1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[Mitch S]

After doing a few 5 gallon batches before taking a break due to moving, I came back with the decision to start with 1 gallon extract kits. I've done 4 so far with good results. I like seeing a thread here for those that enjoy 1 gallon, or maybe can only do 1 gallon (2 or 3 as well not to leave y'all out). I am looking at expanding back to 5 gallon batches one I build a keezer, and going to all grain if I can get the space in a new house someday.

 

[Bubman]

I normally brew 2.5 gallon batches but just brewed a 1 gallon extract kit and loved it. Went smoothly and clean up was a breeze. Went with an extract kit to work thru the process wit a new kettle and fermentor. Next will be biab, just received 2 Wilser bags just waiting on grains.

I think I am going to stick with 1 gallon with the occasional 2-3 gal of my favorites ( there are many ) but love trying new recipes and having a large selection to choose from.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I’m bottling an Imperial IPA this weekend and am considering my next brew. I want to do a winter warmer, but not a Christmas beer since it won’t be ready until the New Year. I’m considering a rosemary, a gingerbread, or a peppermint. Really gingerbread is my third choice, but the others seem so experimental. Last year I experimented with cinnamon and vanilla and the beer was good, but tasted more like horchata (cinco de mayo) than The holidays. A little encouragement one way or another would go a long way?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I’m considering a rosemary, a gingerbread, or a peppermint.

Funny you mention that.
I started planning too late but I'm making a series of beers to give as gifts.
Tripel, gingerbread ale, peppermint porter, standard Christmas ale (honey, cinnamon, ginger), spiced wheat (voss kveik and nutmeg), and maybe a cider to round out a six-pack.

I really like rosemary but never considered using it in a beer. Not sure where it would fit?

I now realize this probably doesn't help you at all. Sorry.
... Peppermint seems the safest option. I'm going to use peppermint extract.

 

[Jon Eduardo]

I cannot brew more than 1 gallon because of limited space in this apartment I am staying in. But I am still brewing nonetheless. Just finished racking to secondary my first mead, and I have started another. With my limited time off work, this is a big plus for me. All done brewing in an hour and cleaning after is a breeze.

I still cannot condition my housemates with my brewing hobby. They get squeamish at the sight of me washing a huge chunk of glass in the sink.

I really have to clear that mead very soon, thinking of getting them drunk first before I do my growler clean-up.

Things that we do for alcohol, I mean the hobby... cheers guys!

 

[treacheroustexan]

I've been doing small no boil 1 gallon extract "hop sampler" batches with inspiration from the Basic Brewing podcast. I changed a little from their recipe but it's pretty similar.

1 gallon of RO water, 1 pound Pilsen DME, bring to boil and kill the heat. Add hops for 30 min hopstand. Chill and pitch.

Takes maybe an hour? I have three batches going right now. One with pacific jade, one with falconers flight and another with green bullet. Going to bottle the pacific jade one Saturday.

 

[r4dyce]

I've been doing small no boil 1 gallon extract "hop sampler" batches with inspiration from the Basic Brewing podcast. I changed a little from their recipe but it's pretty similar.

1 gallon of RO water, 1 pound Pilsen DME, bring to boil and kill the heat. Add hops for 30 min hopstand. Chill and pitch.

Takes maybe an hour? I have three batches going right now. One with pacific jade, one with falconers flight and another with green bullet. Going to bottle the pacific jade one Saturday.

Wow that's pretty cool. A little while ago I made a "leftovers" IPA with some DME and some spare hops I had sitting in the fridge. I was surprised how well it turned out. I really like your idea though to test out particular hops.

 

[bernardsmith]

1 gallon of RO water, 1 pound Pilsen DME, bring to boil and kill the heat. Add hops for 30 min hopstand. Chill and pitch.

How many grams or ounces of hops do you add for those 30 minutes?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I've been doing small no boil 1 gallon extract "hop sampler" batches with inspiration from the Basic Brewing podcast. I changed a little from their recipe but it's pretty similar.

As I understand it, the standard "Hop Sampler" process is to toss the hops in at flame-out and let them sit for a while. In place of flame-out hops, have you tried a "hop steep", say at 180* F for 20 minute. I did this (both ways) with an ounce of Citra T90 pellet hops. Two very different beers.

 

[treacheroustexan]

As I understand it, the standard "Hop Sampler" process is to toss the hops in at flame-out and let them sit for a while. In place of flame-out hops, have you tried a "hop steep", say at 180* F for 20 minute. I did this (both ways) with an ounce of Citra T90 pellet hops. Two very different beers.

Sorry, let me clarify. I still brought the DME up just to a boil and then killed the heat, tossed in the hops and let them sit for 30 min before I chilled. I have not done any 180 yet. All of these hops were thrown in at boiling temp.

 

[Immocles]

I just watched those this evening. Might try it out and compare with a more regular hop additions brew.

 

[treacheroustexan]

How many grams or ounces of hops do you add for those 30 minutes?

Higher AA, half oz, lower AA, full oz. Though I goofed and added a whole oz of pacific jade into a 1 gallon batch. I’m not sure what to except from that one.

 

[Immocles]

Seems to be the place to ask 1 gallon questions...
This might seem obvious to some folks here, but how do you weigh out your yeast for small batches? I’m figuring on using about a third of a package for each brew. Do you guys just sorta guess while dumping it from the package or weigh it out on a scale? If so, what kinda sanitizing needs to be done? If I put a piece of foil on the scale, I’m assuming I’d need to spray it with sanitizer first and give it time to dry completely?
Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is eye rollingly silly haha

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I actually do two 1 gallon jugs per batch. The calculators usually say to use about a pack of dry yeast for that, so I just sprinkle a little back and forth into my fermentors until its gone or if I rehydrated the yeast I stir it up really good and put half in one and half in the other. Once the pouch is open, I don’t think it keeps very well so if I was afraid of over pitching on a true one gallon batch, I think I’d just eyeball half the pack and
toss the rest.

 

[Griffin495]

Seems to be the place to ask 1 gallon questions...
This might seem obvious to some folks here, but how do you weigh out your yeast for small batches? I’m figuring on using about a third of a package for each brew. Do you guys just sorta guess while dumping it from the package or weigh it out on a scale? If so, what kinda sanitizing needs to be done? If I put a piece of foil on the scale, I’m assuming I’d need to spray it with sanitizer first and give it time to dry completely?
Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is eye rollingly silly haha

Probably not the "best " practices, but I just weigh out about 3.5g of dry yeast for a one gallon batch in a small dipping size bowl. I don't sanitize it. I make sure its clean, but don't sanitize it. It looks like you thought it through and realize if it was wet, the yeast would stick to it and you wouldn't be able to get it into your fermenter. Don't quote me and I maybe wrong, but if you allow the sanitizer to dry, then it would lose all sanitizing properties. I'm probably 15 or more one gallon batches in and I haven't had a problem...yet, so I'll keep doing it this way.

As for the unused portion, I vacuum seal it and toss it back into my garage/beer fridge until the next brew day. I can get three brews out of a package of dry yeast.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Probably not the "best " practices, but I just weigh out about 3.5g of dry yeast for a one gallon batch in a small dipping size bowl. I don't sanitize it. I make sure its clean, but don't sanitize it. It looks like you thought it through and realize if it was wet, the yeast would stick to it and you wouldn't be able to get it into your fermenter. Don't quote me and I maybe wrong, but if you allow the sanitizer to dry, then it would lose all sanitizing properties. I'm probably 15 or more one gallon batches in and I haven't had a problem...yet, so I'll keep doing it this way.

As for the unused portion, I vacuum seal it and toss it back into my garage/beer fridge until the next brew day. I can get three brews out of a package of dry yeast.

This is exactly what I do.

 

[Druman07]

Similiar process, but I split the yeast package weighing half the amount on a piece of foil used as a tray. I do rehydrate the yeast, which i find jump starts the fermentation process. As in most brewing, there is debate whether this is necessary, but it works well for me.

 

[Soulshine2]

"Honestly if I brewed five gallon batches all the time there would be too much beer in the house "

No such thing. its like bacon. Now,never say that again .

 

[Ahks]

But... Some beer doesn't age well. And as much as I like giving people beer... It's kind of a waste of money

 

[Immocles]

Thanks for the input guys. I’ll try weighing some out, I’m cheap and don’t wanna waste an entire package. Much rather pitch a third of a package and keep the rest in the fridge for a couple weeks until I make another batch.

 

[Soulshine2]

But... Some beer doesn't age well. And as much as I like giving people beer... It's kind of a waste of money

drink faster

 

[Soulshine2]

I actually do two 1 gallon jugs per batch. The calculators usually say to use about a pack of dry yeast for that, so I just sprinkle a little back and forth into my fermentors until its gone or if I rehydrated the yeast I stir it up really good and put half in one and half in the other. Once the pouch is open, I don’t think it keeps very well so if I was afraid of over pitching on a true one gallon batch, I think I’d just eyeball half the pack and
toss the rest.

if youre just going to toss it , just pitch the entire package. Dry yeast keeps just fine. keep it dry and cool.

 

[Immocles]

So I have a couple of gallon jugs fermenting away. These are my first real ventures into the small batches. Is the fermentation time similar to 5 gallons? or slightly earlier? I was planning on dry hopping one of these, and leaving the other as-is, and I was originally looking at waiting 2 weeks before bottling if everything checks out. Is that a bit long, or could it be possibly shortened a few days? Hydrometer won't fit to test, and id rather not pull multiple samples from a small batch.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

So I have a couple of gallon jugs fermenting away. These are my first real ventures into the small batches. Is the fermentation time similar to 5 gallons? or slightly earlier? I was planning on dry hopping one of these, and leaving the other as-is, and I was originally looking at waiting 2 weeks before bottling if everything checks out. Is that a bit long, or could it be possibly shortened a few days? Hydrometer won't fit to test, and id rather not pull multiple samples from a small batch.

My beer seems to take longer than 5 gallon people’s. But I can’t really say for sure because I wait for the beer to clear and that’s how I tell it’s done. My beers take 3-4 weeks to be “done”.

 

[Druman07]

i typically wait 18-21 days before bottling. That's one of the challenges with 1 gallon batches, taking samples for a hydrometer impacts your final yield, so I don't do it.

 

[Ahks]

If you invest in a refractometer you can take samples on the scale of a few drops, rather than ounces. And there are calculators in Beersmith or online to use a refractometer after alcohol production has started. I verified their accuracy across a couple batches and at varying points in fermentation and the calculators seem to be more accurate than me reading a hydrometer. I'm probably not going to use my hydrometer much at all anymore

 

[ba-brewer]

I use a refractometer for big and small batches, and then do a final reading with a hydrometer. The calculated value usually come pretty close to the hydrometer. If you are just looking for when the gravity stabilizes you don't need to use a calculator.

 

[Immocles]

Guess I was just hoping the turnaround was a little quicker for smaller batches. Oh well, patience is usually rewarded. I’ve never looked into refractometers. Guess I’ll do some reading and see what it’s all about.

 

[ba-brewer]

If you scale the amount of yeast a 1 gal batch should finish about the same as 5 gal batch, but if you over pitch which can be easy to do with small batches it can finish a bit quicker. I usually brew modest gravity beers in the 5 to 6% range and they are normally done fermenting in 3 or 4 days and then I give them another 3 or 4 days to clean up and move to a keg.

edit; if I dry hop then it is few more days, so like 10days.

 

[mashpaddled]

Over the course of my almost ten years of homebrewing I've brewed one gallon batches more than anything else. Like many here I started out brewing five gallon batches and found it was just too much beer and kept me from having fun brewing. You need equipment to brew on a small scale (e.g. precise gram scale, refractometer) but once you're set up you can brew anything you could on a larger scale. This blog has a lot of one gallon homebrew recipes already built but it's fairly easy to just divide a larger recipe down to a smaller size.

 

[TonyKZ1]

I've also brewed quite a few 1G recipes, I went from 2G Mr Beer to 1G AG and Extract recipes. Here's one of the 1G recipe books I use, Beer Craftr. He also has a beginner's guide and sends out an update to his recipe book ever so often.

 

[Immocles]

Thanks for the link Tony. Looks like good stuff

 

[Soulshine2]

i typically wait 18-21 days before bottling. That's one of the challenges with 1 gallon batches, taking samples for a hydrometer impacts your final yield, so I don't do it.

do you at least take a hydrometer reading just before you bottle? How do you know you didnt get a stuck or stalled fermentation?

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

do you at least take a hydrometer reading just before you bottle? How do you know you didnt get a stuck or stalled fermentation?

I do take a hydrometer sample during bottling to get an FG. I had a Wee Heavy that “stuck”. That’s the only time it has happened to me. I added Champagne yeast that could tolerate the alcohol level and it was able to chew up my priming sugar. Live and learn.

 

[2_gal_brewer]

I still brew Mr Beer and the 2 gal fermenters are a good size. And they are cheap too. So even if you don't use their fermentables look at the fermenters. I cannot physically move 5 gal stuff around from starting in kirchen to fermenting in basement. Mr B forum also has standardised the safe time in the fermenter as 21 days especially for newbies to better the results. 3 weeks in fermenter. 4 weeks carbonation and 3 days in rhe fridge. Of course if you monitor closely you can reduce these times.

 

[Druman07]

Yes I do a test at bottling so i know what the FG is. I just don't sample during the fermentation. If I was doing bigger batches I would definitely sample to see when fermentation has ended.

 

[mhedman]

+1 for beercraftr.com. I've brewed several of his recipies. Great stuff.

As a follow up, if you sanitize everything when you take a gravity reading, why wouldn't you return the sample to the batch? Especially mid fermentation batches?

Also another note on beercraftr, he scales his recipies to 1.3 gallons just so you can toss samples out and still get 1 gallon at the end.

 

[jimdkc]

+1 for beercraftr.com. I've brewed several of his recipies. Great stuff.

As a follow up, if you sanitize everything when you take a gravity reading, why wouldn't you return the sample to the batch? Especially mid fermentation batches?

Also be sure not to introduce oxygen... avoid too much splashing, excessive stirring, etc.

Also another note on beercraftr, he scales his recipies to 1.3 gallons just so you can toss samples out and still get 1 gallon at the end.

I like that... pretty clever!

 

[AppyWyn]

Will be brewing my 3rd overall batch. This time a Dry Irish Stout recipe kit from Craft A Brew. First two were an IPA (which was a fail) and a Porter (which went well) from Brooklyn Beer Kit. Should I go with the hops and ale yeast that came with it or experiment with other?

 

[BongoYodeler]

Will be brewing my 3rd overall batch. This time a Dry Irish Stout recipe kit from Craft A Brew. First two were an IPA (which was a fail) and a Porter (which went well) from Brooklyn Beer Kit. Should I go with the hops and ale yeast that came with it or experiment with other?

IMO go with the kit.