1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[HomebrewCraig]

SBD: Have you considered brewing up a Mumme yet? It's a long-forgotten style that has been getting talked about lately.. I've been researching and trying to come up with an AG Mumme recipe or two. It seems there's some disagreement on whereabouts on the SRM scale it should fall.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Craig - I haven't actually, the few reports I read on Mumme basically make it sound like a crystal bomb to me. I'm not one for overly sweet german altbiers, which is sort of what it sounded like. I have been thinking of making a Gose, though - just holding off until summer for that one.

 

[Avocado_Power]

Thought that I would solicit the help of some experienced 1 Gallon Brewers. I'm going to do a 2.5 batch and split it between to 1 Gallon carboys. My first time brewing, scaling, anything....

The Original Recipe for Cream of 3 Crops:

11.50 gal Batch

Ingredients:
------------
12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) - 5.4 kg - 5400 g
4.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) - 1.8 kg - 1800 g
1.00 lb Minute Rice (1.0 SRM) - 0.45 kg - 450 g

1.00 oz Williamette [5.20%] (60 min) 28.34g
1.00 oz Crystal [3.50%] (60 min)

I scaled it using the following guidelines:



This is what I get for a 2.5 Gallon batch:

-----------------------
Ingredients
-----------------------

2.1 lbs two row - 0.94 kg - 940 g
.71 lbs corn - 0.32 kg - 320 g
2.72 oz rice - 0.078 kg - 78 g 0.17 lb
5 g Williamette [5.20%] (60 min) 5 g
5 g Crystal [3.50%] (60 min) 5 g

Does that look about right?

I've been told elsewhere to up the 2 Row & Corn Maze and this should help with my OG. Is that necessary? What say you?

You might want to use caution in dividing a 2.5 gallon batch into 2 1-gallon carboys. Even with a blowoff tube, you may not be giving yourself enough headspace if you fill 'em both to the brim. Try either a mr. Beer fermenter or a 2-gallon bucket. Or, use the carboys and scale the recipe down to 2 gallons. Good luck!


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[Babybatch]

You might want to use caution in dividing a 2.5 gallon batch into 2 1-gallon carboys. Even with a blowoff tube, you may not be giving yourself enough headspace if you fill 'em both to the brim. Try either a mr. Beer fermenter or a 2-gallon bucket. Or, use the carboys and scale the recipe down to 2 gallons. Good luck!


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Yeah. I was just going to eyeball it and put a little extra in each (But not to the brim.) so that I could to gravity readings. Maybe not the best idea. I just don't have one of those refractometers and I don't want to lose a lot.

 

[fuzzy2133]

Mark your levels on the jugs using a sharpie or etch the glass. Best upgrade I have done.

 

[matthewmurray]

I am a one gallon brewer and just found this thread. Thank you for all of the info!

Has anyone tried a reverse immersion chiller for small batches? I am thinking if a copper or stainless cool run through a cooler of ice water. The beer would run inside the coil and straight into the fermenter. I had been warned that this cool 5 gallons, but what about one?

 

[beerlover87]

You might want to use caution in dividing a 2.5 gallon batch into 2 1-gallon carboys. Even with a blowoff tube, you may not be giving yourself enough headspace if you fill 'em both to the brim. Try either a mr. Beer fermenter or a 2-gallon bucket. Or, use the carboys and scale the recipe down to 2 gallons. Good luck!


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I use a 2.5 gallon fermentor myself glad you posted this what are the boil times for this ?

 

[kombat]

Has anyone tried a reverse immersion chiller for small batches? I am thinking if a copper or stainless cool run through a cooler of ice water. The beer would run inside the coil and straight into the fermenter.

Isn't that just a Jockey Box?

 

[matthewmurray]

Isn't that just a Jockey Box?

Yes, I've heard it called that also. Think it would work with one gallon of boiling wort?

 

[bleme]

Yes, I've heard it called that also. Think it would work with one gallon of boiling wort?

It would work. You just have to control the flow rate so it comes out the temperature you want - too fast and it will still be hot. Too slow and it could be in the 30's.

 

[d-usa]

I've been cooling my gallon batches in around 15 minutes using the sink and running water. It's the same technique I use to thaw a turkey pretty quickly and it works for hot things as well. I use a cast iron lid to weigh the pot down and place it in a sink with ice water. The trick is to leave a small stream of water running from the faucet and then let the water overflow into the other sink. That creates enough movement so that the warm water next to the pot gets replaced by cold water even faster and it helps cool the wort down a whole lot quicker.

 

[BigRock947]

I am a one gallon brewer and just found this thread. Thank you for all of the info!

Has anyone tried a reverse immersion chiller for small batches? I am thinking if a copper or stainless cool run through a cooler of ice water. The beer would run inside the coil and straight into the fermenter. I had been warned that this cool 5 gallons, but what about one?

I was reading through your website and facebook page about brewing a beer everyday for a year....quite a challenge. I assume you want a quick and easy way to cool your beer....it doesn't get any easier than an ice bath in the sink. Easy set-up and almost no clean up.

Here's a thought....have you thought about doing some no-chill brewing. I've done some batches where I let the wort cool overnight right in the kettle...put the lid on it and forget about until the next day. Pour in to my ready to go fermentor...pitch the yeast and you're good. Just a thought....

 

[matthewmurray]

I was reading through your website and facebook page about brewing a beer everyday for a year....quite a challenge. I assume you want a quick and easy way to cool your beer....it doesn't get any easier than an ice bath in the sink. Easy set-up and almost no clean up.



Here's a thought....have you thought about doing some no-chill brewing. I've done some batches where I let the wort cool overnight right in the kettle...put the lid on it and forget about until the next day. Pour in to my ready to go fermentor...pitch the yeast and you're good. Just a thought....

I have done both and both work well. However, in light of brewing literally everyday, I am looking for a way that uses less water than an iceberg and doesn't require the kids to steer clear of the kitchen sink. I will probably use no chill a good bit, but there will be man times when I brew after midnight and have to leave for work at 5am. I'm that case, I would like to chill quickly.

I am going to put a cooler chiller (jockey box) together and see if I can keep it frozen when not in use. I would never have to replace the water except for occasional deep cleaning!

 

[Danno77]

6 minutes to cool one gallon in the sink. I use about 2 1-gallon ziplock bags full of ice. I put the boil pot into the sink, dump the ice around it and then fill the sink to the same level as the wort in the pot (so it doesn't float weirdly). I sorta slosh the pot around in the ice water and I stir the wort with the spoon I've been using during boil and that definitely helps it to cool faster.

Not joking or guessing. I was down to 180 in 6 flat, was closer to ten when I would walk away and let it cool on it's own.


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[matthewmurray]

I'm hoping that I can cool it to pitching temp in that amount of time. In theory, It can be done. I just don't know how long the tubing needs to be.

Also, I might miss leaving the break material behind, so I might not even like it after all.

 

[Owly055]

6 minutes to cool one gallon in the sink. I use about 2 1-gallon ziplock bags full of ice. I put the boil pot into the sink, dump the ice around it and then fill the sink to the same level as the wort in the pot (so it doesn't float weirdly). I sorta slosh the pot around in the ice water and I stir the wort with the spoon I've been using during boil and that definitely helps it to cool faster.

Not joking or guessing. I was down to 180 in 6 flat, was closer to ten when I would walk away and let it cool on it's own.


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If the ice is in zip locks........ why not in the wort?

H.W.

 

[sumbrewindude]

FWIW, the jocky-box (or really in this instance it would be a prechiller) would not be my preferred way to go with this, and here's my reasons:
1) You don't really have a way to clean inside the coil after cooling, and because you need to have at least 180F liquid inside the coil for preferrably 2-5min, you could end up with a sticky, gross mess to deal with the next time you brew unless you REALLY clean it out well, which wastes a lot of the water you're trying to save.
2) The inital burst of the hot water will really kill any cold water/ice you'll have in the cooler almost immedately. Running the water from my tap into a catch bucket, the inital temp of the exiting water from my IC is well over 160F, and really takes a fair amount of water to get below 110F (around 2gal or so), where the water starts to cool down. IF you're using the cooler as the cold source, you'll heat up all the ice/water from the inital run before you can get it cold enough to really impact the temp where you need it most (transition from 90F-65F)
3) Break material - I siphon all the wort/break into my fermentors anyway, as I have a ton of space in them and don't care. That said, trying to pass the break material (and hop material if you don't use a hopsack) through a narrow tube to chill it will make for some bottlenecks, possibly clogging it without an easy way to clear it.

Really, if you're looking to save time and not worry about little "helpers" (and I know, I've got two!), no-chill is an AWESOME way to shave time. If anything, with the volumes we're talking about, by the time you get everything cleaned up and put away, you could easily put the 1gal jug into the fridge and come back to it 30min later and pitch.

In short, I think it's a novel idea, but the risk/payout doesn't make it worth pursuing in my opinion.

YMMV, of course.

 

[Owly055]

Anybody tried running a continuous brew where you have a favorite type of beer? I've tossed the idea around of linking a boil kettle to a small cone bottom fermenter, with a valve at each end of the connection.

Your brew process would go like this actually........... (6.5 gallon cone bottom)

1: Start your mash,
2: Sterilize bottles, and "inject" bottling syrup using a large syringe
3: Bottle 1.5 gallons from your secondary and cap them.
4: Open the valve on the primary and draw 1.5 gallons into the secondary fermenter
5: Run your boil.
6: Open the valve at the boil kettle allowing hot wort to flow to the valve on the fermenter
7: Cool your wort
8: Open the valve on your primary fermenter and transfer the cooled wort to the primary.

With a good strong fermentation going in the sealed primary fermenter, you would never be introducing any microbes to the brew so the process should remain fairly sterile.

Small changes would be introduced incrementally........ different hops and grains within your style of choice. It would be an interesting transition............ 1.5 gallons out of 5 gallons.....

H.W.

 

[BigRock947]

If the ice is in zip locks........ why not in the wort?

H.W.

You could I guess...if you're sure you got the zip lock bags sanitized...then again I wouldn't but that's me.

 

[kombat]

If the ice is in zip locks........ why not in the wort?

You want to drop thin plastic baggies into 212° wort?

Even with the ice inside, I'd be very concerned about at least some sections of the baggies melting and contaminating the wort with toxic hydrocarbons from the plastic (not to mention leaking out some of the melting ice, watering down the wort).

 

[Owly055]

You could I guess...if you're sure you got the zip lock bags sanitized...then again I wouldn't but that's me.

I wouldn't worry about sanitizing anything I put in boiling hot wort..........

 

[Owly055]

 

[bleme]

 

[BigRock947]

I wouldn't worry about sanitizing anything I put in boiling hot wort..........

try it and report back....

 

[Scout001]

I wouldn't worry about sanitizing anything I put in boiling hot wort..........

Just get you like 10-15 ice packs from the dollar store and use a bath...I really wouldnt worry about chillers unless you are doing 2.5 +...my 2 cents.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Anybody tried running a continuous brew where you have a favorite type of beer? I've tossed the idea around of linking a boil kettle to a small cone bottom fermenter, with a valve at each end of the connection.

Your brew process would go like this actually........... (6.5 gallon cone bottom)

1: Start your mash,
2: Sterilize bottles, and "inject" bottling syrup using a large syringe
3: Bottle 1.5 gallons from your secondary and cap them.
4: Open the valve on the primary and draw 1.5 gallons into the secondary fermenter
5: Run your boil.
6: Open the valve at the boil kettle allowing hot wort to flow to the valve on the fermenter
7: Cool your wort
8: Open the valve on your primary fermenter and transfer the cooled wort to the primary.

With a good strong fermentation going in the sealed primary fermenter, you would never be introducing any microbes to the brew so the process should remain fairly sterile.

Small changes would be introduced incrementally........ different hops and grains within your style of choice. It would be an interesting transition............ 1.5 gallons out of 5 gallons.....

H.W.

This idea isn't too far out at all - I can think of a couple large scale breweries that do this kind of thing, almost like a rolling Grand Cru. I could see this working for a couple styles, and might not even need a conical for it.

Provided you could keep everything sanitized, you could run a while with it.

 

[Avocado_Power]

I use a 2.5 gallon fermentor myself glad you posted this what are the boil times for this ?

Beerlover, I think you meant to ask babybatch this? I didn't post the recipe.

 

[Avocado_Power]

Yeah. I was just going to eyeball it and put a little extra in each (But not to the brim.) so that I could to gravity readings. Maybe not the best idea. I just don't have one of those refractometers and I don't want to lose a lot.

I've definitely pushed the limit before myself with filling well above the one gallon mark. Just at bare minimum use a blowoff tube and don't bother with an airlock until days later.

 

[bleme]

I've definitely pushed the limit before myself with filling well above the one gallon mark. Just at bare minimum use a blowoff tube and don't bother with an airlock until days later.

FermCap helps too.

 

[sumbrewindude]

WOOHOO! BREW DAY! :rockin:

Moved LIVID to the garage for cold crashing, that get's bottled tomorrow -

On the menu for this morning is some weird hybrid of a stout I was playing around with all week after trying a friends American Stout he made. Unfortunately I got his recipe after I ordered mine, so I'll have to make his in a few weeks.

Mine's really confused - it doesn't know if it wants to be a robust porter or a stout. All english grain bill; MO/Bairds L. Brown/Bairds MCry/Black Pat, bittered with English hops and either using Notty or S04 (which I suspect will be the clincher for the category).

Then - if I can keep the party rolling, I grabbed ANOTHER "carboy" (because I've decided I really, really like using the $5, 4gal PET recyclable waterbottles over my 3gal Morebeer carboys) and see if I can rip out an Amber with some fun new hops I grabbed on the cheap.

On with Brewday!