batch this upcoming weekend!

 

WOW, Never thought about brewing 1gal batches always did 10gal batches before I sold everything.I'm getting back into brewing after a 2 year hiatus so this will keep me busy till I can get everything sorted for my 25gal setup.

 

I will be doing small batches for the really experimental ones from now on and stick with 10gal for the more predictable ones. Still, I just don't have the time to do 1gal batches to keep me in beer. I generally share my beer too, so I'd need to brew all the time. For some experiments (e.g.: yeast, hops, fruiting, adding other things to secondary) I brew 5 or 10 gal of a base beer and do the additions in growlers, so there is only 1/2 a gallon generated per type.