The advantage of propane is that it delivers a lot of energy very quickly. That lets you boil more liquid faster. For up to about 3 gallons I don't see that you actually need that. If you're boiling 9 gallons, yeah then you probably need something like that.
1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!
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Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
If you start boiling your first runnings on the stove while sparging the rest, the boil should be fairly quickly. My first runnings are just developing a hot break when I add the second, and its back to boiling in about 10 minutes max.
True. My stovetop will keep four+ gallons at a rolling boil on a cool day, but probably not much more. I tested it with water before risking wort.
Thank you all for the replies. I have been able to boil my almost 3-gallon wort without much difficulty, it just takes a little bit to get going. I didn't think this was a problem, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something (final product wise) by not being able to boil as quickly as I could with a single gas burner. I do agree that the convenience of my all-kitchen setup has worked really well so far, but being in Arizona, brewing outside on the covered patio (other than in the summer) does seem nice.
Should be brewing a sweet imperial stout (modeled after Southern Teir's Creme Brulee) in the next couple of weeks. Think I'll stick with the stove-top for now; might try to go to a gas burner in the near future just to increase boil quickness. Thanks again!
Should be brewing a sweet imperial stout (modeled after Southern Teir's Creme Brulee) in the next couple of weeks. Think I'll stick with the stove-top for now; might try to go to a gas burner in the near future just to increase boil quickness. Thanks again!
divrguy
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Hey everyone, haven't posted in this thread in a while now. Hope everyone is doing well. I'm brewing up a big batch right now but I just came back from Germany and I've got all kinds of small batch brews I need to work on. Beers I never knew existed and I'm so glad I had the chance to try them.
Brew on!
Brew on!
Welcome back, looking forward to hearing about some of those brews. Good luck and have fun.
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Cool. After brewing mostly 2-2.5 gallon batches, with a 4 and a couple of fives, I now have my first one gallon batch fermenting. Testing an unidentified hop. It's certainly easy to brew one gallon.
Made 2 1-gallon brews recently, a BD Hardcore IPA clone and a AV Hop 'Ottin clone, neither of them smelled hoppy after the boil despite the first one is an IIPA and i boiled down (did a 90min boil instead of 60 because i heard that pilsner malt might need that) the second one to IIPA ballpark (with added extra hops). I guess they will be hoppy after the dryhop but is this normal? I could smell only the malts.
I generally have to reheat my mash after the first 20 minutes and that causes all kinds of different temps in my wort. (bottom being too hot while top being too cold) But according to this blogpost the bulk of the conversion happens in the first 20 minutes anyways.
http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2011/03/04/conversion-progress-in-a-single-infusion-mash/
Is that means that if i can keep a good temp in the first 20 minutes then i can't really mess up my sugars in the remaining 40 minutes?
I generally have to reheat my mash after the first 20 minutes and that causes all kinds of different temps in my wort. (bottom being too hot while top being too cold) But according to this blogpost the bulk of the conversion happens in the first 20 minutes anyways.
http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2011/03/04/conversion-progress-in-a-single-infusion-mash/
Is that means that if i can keep a good temp in the first 20 minutes then i can't really mess up my sugars in the remaining 40 minutes?
$10 at BevMo. Get yours today because this is a when they're gone they're gone items.
Anyone using the rims tube during their mashed with her one gallon setup. I figure I can use my rims to be to maintain a perfect mash temperature. But I don't want to buy any additional gear.
Broham1 said:
I'm having a hard time reconciling this with hop stands.
I put my steel pot into a tub of cold water with some frozen bottles floating around, i am reaching yeast pitching temp in about 30 mins.
Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
Made 2 1-gallon brews recently, a BD Hardcore IPA clone and a AV Hop 'Ottin clone, neither of them smelled hoppy after the boil despite the first one is an IIPA and i boiled down (did a 90min boil instead of 60 because i heard that pilsner malt might need that) the second one to IIPA ballpark (with added extra hops). I guess they will be hoppy after the dryhop but is this normal? I could smell only the malts.
I generally have to reheat my mash after the first 20 minutes and that causes all kinds of different temps in my wort. (bottom being too hot while top being too cold) But according to this blogpost the bulk of the conversion happens in the first 20 minutes anyways.
http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2011/03/04/conversion-progress-in-a-single-infusion-mash/
Is that means that if i can keep a good temp in the first 20 minutes then i can't really mess up my sugars in the remaining 40 minutes?
Are you mashing in a pot or cooler? If its in a pot, put it in a preheated oven (warm setting...turn off when you put the pot in.) You will not lose a single degree and see no swings. Why do you have to reheat in the first 20? Even when I was doing stove top, I found the first 15 minutes were the most consistent. If all else fails...you want your temps to rise slightly, not drop. In otherwords. If you can hold it at 150, then have it creep to 155 over the last 40 minutes. You shouldn't see a drop in efficiency or effects on your beer. The higher the temp, the less conversion. If it drops lower, you will get a higher OG, and a thinner beer. I would keep my pot on low on the stove and have to stir every few minutes to keep the heat down. Very consistent and always hit my numbers but annoying.
As for the hops...two points. First, what is your water like? This sounds like your water is not allowing the hops to shine. Second, as a hop head, what does your hop schedule look like? I just finished a hop bomb with 2 ozs in the boil. I FWH, then do a 60 minute but they never give more than 10-20% of the IBUs I'm after. From there, I start decent size (usually 4x the additions of the early hops) hop additions at 20 and every 5 minutes from there on out. I do a hop stand with 1+ oz at flameout. You can smell these beers across the room when you crack a bottle. Decent dry hop and your looking at a hop monster.
It's interesting because for the first brew i mashed 1.6kg of grains in 5 liters of mash water (the pot was like 95% full) and for the second one i mashed 0.9kg of grains in the same amount of water (this means a really thin mash) and the first one was able to keep it's temperature for 30-40 minutes. I had to reheat the second one after 15 minutes. (the oven seems like a good idea, it is pretty easy to control the temp of my oven, should i set it's temperature around my mash temp?)
I can't really control my stovetop the way you described, it's electronic, it has 9 settings but it turns the heater on and off all the time so it would be impossible to set something like a 5 degree temp raise over 40 minutes.
I brew with bottled water because i have chloramine in my tap water. The stats of my bottled water were:
Calcium (Ca2+): 63 mg/l
Natrium (Na+): 21 mg/l
Magnesium (Mg2+): 26 mg/l
Hidrogen-carbonate (HCO-3) 400 mg/l
All minerals: 520 mg/l
ph: 7,4
I followed these recipes:
20 AAU Simcoe @ 90
20 AAU Warrior @ 90
13 AAU Chinook @ 0
2 oz Amarillo dry hopped (the beer is still fermenting so this have not been added yet)
and
1 oz CTZ @ FWH
0.5 oz CTZ @ 20 minutes from end
1 oz Cascade @ 10 minutes from end
1 oz CTZ @ 5 minutes from end
(i added about 0.5 oz (adjusted for 5 gal) amarillo at flame out because why not)
2 oz Cascade @ dry hop for 7 days (the beer is still fermenting so this have not been added yet)
Both are those recipes are for 5 gallons, i divided the amounts by 5 for my recipes.
Including carboy and airlock?
YES, includes everything in the photo: 1 gallon jug, cap, airlock, tubing, tubing clamp,racking cane, thermometer, sanitizer, and IPA all Grain kit: (Yeast, Hops, Grains)
Call first unless you don't mind going down there and picking up some beer while your there. these are quickly disappearing off the shelves down here in SoCal
-=Jason=-
Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
Try an ounce at flamout and an ounce dryhop. That is what I do, I also follow more of the second recipe's style of additions with 20-0 additions every 5 minutes. My over-the-top recipes would use nearly twice this. I used 2 ounces in the boil for my last hop monster.
1oz @ 0 and 1oz dry hop for a 1 gallon brew? That is almost twice the amount than used in a pliny the elder.
(Btw i am brewing in central-europe, it is not impossible that my hops were old/stored under bad conditions. Would ordering from the US harm my hops? That means a 1-2 week long journey for my hops mostly around 70F temp i guess)
Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
You sure? If you scale it up to a barrel your not even talking about 4 pounds of hops...I know many breweries that do 4-6 pounds per barrel for their hoppy beers, some more!
Calichusetts said:
If you scale up the other hops as well, you are looking at 19 pounds of hops total.
I think you are running into a unit conversion problem. There are several units of measure for liquid called a barrel, and two called a gallon.
Considering The_Glue's location you might want to switch to liters and gram measurements.
1 us gallon = 3.785 liters.
1 imperial gallon = 4.546 liters.
1 US beer barrel = 117 liters.
1 UK beer barrel = 164 liters.
Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
Sure...here we go:
1 barrel of beer = 31 US gallons
1 pound = 16 ounces
If a brewery is using 5 pounds per barrel for a hoppy beer that is 80 ounces of hops (16 x 5)
80 ounces of hops divided by 31 (we brew 1 gallon not 31) is 2.5 ounces in a one gallon brew
I often put 1 oz in for flameout. .5 ounces over the last 20 minutes. And a tiny bitter addition of maybe .1 ounces. Finally, 1 oz dry hop and my hoppy beers, just like hoppy commercial use around 2.6 ounces a gallon. I am a hop head so this is usually my minimum. I just did one with 4 ounces total
1 barrel of beer = 31 US gallons
1 pound = 16 ounces
If a brewery is using 5 pounds per barrel for a hoppy beer that is 80 ounces of hops (16 x 5)
80 ounces of hops divided by 31 (we brew 1 gallon not 31) is 2.5 ounces in a one gallon brew
I often put 1 oz in for flameout. .5 ounces over the last 20 minutes. And a tiny bitter addition of maybe .1 ounces. Finally, 1 oz dry hop and my hoppy beers, just like hoppy commercial use around 2.6 ounces a gallon. I am a hop head so this is usually my minimum. I just did one with 4 ounces total
Let us know if your taste buds ever come out of hiding.
Two banana 1 carrot 1 cyster
Crucial-BBQ
Well-Known Member
I feel you on the "hate". Here is what I generally say:I'm tired of hearing all you big boy 5-Gallon brewers telling us 1-Gallon brewers to step up.
Brew Day takes me about 3-4 hours, which includes cleanup.
I know one of the main points from 5-Gallon brewers is that "if you brew something amazing, you only have 10 bottles of it." My response- "Yea? So?" If I brew something amazing, chances are I'll brew something else amazing, and then perhaps I'll go back and brew that amazing beer again. And again.
5-Gallon brewers are always so quick to tell me- "Why put all that work in for just 10 beers." I'm not sure about you guys, but I don't consider my brew days as "work." I'm an insurance underwriter by day, but thoroughly enjoy cooking and now, brewing. I love the processes, and feel that it actually calms me. So work? I think not...
And lastly, I love the fact that I always have new things coming out of my pipeline. Yea, I just finished up drinking a really great IPA kit, but as sad as I may be to see it go, I can't wait to crack open my Weinstephaner Dunkel clone next! I'd rather have a few of LOTS of things than 50 of the same thing for 3 weeks.
So to all you big boy 5-Gallon + brewers out there, don't be so quick to hate on us 1-Gallon brewers. While eventually we'll graduate to your status, in the meantime, we're totally feeling what we've got going right now, and it's just as enjoyable for us, as it is for you. :rockin:
*Disclaimer*
This thread is not meant to pick a fight or evoke negativity. It is simply in jest, although, steeped in believed truths
"You are only getting 10 beers! What if you brew something amazing?"
-First off, my "1-gallon" brews are scaled up enough to provide a twelve pack, so there
I also keep detailed notes, so if I brew something awesome, I can do it again and it will be worth the wait. If that amazingness was the result of a fluke, then oh well. I'll enjoy it while it lasts. "You are only getting 10 beers! That is not enough!"
-I have been homebrewing for roughly 15 years now. When I started, I would have said that 5 gallons was not enough for me alone, but these days, I don't drink nearly as much.
"You are only getting 10 beers! What about family, friends, the hobo down the street?"
-While I enjoy sharing my brews and turning people on to the art of homebrewing, I did not get into this hobby to provide everyone free beer and support their own habits. I also find that sharing a few bottles with someone more intimate and rewarding than simply saying Hey, there is the keg. Help yourself. I still do 5 gallon batches, though, so this is also a moot point for me.
"It takes the same amount of time, so why not just do five gallons?"
-Hmmm, well fermenting and aging takes the same time, but brew day is a heckofalot shorter. I save roughly three hours alone in heating the water, and up to another hour with sparging. Also, bottling goes a lot faster (I don't keg). The real bonus for me is that I can do four different 1-gallon brews on my stove top in roughly the same amount of time it takes me to do one 5-gallon brew.
I began doing 1-gallon batches when I became tired of experimenting in 5-gallon increments. I'd rather pitch 10 beers than 2 1/2 cases. Now, it just seems like a more efficient way for me to pursue my hobby.
I did not read every single page in this thread, so perhaps this has been brought up: simply scaling down by dividing by 1/5 does not exactly work unless you also scale down your system. Many 1-gallon brewers do the BIAB method, and as you should know, sparging is not as efficient. As a result, more grain is needed, roughly 1/3 more of the amount that has been scaled down. So, if you used ten pounds of grain for a 5 gallon batch, scaling down (by 1/5), then adding 1/3, would require roughly 2.66 pounds for the one gallon batch...not 2 pounds.
Evaporation rate of water: there are a few factors that dictate the rate of evaporation, but in general the smaller the boil, and vessel, the less energy loss. That is; a smaller batch will evaporate faster--which is evidenced by many 1-gallon brewers doing 45 minute boils.
Hop utilization: many will tell you that a smaller batch requires a little bit more hops, and I find this to be true. I use the above method of dividing by 1/5 than adding roughly 1/3 of that amount back. So, if 1 oz. of bittering hops were asked, I would use 0.25 oz. (slightly less than +1/3) in stead of 0.2 oz.
But hey, this is just what I found with my system. Perhaps others can just truly scale down and go.
One gallon jugs are popular with wine makers, and have been for some time. One gallon to a home wine maker is the equivalent of 5 gallons to the homebrewer. I have noticed 3 gallon carboys becoming more popular...or at least in more stores. Then again, I never looked for one prior to a few years ago, so perhaps there were always there and I never noticed?
I use the exact same method and bottling bucket that I would use for a 5+ gallon batch.
As a winemaker I would say, not really. A gallon of wine usually only yields 4 bottles. Sometimes 5 if it's a little over a gallon batch and you're very careful about wastage.
I will admit that most of my mead batches are around 2 gallons though. Five pounds of honey seems to translate fairly well into two gallons of mead.
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