1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[dukedevil0]

For those of you using 1 gallon carboys, how do you dry hop?

Just throw the pellets straight in? Can you cold crash to keep them from being an issue during racking?

Or use a hop sack? But isn't it a pain to fish the sock out?

 

[teleplucker]

For those of you using 1 gallon carboys, how do you dry hop?

Just throw the pellets straight in? Can you cold crash to keep them from being an issue during racking?

Or use a hop sack? But isn't it a pain to fish the sock out?

I throw the pellets right in and put a sanitized, small mesh bag over the opening of the racking cane when transferring to the bottling bucket to avoid a cold crash.

 

[30Bones]

Just dump em in and cold crash in your fridge.

Picked up a couple 3gal better bottles today. I'll like these over the plastic buckets.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[Puddlethumper]

I did a one-gallon batch as a test of my BIAB technique and my equipment. I must say I wasn't really happy with the results. I'd like to develop this technique further but I have a couple questions for those of you who have been doing these small batches for a while:

• Do you scale your recipe strictly? i.e. -Do you divide a 5 gal. recipe exactly by 5 for all ingredients?

• 
  Do you use BIAB, 3 vessel or extract for your 1 gallon batches?

• If using BIAB, do you do a mash out step? Sparge? Just boil the first runnings?

I'm looking forward to learning from your experiences and your opinions on this.

Cheers!

 

[30Bones]

I did a one-gallon batch as a test of my BIAB technique and my equipment. I must say I wasn't really happy with the results. I'd like to develop this technique further but I have a couple questions for those of you who have been doing these small batches for a while:

• Do you scale your recipe strictly? i.e. -Do you divide a 5 gal. recipe exactly by 5 for all ingredients?

• 
  Do you use BIAB, 3 vessel or extract for your 1 gallon batches?

• If using BIAB, do you do a mash out step? Sparge? Just boil the first runnings?

I'm looking forward to learning from your experiences and your opinions on this.

Cheers!

Novice here, but I do ~2 gallons BIAB, all grain and after the 60 minute mash at ~152 I raise it to ~168 for 10 minutes, then drain (squeeze if you wish) and begin the boil

I use beersmith and set up a equipment profile so I can scale between this and my 5 or 10 gallon setup.

 

[fuzzy2133]

I did a one-gallon batch as a test of my BIAB technique and my equipment. I must say I wasn't really happy with the results. I'd like to develop this technique further but I have a couple questions for those of you who have been doing these small batches for a while:

• Do you scale your recipe strictly? i.e. -Do you divide a 5 gal. recipe exactly by 5 for all ingredients?

• 
  Do you use BIAB, 3 vessel or extract for your 1 gallon batches?

• If using BIAB, do you do a mash out step? Sparge? Just boil the first runnings?

I'm looking forward to learning from your experiences and your opinions on this.

Cheers!

So many ways that work and no wrong answers.
Still a novice as well.
I scale with beer smith to 1 gallon and make minor adjustments to meet my scales limitations. Using a 3 gallon pot so I have plenty of room for the hot break and after cooling using a siphon to leave the trub and cold break behind (after whirlpool). I have been skipping mashing out and sparging in favor of squeezing the bag like a turnip. I was sparging but had some funny things happening with volume and gravity on 3 gallon batches so I opted for simplicity for time being.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Thanks for your comments, guys. How is your boil-off rate working out?

I typically loose about a gallon to boil-off with 5 gallon batches (60 min. boil). I have heard that proportionately you can expect to loose more on smaller batches. How much wort are you looking for at the beginning of your boil?

 

[wolfej50]

I recently did a 1 1/2 gal batch. Bought a 2 1/2 jug of spring water and used all of it to get to 1 1/2 gal of wort (BIAB, so some loss to grain bag as well).

 

[30Bones]

For my ~1.9 that's calced to go into the fermenter I start with around 3 gallons for a 1.060 FG and 2.75 IIRC for a 1.045 and I lost around a half gallon on a 60 minute boil. This is a pretty standard 4 gallon kettle. Probably as wide as it is tall 12"x12"

 

[bernardsmith]

I decided to retire my carboys.
I used a Mr Beer little brown keg for the first time, and bottled from it yesterday in a breeze. I also had another 1-gal batch in a carboy i had to bottle right after, and that was uber annoying to do alone.

So, between having to use a blow off tube, then an airlock, then cleaning all the necessary gear like autosiphon, tube, bottling wand, then having a rough time siphoning alone while holdong the wand and making sure the bottle doesnt overflow, all the while also making sure that the siphon doesnt hit the trub as i try and do all those things one handed, THEN having to clean it all including the krausen off the carboy and the dripping mess on the floor, i said screw it.

Bought a second little brown keg online. I bottle straight out of the spigot and thats that.
Hats off to you guys for sticking to 1-gal carboys, i just cant handle the headache.. It almost turns me off when i should instead be thrilled.

There are clips that you can fasten to your siphon that will keep the bottom of the tube above the trub and so you don't have to use a third hand to prime the siphon

 

[fuzzy2133]

Thanks for your comments, guys. How is your boil-off rate working out?

I typically loose about a gallon to boil-off with 5 gallon batches (60 min. boil). I have heard that proportionately you can expect to loose more on smaller batches. How much wort are you looking for at the beginning of your boil?

On the kitchen stove (NG) I have about 0.75 gallon boil-off in 60min.

 

[Puddlethumper]

On the kitchen stove (NG) I have about 0.75 gallon boil-off in 60min.

Thanks again!

 

[Avocado_Power]

So many ways that work and no wrong answers.
Still a novice as well.
I scale with beer smith to 1 gallon and make minor adjustments to meet my scales limitations. Using a 3 gallon pot so I have plenty of room for the hot break and after cooling using a siphon to leave the trub and cold break behind (after whirlpool). I have been skipping mashing out and sparging in favor of squeezing the bag like a turnip. I was sparging but had some funny things happening with volume and gravity on 3 gallon batches so I opted for simplicity for time being.

Hey puddlethumper and fuzzy - I use the sparge method outlined in the Beer Craft book, which has 1-gallon batches in mind. After you mash at whatever temp, you take the grain bag and dunk it in a separate 2-gallon pot of water with 165 degree temp...slosh it around a bit and let it sit for 15 mins. That's your "sparge" step for you. Hope it helps!

 

[Avocado_Power]

Hey guys, due to the fact that I am not in a country with an online homebrew store or LHBS, I am experiencing a temporary shortage on malted barley (still trying to figure out how to acquire some). But I'm not here to bore you with my sob story, I'm here to ask for creative brew ideas :fro:

If you had only about 4-5 lbs of wheat malt, 1 lb of chocolate malt, under a lb of roasted barley and about a pound each of flaked wheat and oat flakes...along with ONLY dry saison yeast...is there ANYthing I can brew?

Go!

[P.S. I do have one 3 lb package of light DME that I was planning on saving for yeast starters, but I could just break it open already...]

 

[Puddlethumper]

Hey puddlethumper and fuzzy - I use the sparge method outlined in the Beer Craft book, which has 1-gallon batches in mind. After you mash at whatever temp, you take the grain bag and dunk it in a separate 2-gallon pot of water with 165 degree temp...slosh it around a bit and let it sit for 15 mins. That's your "sparge" step for you. Hope it helps!

I'm having trouble following the math here. If you do a mash with 1 gallon +/- then sparge in another 2 gallons, don't you end up with 3 +/- gallons pre-boil? Are you doing 2 gallon batches? Or am I misunderstanding something?

 

[Calichusetts]

I'm having trouble following the math here. If you do a mash with 1 gallon +/- then sparge in another 2 gallons, don't you end up with 3 +/- gallons pre-boil? Are you doing 2 gallon batches? Or am I misunderstanding something?

I think he is saying that he uses a 2 gallon pot, not necessarily full all the way. There will be grain absorption from the 1 gallon mash so its not like its a full gallon anyway. I usually collect over 2 gallons of wort and do 90 minute boils. My 3 gallon pot boils about .6 gallons an hour

 

[Puddlethumper]

I think he is saying that he uses a 2 gallon pot, not necessarily full all the way. There will be grain absorption from the 1 gallon mash so its not like its a full gallon anyway. I usually collect over 2 gallons of wort and do 90 minute boils. My 3 gallon pot boils about .6 gallons an hour

LOL, I shouldn't be posting on this forum before my first cup of coffee.

Thanks!

 

[fuzzy2133]

Hey puddlethumper and fuzzy - I use the sparge method outlined in the Beer Craft book, which has 1-gallon batches in mind. After you mash at whatever temp, you take the grain bag and dunk it in a separate 2-gallon pot of water with 165 degree temp...slosh it around a bit and let it sit for 15 mins. That's your "sparge" step for you. Hope it helps!

A dunk sparge is what I was going to try on the next few brews. Have you compared how much gets extracted between the 2 methods?

I was doing a pour over sparge and getting inconsistent gravity results and the mess from the colanders we have (one is too big and the other is too small) did not help.

 

[30Bones]

Maybe I did mine wrong. BIAB, roughly 1.75 into the fermenter. I started with 3 gallons, mashed for an hour. Turned on the heat to get the temp up to 170 for 10-15 min, remove the bag and commence boiling.

 

[balrog]

"Maybe I did mine wrong"

With brewing, I'm pretty sure there is no "wrong". Ask 12 brewers how to do something and you'll get many answers...and maybe a beer.

 

[Avocado_Power]

I'm having trouble following the math here. If you do a mash with 1 gallon +/- then sparge in another 2 gallons, don't you end up with 3 +/- gallons pre-boil? Are you doing 2 gallon batches? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Hi there - sorry I wasn't clear. Exactly what Calichusetts said - I was using a 2-gallon pot, but not filled to the brim (otherwise sheer displacement alone would overflow). As long as you have roughly 2 gallons before boil, no problem. Depends on how much grain you use, but I sparge with roughly 3/4 gallon.

 

[Avocado_Power]

A dunk sparge is what I was going to try on the next few brews. Have you compared how much gets extracted between the 2 methods?

I was doing a pour over sparge and getting inconsistent gravity results and the mess from the colanders we have (one is too big and the other is too small) did not help.

I've used both methods myself, but I can't tell how much was extracted because I didn't take gravity readings. I just remember that I had the same exact problem you did, with poorly-sized colanders. I've heard that pour over sparging works better (more efficient extraction), but it's way easier just to dunk the bag in hot water.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Hi there - sorry I wasn't clear. Exactly what Calichusetts said - I was using a 2-gallon pot, but not filled to the brim (otherwise sheer displacement alone would overflow). As long as you have roughly 2 gallons before boil, no problem. Depends on how much grain you use, but I sparge with roughly 3/4 gallon.

So you are finding that 2 gal +/- preboil is giving you a finished product at close to 1 gallon? That helps a lot as I am still trying to figure out the boil-off rate on these smaller size batches. (I have 5 gal. boils pretty well dialed in, but this is a whole new process.)

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'll probably need to invest the time and grain in another trial batch or two, monitoring and measuring everything pretty closely. I'm thinking it may be the best way to figure out how to do this with my set-up.

Thanks again!

 

[Avocado_Power]

So you are finding that 2 gal +/- preboil is giving you a finished product at close to 1 gallon? That helps a lot as I am still trying to figure out the boil-off rate on these smaller size batches. (I have 5 gal. boils pretty well dialed in, but this is a whole new process.)

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'll probably need to invest the time and grain in another trial batch or two, monitoring and measuring everything pretty closely. I'm thinking it may be the best way to figure out how to do this with my set-up.

Thanks again!

Yup, +/- 2 gallons should do the trick. Take a look at a few 1-gallon AG recipes out there, and they should give you a good idea. Obviously YMMV but I typically lose about a gallon in the boil.

 

[dukedevil0]

I have stopped checking FG for the most part if I am confident in my yeast.

How do you know fermentation is done? Or are you just waiting a specific amount of time?

 

[30Bones]

How do you know fermentation is done? Or are you just waiting a specific amount of time?

2 weeks generally, 3 tops and I am ready to bottle/keg and get another batch going.

 

[markb91]

I am a new brewer and got a kit from Northern Brewing. They provide you with an extract kit and I received both fizz tablets and priming sugar. Do I use both?? I was under the assumption I use either one. Thoughts?

 

[30Bones]

Use either or, not both.

 

[markb91]

Use either or, not both.

That's what I figured. Thanks!

 

[Bobcatbrewing42]

I don't understand one gallon or even 5 gallon batches. I do as much as I can get into a 15.5 gal keggle (usually about 12 gal in the kegs) and between family and friends it vanishes way too fast. If I had the room, I'd upgrade to at least 20 gal batches.
The setup and cleanup are most of the work anyway.