1 gallon (4.5 litre) BIAB equipment

[danerelj]

Hey guys, tried searching and couldn't find much. Just wondering what sort of equipment I would need to do a 1 gallon BIAB batch, just a few trial experiments?

Also if there's any calculators for grain and water quantities that would be great as I have no idea as I'm just starting out after doing several 5 gal kits.

Thanks in advance

 

[RM-MN]

What is the largest pot you now have? We'll work from there.

 

[PADave]

A big soup pot, a bag, a small fermenter.

 

[danerelj]

I have a 1 gallon stock pot, but I can buy a bigger one so that's not an issue

 

[Weezy]

Assuming stove top?
$12 16-quart stainless pot from Walmart. Also pick up a steamer basket to keep the bag off the bottom.
$5 5-gallon paint strainer bag from home depot
Use your existing pot to dunk sparge
Depending on what you want to spend but brewdemon's 2.5 gallon quasi-conical fermenters work very well. They're like $40. They have bottle filling wand available to. You could also pick up 1.5-2 gallon drink dispensers at Walmart as well for. $15. Like this one:. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Circleware-Yorkshire-Mason-Jar-Beverage-Dispenser/35588833

 

[danerelj]

Yeah will be stove top, is 16 quart around 16 litres or so? Just unsure as I live in the UK. I do have some muslin bags would these be OK to put the grains in? That drink dispenser is cool I've seen them around, ideal for that batch size

 

[SanPancho]

quart is roughly same as liter. 16qt pot is a bit big, and seeing as you're in the UK the link to walmart isnt gonna help you.

my advice would be to not go so big on the kettle. you'll have too much empty kettle space. the wort will be very shallow, and you'll end up with a boil-off rate that is way to high if you're only planning to do 1 gal batches.

for a 1 gal batch, i'd recommend at least two gallons and preferably a little bit more. so lets say 10-12qts/liters.

if you want to end up with 1gal of beer, you'll need to ferment around 1.5 gals of wort. so you'd want something around 2 gallons /8liters in size for fermenter. this is where 1 gal batches becomes a pain. there's nothing really good in that size range. in US we have easy access to 1gal glass jugs for cider/juice/etc. but you only end up with about 2/3 of a gallon of beer due to yeast/hops/trub/etc.

the most easily available homebrew-designed fermenters only go down to 2.5 gallons. that might be where you have to go for a fermenter- but at least you'll have extra room to start doing 2.5 gal batches in the future (but need a bigger kettle).

 

[Aristotelian]

I would design your system for 2 gallons. Once you get your process down, you can just buy an extra jug and get double the beer for the same effort.

I started with a Brooklyn Brew Shop kit and built from there. Here is a very basic equipment list for a 2 gallon brewery.

Brewing:
Kettle - $12 Walmart
Nylon bag - $5 hardware store
Digital thermometer - $10
Digital scale - $10
Large stainless mesh collander - $7
Refractometer - $20 ebay


Fermenting:
2x 1 Gal jug $12
2x #6 bung $2
2x airlock $4
2x blowoff tubing $2 (strongly recommended)


Bottling:
Food grade bucket with 1” hole drilled
Spigot $5
Bottling wand $3
Mini-auto siphon $8
Siphon tubing $2
Wing bottler $10
Bag of caps $5

 

[danerelj]

I'm thinking maybe just over 2 gallons for the boil off rate and the grain absorption what so you think? Say a 2.5 gallon pot? And start with 1.5 gallons of wort at the end to ferment and rack etc my carboy is a gallon though

 

[SanPancho]

2-2.5 gal pot is fine. if you do full volume mash, then maybe go to a 2.5 just to be safe.

if your carboy is 1 gal, you'll probly only fit .75/.8 gals of beer into it- otherwise the foam will blow out. you need to leave a little head room for the yeast to foam up. even using drops like "fermcap" will still let a little bit of foam come up. subtract your trub/hops/yeast sediment and you'll probly get on the order of .5 to .75 gals of beer out of a 1 gal fermentor.

see if you can find something in the 1.5 gallon range- say 6 liters? it'll let you get alot more beer out of your brews. when you can get another liter out of a "1 gallon" batch then you just upped your production by ~25%. ive never found anything in that size range, but maybe in europe it might be available.

 

[danerelj]

I've found a 15 litre stock pot and also a 10 litre fermenting bucket. I'll go ahead and order these, I was thinking of using a Colander as a false bottom. Would a 15 litre pot have a high boil off rate for a 1 gallon batch, how much should i adjust for this? I have some straining bags also so don't need to worry about them and a thermometer. Anything else I should need bar the grains and hops?

 

[Sadu]

I brew 5 litre batches regularly. A 10 litre pot would be ideal, I have a 7 litre pot and it works, only just. 5 litres in the ferment or gives 3.7 litres in the bottle, a bit less for dry hopped IPAs. I ferment 5 litres in 3x 2 litre glass growlers. You do not need a lot of headspace. When I rack to secondary it fits into 2x 2 litre glass growlers with no headspace which is perfect (I brew lagers so secondary is necessary/useful in most cases). For the grain bag, buy a large one that you can use for large batches as well. Mashing in a pot in the oven works GREAT for maintaining mash temps.
A biab sparge is easy enough to incorporate, although you are only saving 50c of grain by doing so. My preboil volume is about 7.5 - 8 litres.
Highly recommend beersmith for adjusting and scaling recipes. I wouldn't be without it.

 

[harrke]

… Would a 15 litre pot have a high boil off rate for a 1 gallon batch, how much should i adjust for this?

This is about 3-4 liters bigger than mine. With a good rolling boil, I lose about 1/2 gallon (2l) in 60-minutes. The boil-off rate for your specific conditions is hard to guess. How many BTUs are you adding, how fast, how much surface area does the pot have? A tall narrow pot will have less surface area than a short, wide pot, etc.

Do a test. Put about 7-8 liters of water in the pot and test your rates -- how long to heat to strike temps, how long to heat to boil, and how long to boil off 2-liters. Then you'll be very close to what you'll see with wort.

 

[danerelj]

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk...iler-chiller-mashing-bag-mash-kit-p-2426.html found this kit what do you guys think?

 

[TomVA]

I just brewed a couple of BIAB 1.5 gallon batches of Southern English Brown Ale and kept notes if it helps.

I started with 2.7 gallons (10 liters) of strike water and brewed in a 5 gallon (19 liter) SS stock pot. I also have a 4 gallon (15 liter) pot but didn't want to cut it too close in case I had foaming during boil. My total grains were 2.7 pounds (1.22 kg) and the grains absorbed 0.15 gallons (0.57 liters) of water after squeezing the bag.

Boiling losses depend heavily on the strength of your heat source. My stove top burner of 18,000 BTUs gave a good rolling boil and my boiling loss was 0.88 gallons (3.3 liters). Cool down in an ice water bath was rapid for such a small batch and only took 14 minutes to reach pitching temperature of 71°F (22°C).

After sampling for SGs I yielded 1.60 gallons (6.0 liters) to the fermenter. The batches are fermenting in 2 gallon (7.5 liter) plastic fermenting buckets in my cellar and bubbling nicely.

Hopefully these figures will help you scale your batch to your equipment.

TomVA

 

[SanPancho]

like harrke says, it depends on your pot and your situtation. the only way to know for sure is to fill it with water, say 2 gals for a 1 gal batch (full volume, no sparge) and then boil it for an hour and measure your rate.

it depends on altitude, heat source strength, volume you're boiling and kettle shape/geometry. everyone's will be different for the most part.

 

[jekeane]

If you have a tjmaxx / marshalls / homegoods (all the same store) you can find really nice stainless pots there for pretty cheap. They have a few that seem better suited to stovetop burners than you normal fat bottomed stock pot.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

My system uses two one gallon glass carboy fermentors. The 10 quart pot size is probably just right for 1 gallon brews. I get about 10 beers from each of my carboys. I fill them a little past the one gallon mark. It is very important to have your blow off tube extend down past your drilled stopper about an inch. This keeps you from loosing a large amount of beer during the most active part of your fermentation. The kit you are thinking of buying is way over-kill in my opinion. With one gallon batches, it is super easy to cool your beer very quickly in the sink with some ice, just make sure your water level in the sink is higher than your wort level in the pot or it takes forever to cool. The beauty of brewing small is you don't need a lot of specialized equipment. It is really nice to have an auto siphon and a bottling wand. Here's a picture of my fermentor setup.

 

[danerelj]

I just thought that kit might be good as I can make 5 gallon batches with it in the future if needs be. I've ordered a 15 litre pot, going to trial the boil off rates over an hour when it comes say with 2 gallons of water. Are there any useful sites/apps to determine how much grain I'll need for my batch to reach a specific sg. I'm thinking around the 1.060 mark, with 1 gallon of wort?

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

[Aristotelian]

My system uses two one gallon glass carboy fermentors. The 10 quart pot size is probably just right for 1 gallon brews. I get about 10 beers from each of my carboys. I fill them a little past the one gallon mark. It is very important to have your blow off tube extend down past your drilled stopper about an inch. This keeps you from loosing a large amount of beer during the most active part of your fermentation. The kit you are thinking of buying is way over-kill in my opinion. With one gallon batches, it is super easy to cool your beer very quickly in the sink with some ice, just make sure your water level in the sink is higher than your wort level in the pot or it takes forever to cool. The beauty of brewing small is you don't need a lot of specialized equipment. It is really nice to have an auto siphon and a bottling wand. Here's a picture of my fermentor setup.

This. Don't waste your money on a chiler when you are doing less than 5G. Also, one of the virtues of small batch brewing is being able to use glass carboys so you can watch the fermentation. (The problem with large glass carboys is the possibility of both injury and property damage in the event of a drop). My setup also uses two 1G jugs exactly like this.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

Brewers friend has all the calculators you need. I google "abv calculator", "og fg calculator" and "SRM calculator". It's right there up at the top. Also, "IBU calculator" and "og fg style chart", "abv style chart". I do it through google since the site is difficult to navigate.

If you are thinking about brewing 5 gallons. You should just set yourself up now. I made a concious decision to brew smaller based on what I want. I am constantly getting peer pressure to be five gallon. I go down this road because it is my road. It is harder to brew smaller even though I don't get that recognition. The resources and info is geared towards the standard five gallon batch.

 

[danerelj]

I am thinking of doing 5 gallons in the future depending on how the 1 gallon turns out. I just had a look at the calculators and it seems very good! I don't want to splash out on that kit I linked just in case it doesn't go well lol! I'll get a pot at the weekend and see what I can do with BIAB any tips?

 

[SanPancho]

mis en place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

makes things go much more smoothly. have your grains weighed out, as well as any brewing salts, hops, additives, yeast nutrients, clarifiers, etc. get your chiller cleaned and ready to go, your spoons and paddles and hydrometers and whatnot all clean and ready.

a timer clock with alarm is very handy for timing mash, boil, your hop additions, etc.

its alot easier to follow directions and really pay attention to the brew when you're not frantically looking for something or trying to clean while you should be dealing watching the beer.

oh yeah, and have a couple cold ones to sip on.