1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[bleme]

I have to respectfully disagree with those bagging on your fermentor. If it works for you, that is all that matters.

There are plenty of brewers who successfully do open fermentation and you can't get any more headspace than that.

 

[user 83772]

@bleme: Open fermentation is fine, if you're going for a lambic or other sour style. Not so much with the other styles, however. And as mentioned, he's a little safer simply fermenting in that BB than he would be using it as a secondary, but still. That's a *hell* of a lot of headspace to worry about.

 

[Jbird]

After 3 long weeks in the primary and 2 in bottles, I caved. I had to try my first brews (ever). The first is Ed Wort's pale ale and the second a bitter.



When I tasted them on bottling day, the bitter was, well, disappointing. I can't place the (off) flavor, but it wasn't very good. The PA was very nice, tho.

Today the bitter was drinkable. Still green, but it cleaned up nonetheless. I figure I'll try it again in 2-3 weeks, and it should be even better.

The PA is very good; nice hop nose, nice, not overpowering cascade flavor! Nice head with good retention. Note the picture of the beers together was after drinking them a bit, hence the lack of head on the PA.

I'm so psyched! I can't wait to try the chocolate stout and caramelization experiment that are almost ready to be bottled!

It's good that I only have 3 fermenters -- it'll help slow me down (unless I start using secondaries). Since I had an empty fermentor, I went to the LHBS to get ingredients to get a jump on the summer hefeweizen. I figure it'll take a few iterations to hone in on what I think a good hefe is. Unfortunately, they didn't have most of what was needed, so it was time to experiment again.... This time, I'm using pre-fermented yeast from the PA yeast cake. It looks a bit light in the fermenter, but I can't wait to try it in ~3 weeks...

Man, this is fun!

Dude I'm right along with you. I started brewing about 2 years ago and it is a blast. I experiment all the time with one gallon batches. I don't have a LHBS so I order it all on line. It's fun to sit there and dream of what I could so next.
Like you said about only having three fermenters does slow you down by not having so many. But a better bottle is cheap and I would like to have a few more of them. My wife it's a little mad when I have so many going or I go buy a 12pack of beer at the store just to drink it and reuse the bottles. She always says "honey you don't need beer you are making tons at home".
I told some one last night that I'm addicted o brewing. I love it!
I can't wait to see what I make next.

 

[Jbird]

dude... spend the 12 bucks on a glass carboy, or three, for your fermenters.

all that headspace isn't good

Where do you find a glass carboy for that price?

 

[dadshomebrewing]

amazon or the lhbs

 

[dadshomebrewing]

ok guys... i learned something today, by accident, that might be useful

cracked open a home brew that has been in the bottle for about 3 months (as opposed to the three weeks i usually wait).

oh boy, what a difference. if you want wait, it's definitely worth the wait.

clear, crisp, just the right amount of bite to it, and a head on the beer to die for.

jambalaya and home brew for lunch.

 

[paul_111]

I have to respectfully disagree with those bagging on your fermentor. If it works for you, that is all that matters.

There are plenty of brewers who successfully do open fermentation and you can't get any more headspace than that.

Yes, it does work.

I don't understand the comparison to open fermentation, tho. It's a carboy with an air lock. What's open about that? In less than 12 hrs, the air lock is bubbling away. At that point, all headspace is CO2 (which is significantly more dense than air).

There are plenty of people who use 6 gal carboys for less than 5 gallons of beer (which is at least a gallon of headspace, by the way). I have read a bit about the topic, and hadn't found any references to people having issues. So, if they can successfully ferment 2.5 - 4 gallons in a 6gal carboy, why not use a 3 gal for 1.5-2 gal batches?


I think it's just that others are jealous that my beers can ferment like mad, and will never make a mess, nor do I have to worry about a blow off tube!

And my secondary comment alluded to getting 1 gal glass to free up my primaries faster... :cross:

 

[Jbird]

jambalaya and home brew for lunch.

I want some!

 

[divrguy]

......jambalaya and home brew for lunch.

I love jambalaya specially with a nice rye ale!

 

[user 83772]

@paul - If you look back to my initial comment about the size of your BB vs. the size batch you were doing, I was much more concerned with the possibility of you eventually using said 3 gallon BB to secondary a 1 gallon batch. In that case, then yeah, there *is* a problem with that much headspace. Your beer will oxidize, as the CO2 has dissipated during racking and isn't being replaced at near the amounts as it would be during primary.

 

[DeadheadBrew]

There are a bunch scattered through this thread, there is some on my blog below and my brewtoad. But mostly, just divide a 5 gallon recipe by 5 and its the same thing. The ones I have I optimized for 1 gallon, so there isn't 6.53oz of some malt, I just round them out and make the recipes from a 1 gallon mindframe.

Where do u buy your grains?

 

[Leadgolem]

Refresh my memory, folks: Cold-crashing before secondary to help squeeze as much brew out of the primary as possible - reasonable, or waste of time?

My first batch of Requiem Raspberry is due to be racked to secondary tomorrow, and I recall some folks talking about cold crashing before racking to help drop as much yeast and sediment out of solution as possible before racking to help boost the overall yield.

So what do y'all suggest? crash it, or just leave it be and rack as usual?

Hmm, crashing should improve your yield somewhat. If it's a batch you expect to be extremely good, or that you have expensive ingredients in I'd probably crash before racking. Otherwise, I'm not really sure it's worth the effort.

I find that crashing for 3 days to a week helps compact the sediment so it doesn't get stirred up as much when you have to move the carboy prior to racking.

ok guys... i learned something today, by accident, that might be useful

cracked open a home brew that has been in the bottle for about 3 months (as opposed to the three weeks i usually wait).

oh boy, what a difference. if you want wait, it's definitely worth the wait.

clear, crisp, just the right amount of bite to it, and a head on the beer to die for.

jambalaya and home brew for lunch.

 

[Jbird]

Hmm, crashing should improve your yield somewhat. If it's a batch you expect to be extremely good, or that you have expensive ingredients in I'd probably crash before racking. Otherwise, I'm not really sure it's worth the effort.

I find that crashing for 3 days to a week helps compact the sediment so it doesn't get stirred up as much when you have to move the carboy prior to racking.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzcWwmwChVE

What is cold crashing?

 

[Leadgolem]

What is cold crashing?

Cooling your brew down to refrigerator temperatures. At those temperatures, most of the yeast will go into a kind of metabolic shutdown. Very much like hibernation. IE: they sleep, or "crash". When they do, they tend to fall out of solution. That clears the brew up if what you have in suspension is live yeast.

 

[bleme]

I don't understand the comparison to open fermentation, tho.

I've had open fermentation on the brain since last week when I read a thread about how a guy gets more banana flavor on his Hef's when he does open fermentation.

I figure you can't get more headspace than a whole room of headspace. It still makes a CO2 blanket and they still do fine. I'm guessing that those complaining about too much headspace have only brewed "by the book" and don't have any real experience with 70% headspace.

 

[Antler]

@bleme: Open fermentation is fine, if you're going for a lambic or other sour style. Not so much with the other styles, however. And as mentioned, he's a little safer simply fermenting in that BB than he would be using it as a secondary, but still. That's a *hell* of a lot of headspace to worry about.

This is false. Why is open fermentation only ok for those styles?

There are lots of breweries out there using open fermentation for all kinds of beers. Open fermentation is very popular for large scale breweries in UK and Germany. If you've ever had anything from ringwood or wychwood breweries, all there beers are open fermented. Everything from blondes to bitters.

 

[user 83772]

Perhaps I need to clarify once again. My *original* comment to @paul_111 expressed concern that using his 3-gallon to *secondary* in would cause problems. That's my main issue. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in subsequent comments. All I know is that in *most* cases, when you open-ferment a beer that's not specifically meant to be fermented that way, you're courting infection. After all, if open fermentation was totally safe and appropriate across the board, why do any of us use closed fermenters or airlocks in the first place?

 

[Jbird]

Perhaps I need to clarify once again. My *original* comment to @paul_111 expressed concern that using his 3-gallon to *secondary* in would cause problems. That's my main issue. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in subsequent comments. All I know is that in *most* cases, when you open-ferment a beer that's not specifically meant to be fermented that way, you're courting infection. After all, if open fermentation was totally safe and appropriate across the board, why do any of us use closed fermenters or airlocks in the first place?

Good point.

 

[muleskinner90]

A week ago today, I opened and sampled a 12oz bottle of dopplebock that had been bottle conditioning for 1 week at ~61 degrees. I drank roughly the neck of the bottle. Not enough carbonation. I recapped and placed it back where it came from. I put that bottle in the fridge last night and am going to try it this evening. What do you think I can expect?

 

[BigRock947]

A week ago today, I opened and sampled a 12oz bottle of dopplebock that had been bottle conditioning for 1 week at ~61 degrees. I drank roughly the neck of the bottle. Not enough carbonation. I recapped and placed it back where it came from. I put that bottle in the fridge last night and am going to try it this evening. What do you think I can expect?

Little to no change....'1 week at about 61 degrees' is not even close to enough bottle conditioning time. Minimum is 2 weeks at 68 to 70 degrees...my basement is about 64 degrees and it took about 6 to 8 weeks to get the right amount of carbonation for some of my beers. Then maybe a sitting a cold fridge for a week before opening.

I would wait at least another month before trying another bottle unless you can't wait and don't mind drinking the beer a little flat

 

[muleskinner90]

Little to no change....'1 week at about 61 degrees' is not even close to enough bottle conditioning time. Minimum is 2 weeks at 68 to 70 degrees...my basement is about 64 degrees and it took about 6 to 8 weeks to get the right amount of carbonation for some of my beers. Then maybe a sitting a cold fridge for a week before opening.

I would wait at least another month before trying another bottle unless you can't wait and don't mind drinking the beer a little flat

Will I have off flavors if I move them to 64°?

 

[user 83772]

No, moving them up to 64 won't give you off flavors. As mentioned, they should be carbonating at 71, so you're still way under that even if you bump 'em up a bit from where you are now.

 

[paul_111]

Perhaps I need to clarify once again. My *original* comment to @paul_111 expressed concern that using his 3-gallon to *secondary* in would cause problems. That's my main issue. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in subsequent comments. All I know is that in *most* cases, when you open-ferment a beer that's not specifically meant to be fermented that way, you're courting infection. After all, if open fermentation was totally safe and appropriate across the board, why do any of us use closed fermenters or airlocks in the first place?

I fully agree

Don't worry, I wouldn't use a large secondary. I meant to say if I bought 1 gal secondaries, I'd free up my primaries, thus allowing me to make more beer than I can drink! But I do love the experimentation of making it.

Now If only I could find 1.5 gal secondaries...

 

[Tabb]

So I got a question, the 3 gallon water bottle I saw at walmart earlier, can I use it for a secondary?
I have a food grade 5 gallon I'll prime in and the transfer to secondary in there?
I guess two questions, anyone else use them? How to tell if safe?

 

[user 83772]

If it's a water bottle, it's safe to ferment beer in. And as far as using it to secondary, presuming that you're doing a one-gallon batch, that's a hell of a lot of headspace to have sitting on top of a finished beer. I'm no expert, but I wouldn't feel comfortable with more than a half-gallon of extra headspace, let alone two gallons.

 

[Tabb]

If it's a water bottle, it's safe to ferment beer in. And as far as using it to secondary, presuming that you're doing a one-gallon batch, that's a hell of a lot of headspace to have sitting on top of a finished beer. I'm no expert, but I wouldn't feel comfortable with more than a half-gallon of extra headspace, let alone two gallons.

I've only done 5 gallon batches so far. I'm going to shoot for a 3 gallon batch. I'm not trying to prime in it just use it for a secondary after most of the active fermenting is done. I'm tossing around ideas right now of a big billed beer that's oaking in the secondary, so I think it would be perfect. Now to just figure out the beer part of the idea.

 

[Leadgolem]

I've only done 5 gallon batches so far. I'm going to shoot for a 3 gallon batch. I'm not trying to prime in it just use it for a secondary after most of the active fermenting is done. I'm tossing around ideas right now of a big billed beer that's oaking in the secondary, so I think it would be perfect. Now to just figure out the beer part of the idea.

It's probably fine. If you do something like cider, red wine, or a high IBU beer it is going retain some flavor and aroma though.

 

[user 83772]

Ah, yeah - if it's a 3-gallon batch, then go for it.

 

[Tabb]

It's probably fine. If you do something like cider, red wine, or a high IBU beer it is going retain some flavor and aroma though.

Never thought about that at all. Thanks. The 22nd is going to be a busy night.

 

[Calichusetts]

I fully agree
Now If only I could find 1.5 gal secondaries...

Try a wine superstore. Wine bottles come is some many sizes beyond the standard...including 1.5 gallons and 2.25 gallons. They have crazy names like Imperial, Methuselah and other biblical names. Google them or if you find a respectable wine seller, they will know what your talking about. It will either be really good wine and expensive or really crappy wine and cheap. Best part is that most will have punted bottoms so the trub will settle down the sides of the bottom