1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[IvanBrew]

Has anybody here used these? http://morebeer.com/products/tapadraft-6liter15gal-bottle.html

They seem nearly ideal. I'm tempted to pick up a couple to play around with.

 

[BikerBrewer]

I just ordered a 2 gal fermenter from demon brew its a conical style anyone else use these ?

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I've been using one for several months now and I love it. Been doing 2 gallon batches, I bottle right out of the fermentor using carb drops. It's quick easy and I've brewed some really good beer. I'd recomend this fermentor to anyone.

 

[BikerBrewer]

Has anybody here used these? http://morebeer.com/products/tapadraft-6liter15gal-bottle.html

They seem nearly ideal. I'm tempted to pick up a couple to play around with.

I haven't used mine for quite some time but when I used to brew bigger batches I'd always bottle some up in a Tap A Draft bottle. Worked well for me and it fits well in the fridge, it kept it for a month or so without going flat too.

 

[sumbrewindude]

I always like the idea of the TAD system, but I heard they were finicky/issue prone on the valve side.

I won't lie, though, I did think about getting a few of the bottles at one time for fermentors, but decided the 2gal buckets were easier.

 

[PetVet]

Has anybody here used these? http://morebeer.com/products/tapadraft-6liter15gal-bottle.html

They seem nearly ideal. I'm tempted to pick up a couple to play around with.

I used the TAD system for quite some time. It worked fine and I was happy with the results however, I found a few quirks I had to iron out: If you get the system, replace the caps with the poly seal screw caps. The first batch I did, I used the ones that came with it and got small leaks when carbing. The design has changed since I had mine; you could put two CO2 carts, one on each side, or one CO2 and nitro cart for your stouts. Made it really nice. Lastly, the tap began to weaked over time and although I never had it pop open on its own, I started looping a rubber band around the handle just so I could sleep at night. All that being said, again, I was not unhappy with its performance, especially about how easy it was to keep in the fridge or take to the brew club meeting.

Hope that helps a bit,

Prost,

Joe


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[IvanBrew]

I don't necessarily have any interest in using TAD as it was originally intended, though I have to admit: it'd be convenient at times for taking beer out...

I'm more interested in the bottles as fermenters. A 1.5 gal container that I can see into and will take a stopper for air-lock and/or blowoff is appealing... Especially for $8-9/ea...

 

[PetVet]

I have to agree with that. It would make a good fermenter. The only concern I would have would be the head space for the krausen. You could definitely use a blow off tube in the bung if need be, especially with some of these proteinacious beers like hefeweizens. The price is right and you know it can stand at least a moderate amount of pressure. Shoot, give it a try, if it doesn't pan out, you're just out $8-9 bucks.


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[acarter5251]

Thanks for the help previously everyone. I just brewed my first batch ever last night. 1.25 gallons of a blonde ale. Everything went pretty smoothly throughout the process. The OG was about 4 points shy of the target, but otherwise everything seemed to be where it should be. The cooler that I put my fermenter in started pretty warm (about 80 degrees), but I added ice packs and it got down to 60 degrees overnight and seems to be holding steady for now. No activity in the airlock yet, but it hasn't been very long. Hopefully those yeast get to work soon so I can get to trying my creation!

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Thanks for the help previously everyone. I just brewed my first batch ever last night. 1.25 gallons of a blonde ale. Everything went pretty smoothly throughout the process. The OG was about 4 points shy of the target, but otherwise everything seemed to be where it should be. The cooler that I put my fermenter in started pretty warm (about 80 degrees), but I added ice packs and it got down to 60 degrees overnight and seems to be holding steady for now. No activity in the airlock yet, but it hasn't been very long. Hopefully those yeast get to work soon so I can get to trying my creation!

Did you wait until you got it down to 60f before you pitched the yeast?

 

[acarter5251]

Did you wait until you got it down to 60f before you pitched the yeast?

I pitched once I got the wort down to about 72 degrees in an ice bath in my sink. At that point I was running out of ice to add to the water bath and the temperature was pretty leveled out. I then put the fermenter into the cooler with ice packs and the temperature got down to about 70 within an hour or two, so the fermenter may have been a little on the high temperature side for a few hours tops.

 

[sammy33]

Thanks for the help previously everyone. I just brewed my first batch ever last night. 1.25 gallons of a blonde ale. Everything went pretty smoothly throughout the process. The OG was about 4 points shy of the target, but otherwise everything seemed to be where it should be. The cooler that I put my fermenter in started pretty warm (about 80 degrees), but I added ice packs and it got down to 60 degrees overnight and seems to be holding steady for now. No activity in the airlock yet, but it hasn't been very long. Hopefully those yeast get to work soon so I can get to trying my creation!

Sounds like everything went pretty good for a first batch!

Did you do any aeration of the wort after cooling it down? Shake the fermentor?

 

[acarter5251]

Sounds like everything went pretty good for a first batch!

Did you do any aeration of the wort after cooling it down? Shake the fermentor?

I did. My pour from the pot to the bucket was pretty vigorous and then I shook the bucket for about a minute or so.

 

[sammy33]

acarter - Good on you for the aeration!

What was your pitching rate? What yeast did you use?

 

[acarter5251]

I used safale s-05 and pitched about half a packet for 1.25 gallons

 

[sammy33]

acarter - Sounds like your good with the pitching rate. Is it bubbling yet? Give it 24 hours and you should start seeing some activity.

The only other thing I can think of is raising your ferm temp up a bit. 60F is on the low side of ideal for S-05. 65-67F might kickstart it. :rockin:

 

[acarter5251]

Ok thanks I may bump it up a hair then

 

[sumbrewindude]

Great to see another small batch brewer! What kind of beer did you make, ACarter?

I'll second the bump up the temp a bit, US05 loves the mid-60's, it can get a little "peachy" in the low 60's. If you want to ferment that cold and have a nice, clean yeast go with Notty. It'll behave similar to US05, but tolerates cold better.

Man, I need to get my grain order in - the weekend approaches!

 

[acarter5251]

Good to know. I thought colder was better. I'm brewing a blonde ale

 

[beerlover87]

A lot of people have made me think colder was better as well I have I small room connected to my bedroom with a small little "bat cave" as we call it and it stays cooler in there than the rest of the house around 70 tops plus its nice and dark I do believe that's gonna be my fermentor room until summer then gonna rig up a extra fridge I have where I can control the temp and brew 2 gallon batches all year long

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[sumbrewindude]

Here everyone's trying to go cold and I'm trying to figure out how I can get temps up to the 80's for a saison/wit...

Basement's hanging out in the 60's right now, sump corner's in the upper 50's. I should really get a lager going...

 

[acarter5251]

acarter - Sounds like your good with the pitching rate. Is it bubbling yet? Give it 24 hours and you should start seeing some activity.

The only other thing I can think of is raising your ferm temp up a bit. 60F is on the low side of ideal for S-05. 65-67F might kickstart it. :rockin:

I just opened up the cooler to let my fermenter warm up some. It appears that the airlock is bubbling but very slowly and its pretty jerky.

 

[acarter5251]

Here everyone's trying to go cold and I'm trying to figure out how I can get temps up to the 80's for a saison/wit...

Basement's hanging out in the 60's right now, sump corner's in the upper 50's. I should really get a lager going...

I wouldn't have much trouble getting to 80s being in Florida. Getting it down to the 60s on the other hand...

 

[beerlover87]

I wish I was in Florida It's 3 degrees outside right now in northwest Ohio I some warm weather........ Really not about brewing just sick of bein cold.... Ok I am done lol

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[TipsyYeti]

Part of the reason i have been rocking the small batches is that I can boil on my stove. My wife can't wait until I can boil outside, she hates the hop smells.
Single digit temps and giant snow drifts are great for cooling though.

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[acarter5251]

I wish I was in Florida It's 3 degrees outside right now in northwest Ohio I some warm weather........ Really not about brewing just sick of bein cold.... Ok I am done lol

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We just got a little bit of a cold snap today. This morning was in the 40s and highs are low 60s today.

 

[beerlover87]

I would kill for 60's this is the coldest winter I have ever been in we had days when it was 30 below zero it's crazy our low last night was 8 below so all there is to do is drink beer and try to stay warm but ya you can cool beer outside real easy

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[acarter5251]

Do you have issues trying to keep fermentations warm enough when it's that cold outside?

 

[sumbrewindude]

Not sure about BeerLover87, but I know in our area (which averaged over 55 days below zero this year, some well below -30) my basement's been pretty stable in the 60's. It did cool down a little farther than usual in the corners, but I attribute it more to a deeper frost line this year than previous ones. LOTS of broken water mains this year, a couple townships have asked homes to keep water running to keep the pipes from freezing up. Heating bill's been higher than I'd like too - I feel sorry for all those folks that deal with propane!

Now that I'm getting a better handle on ambient basement temps (and humidity levels) I think I'm going to start planning beers around seasons. Just need to get some data from summer...

 

[acarter5251]

Not sure about BeerLover87, but I know in our area (which averaged over 55 days below zero this year, some well below -30) my basement's been pretty stable in the 60's. It did cool down a little farther than usual in the corners, but I attribute it more to a deeper frost line this year than previous ones. LOTS of broken water mains this year, a couple townships have asked homes to keep water running to keep the pipes from freezing up. Heating bill's been higher than I'd like too - I feel sorry for all those folks that deal with propane!

Now that I'm getting a better handle on ambient basement temps (and humidity levels) I think I'm going to start planning beers around seasons. Just need to get some data from summer...

I was just asking because I'm going to be living in Oklahoma next year and was wondering how swings in temperature are gonna affect my brewing.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Can't speak for OK - haven't lived there since I was a kid.

I will say that one of the major investments that I'm looking into getting sometime this summer is a small chest freezer (either 5cuft or 7cuft) and a temp controller so that I can have a dedicated fermentation chamber. So much of quality of the flavor of the beer can be affected by fermentation temps, I've read multiple times on here that it's the single greatest addition you can make to your beer. 160bucks or less is cheap enough to not worry about wild temp swings for my batches.

Maybe something to think about for the future?