1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[ericbw]

New question or maybe an old one. Would it work to boil 5 gal of wort and separate into 1gal containers to play with hop schedules? Would the re-boil hurt the wort?


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You might be better off boiling it just long enough to sanitize (15 min?), and then split into separate batches. Let it cool before you put it into other containers (unless it's another pot).

 

[sumbrewindude]

New question or maybe an old one. Would it work to boil 5 gal of wort and separate into 1gal containers to play with hop schedules? Would the re-boil hurt the wort?


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No, it won't hurt the wort to re-boil, but like Bleme said you will have a darker beer, and potentially a higher ABV due to boil off provided you're not adding water (not the worst thing in the world, but something to be aware of).

The one thing to remember about hop schedules, is that bittering time is cumulative. Another thing to consider is that bitterness isn't linear, the longer you boil the hops past 60 you're not gaining significant IBUs.

Personally, I love FWH's (first wort hops) - I really like the bittering profile they have, and to me it's less effort than a 60min addition for nearly identical IBU's. Put the first runnings into the pot, add bittering hops, and turn on the burner while I'm sparging.

Figure out where/how you want to experiment in with your hop additions. I've seen the largest difference in terms of bittering @FWH-40min, flavor@20-10min, aroma@5min-whirlpool. I also try to keep at least 10min between additions so things don't get muddled, eg, if you're doing a 10min addition I'll put the last one at KO, or whirlpool. If it's a 20min addition I'll usually put the next at 5min. Or whatever.... you get the idea.

Everyone's different, everyone has their own style and likes. Brew what you like and love.

 

[HomebrewCraig]

SBD, I see an empty Primary! What's the plan? Your LIVID IPA sounds like it's coming along very nicely.. If it tastes as good as you hope, will you post up the recipe?


And on a sad note, I cannot brew until June. My company is sending me to Miami for a month, and I cannot in good conscience leave any duties related to beer to my devoted and loving wife.

And on an unrelated note, this Miami trip really screws up my garden this year.. I start seeds under heat lamps in my garage, and typically begin to harden off in early May for transplant late second week. So now the conundrum: Do I transplant just before I go, or go in later in the season, early June? Should I choose the latter, I will need to rely on one of the kids to diligently water my seedlings.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Craig - I'll post LIVID now, I don't care. If anyone else wants to brew it, go ahead - it's an adaptation of Surly's Furious so I won't take the credit for it. It fits the IIPA, but it's on the lowside. Too high for a regular IPA, though, so I guess Extra IPA isn't really a category but it's the most accurate. I pulled 80%EFF, so my values were higher.

XP IIPA - Livid Extra IPA - Imperial IPA
=============================
Batch Size: 1.452 gal
Boil Size: 2.343 gal
Boil Time: 60.000 min
Efficiency: 77%
OG: 17.7 P
FG: 3.7 P
ABV: 7.6%
Bitterness: 70.8 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 13 SRM (Morey)

Fermentables
=============================
Name Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
Simpsons - Maris Otter Grain 2.500 lb Yes No 81% 3 L
Briess - 2 Row Brewers Malt Grain 1.000 lb Yes No 80% 2 L
Simpsons - Crystal Dark Grain 4.000 oz Yes No 74% 80 L
Carastan Malt (Bairds) Grain 4.000 oz Yes No 77% 35 L
Briess - Carapils Malt Grain 2.000 oz Yes No 74% 1 L
Total grain: 4.125 lb

Hops
=============================
Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Warrior 15.5% 0.250 oz First Wort 60.000 min Pellet 42.1
Mosaic (HBC369) 13.0% 0.250 oz Boil 10.000 min Pellet 11.6
Simcoe 13.0% 0.250 oz Boil 10.000 min Pellet 11.6
Mosaic (HBC369) 13.0% 0.250 oz Boil 2.000 min Pellet 2.7
Simcoe 13.0% 0.250 oz Boil 2.000 min Pellet 2.7
Mosaic (HBC369) 13.0% 0.500 oz Dry Hop 4.000 day Pellet 0.0
Simcoe 13.0% 0.500 oz Dry Hop 4.000 day Pellet 0.0
Yeast
=============================
Danstar - Nottingham Ale Slurry

Mash
=============================
Single step, 90min, 151F

The "Plan" for P2 - is... well, just got my new induction plate tonight and have yet to get my pot to move up to 3gal. As soon as I get my pot in, I've got a 3gal witbeer that'll get brewed, then split in two so I can pitch two separate yeasts and spice one, then I hope to blend them back together post fermenting and bottle. Sooooooo - right now it's hanging out with water in it.

Regarding your trip to Miami, bummer but still awesome - there's some great food and places to visit down there, not to mention actual heat and some sun. Take a pole and hit up the surf! That's what I'd be doing in your shoes.

AFA the plants, I'd say play it by ear until a week before your leave. Last year I didn't get my garden in until Memorial Day last year, and if our weather this year is any indication we could be sitting in the same timeline. Nice part about starter/established seedlings is that they take great and can establish in no time if you end up planting late.

Speaking of grow-lights and plants, my Columbus rhizome is peaking out! Hopefully I'll have so leaves and shoots here soon!

 

[MedBrewer]

Hey Craig when your down in Miami and have a little time to kill check out Daddy Brews. I live down here and they are a great local shop, always have great stuff on tap to sample and super friendly staff. Hope your trip goes well

 

[d-usa]

Transferred my Ginger Beer into the carboy for secondary this morning, cut it pretty close with my volume. If I wouldn't have emptied the whole pot into the primary I probably would have ended up short, so it's time to go back and adjust Beersmith some move.

 

[HomebrewCraig]

Hey Craig when your down in Miami and have a little time to kill check out Daddy Brews. I live down here and they are a great local shop, always have great stuff on tap to sample and super friendly staff. Hope your trip goes well

Med: Thank you for the tip! I'll have some free time, and I will look them up. Do you have any recommendations for local craft breweries, too?

SBD: I will definitely give your recipe a whirl. I do so enjoy an IPA with some teeth.

Far as the garden goes, I think I may plant before I go and rig up some fence posts with twine between them, so if there's a frost coming, the wife can spread out some plastic I'll have rolled up at one end of the garden. At least for some of the more tender plants.. This is my second year growing superhots (Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Chocolate Habanero, and Carolina Reaper) and they are pretty needy when they are young.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Put on the safety goggles and popped one of the MM's tonight - didn't know what to expect with the whole sugar fiasco during bottling.

No Earth shattering kaboom, but some carbonation. Maybe a little bit of oxidation (remember I had to pour all of them back into the bottling bucket after capping and realizing what happened), but it's still green. Not bad, but nothing I'd jump up and down over either, just kind of an easy drinking beer. Just kind of blah compared to some of the others I've made, which I didn't expect with the rye and Chinook.

Not real sure what happened at all....

Man I've got to get this bottle carbing thing down. Or get my stinkin' kegs hooked up and running. May have a lead on a small fridge for cheap, so then I have to decide if I want to go ferm chamber or keezer. Not counting chickens before feathers are seen, though.

 

[d-usa]

Opened my first bottle from my second 1 gallon batch today:

Nice and crisp Orange Wheat, the wife approves

 

[sumbrewindude]

Now THAT looks TASTY! :rockin:

You got a recipe?

 

[d-usa]

Got it typed up in Beersmith, is there a way to export easily out of there?

I'm pretty happy with the clarity. I'm not a big stickler with having a clear wheat beer, I think the cloudiness is one of the traits of the wheat beers in general, but this ended up having a good balance between the "cloudy wheat" and showcasing the color and carbonation. I didn't add any clarifying agents, but I did do a cold crash before bottling.

 

[sumbrewindude]

D-Usa, should be - see if you can either "Copy Recipe to Clipboard" (that's what I use with BrewTarget), or if you have an "Export to Text Doc" or something similar. Either one will get you there, otherwise you could always export it and then attach the bxml file. I can import that too - I usually just use the txt output in case anyone else is reading and wants to brew it too..

I think clarity in wheat beers is out of place. I know somefolks love a clear beer, and for some styles that's a requirement. Wheat is what it is - I think you did fantastic as clear as you got it, I still think it looks damn tasty/refreshing.

 

[d-usa]

Here is the recipe I used.

The recipe I based it on was using California Ale so that's what I used for mine and it is pretty tasty. I might try using a Hefeweizen or American Hefeweizen Ale yeast next time around.

Trying the same recipe with different yeasts is another benefit of brewing 1 gallon batches of course!

View attachment Orange Wheat v1.xml

 

[sumbrewindude]

Wow! 2# of oranges in the secondary? Wish I would have caught this back when Halo's were cheap! I think we went through at least 10 bags this last winter...

Thanks for the recipe! Now to put it into the line-up.

 

[d-usa]

Needless to say, the secondary kicked back up into active fermentation once you add the juice from those oranges!

 

[sumbrewindude]

Well, I think I found my very first "house" beer.

It ain't fancy, it's not over the top - but man I know I brewed 15 of them and they were ready on Monday, and now they're GONE. Like, were gone on Wed, and I only had four of them! I have no clue where they went to - the neighbor got one, wife's been sneaking them and leaving me the bottles, and I think I took a couple to a party for tasting and they were gone before I could get the next taster lined up.

Worst part is, I want one now!

Huh. Well crap, now I have to make it again. Oh darn the luck...

(Thinking about changing up an ingredient to start massaging the flavors in where I want them...)

 

[doc8402]

SBD what beer are you talking about?


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[sumbrewindude]

Doc -

It's just a simple german pseudo lager - like a fake Oktoberfest, I just called it a "Festbier" because it's sort of like a dark-cream-ale-german-mess. Notes have this one at 5.5ABV.

50% Vienna
20% Flaked Corn
20% Dark Munich
10% Carawheat

Hopped with Saaz.

If anything, in regards to the few that I tasted, I'd like to swing that ratio to more Vienna and knock the rest inline - so like I said I need to massage it a bit more, but it's super easy to drink and tastes great.

Ordered my kettle for the 3gal batches, guess I know what the second 3gal brew is going to be...

 

[HomebrewCraig]

SBD: How many gallons will your new kettle be? And how thick? I see many that are .4 to .48mm thick, and the pricier options are .95 to 1mm thick. I see some with tri-clad bottoms, and I am awfully tempted to pick one up in the 20 to 24 quart size.... But not sure if it's worth the added cost.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Craig - I'm taking a small risk on the pot, so before I give it the two thumbs up I want to make sure it'll work with my new induction plate. I'm hoping to keep the 3gal batch size fairly contained/effecient so I'm keeping my 5gal cooler and decided (right or wrong) to stick with an 1800W induction plate - that meant finding a tall, skinny stainless pot so that I could keep the boil off low and maximize the 10.25" burner element.

The only inexpensive pot I could find that made the cut was 27qt measuring 11.5" diameter by 16" tall. If that doesn't work, the next pot on the list is a tri-clad Vollrath that's 12.5"x12.5" and is quite a bit more expensive. I'm hoping the first option works.

I know Sammy33 on here is using a tri-clad wallyworld 22qt pot (Tratimona?) he got for around 50bucks and it works well for him doing 2.5gal batches on his Vollrath plate. You may want to check out his setup.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Exciting day - other than the torrential rain and the backyard becoming a pond/swamp.

Bottling day for the Keptinis! Honestly had no idea what to expect on this one - fermenting S04 at 78F (according to the product sheet that's on the extreme end, and I was guarenteed some esters from it), a 15miin boil on AG, two fist-fulls of alfafa in the mash-tun, a full oz of Warrior hops, a third of the grain being mashed bread.... success or sucks-ass.

Bottled it all up with the Domino sugar cube trick (really, this is now becoming my favorite way to bottle, thanks Rave808!) and tasted a sample at the end. Its really weird, but in that exciting/different way not the "oh crap it's a dumper" way. Definite esters, but fruity. Strong rye bite, with an upfront calm bitter from the Warrior, and finishes slightly caramelly sweet, 6.5% according to the calc. Can't wait to get this carbed up and try one then - there are definitely somethings I want to change (sub Bravo in for the Warrior, change up the yeast to a Belgian Saison), but believe it or not this will be brewed again.

It's wild.

 

[Owly055]

Craig - I'm taking a small risk on the pot, so before I give it the two thumbs up I want to make sure it'll work with my new induction plate. I'm hoping to keep the 3gal batch size fairly contained/effecient so I'm keeping my 5gal cooler and decided (right or wrong) to stick with an 1800W induction plate - that meant finding a tall, skinny stainless pot so that I could keep the boil off low and maximize the 10.25" burner element.

The only inexpensive pot I could find that made the cut was 27qt measuring 11.5" diameter by 16" tall. If that doesn't work, the next pot on the list is a tri-clad Vollrath that's 12.5"x12.5" and is quite a bit more expensive. I'm hoping the first option works.

I know Sammy33 on here is using a tri-clad wallyworld 22qt pot (Tratimona?) he got for around 50bucks and it works well for him doing 2.5gal batches on his Vollrath plate. You may want to check out his setup.

As I write, I'm doing a two gallon BIAB in a 16 qt CHEAP walmart ($12) stainless stockpot. It's about the max I could mash in this pot without sparging the bag...... Which is a good plan anyway. My main brew kettle is a blue enamel water bath canner..... all steel. It works very well, and would work perfectly with your induction hotplate, probably better than any stainless steel pot would. It would easily handle a 3 gallon mash and boil. These are approximately 5 gallon capacity.

H.W.

 

[doc8402]

Got bourbon barrel porter in the fermenter.
I am thinking about doing a black ipa today but I had a question about yeast. Is there a way to save the 1/2 pack of yeast I don't use so I could use it in another brew? Just wondering if after opening the pack it's a one shot deal. The yeast in question is SO5 NB standard for the ipa kits.

Thoughts/ideas?


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[sumbrewindude]

Got bourbon barrel porter in the fermenter.
I am thinking about doing a black ipa today but I had a question about yeast. Is there a way to save the 1/2 pack of yeast I don't use so I could use it in another brew? Just wondering if after opening the pack it's a one shot deal. The yeast in question is SO5 NB standard for the ipa kits.

Thoughts/ideas?


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Sure!

There's lots of ways to do this - if the yeast is dry, all you need to do is just fold the packet over (making sure to keep extra O2 out, and keeping the cut corner inside the folds) then put a piece of painters blue/green tape over the folded side. Once you're done, I usually label the tape so I know how much is in it (not necessary, I'm just like that), then put it into a ziplock snack bag, squeeze out the O2, then put the whole works into the FREEZER. That's it! I've had dry yeast like this for over a month and it still takes off fine - heresey, I know, but it's true.

And speaking of yeast - don't forget you can harvest the slurry's from your 1gal batches and then re-pitch them! I find my self doing this all the time, now, as I'm usually brewing at least once a week so instead of using new yeast all the time I just pitch the slurry from last weeks batch (provided it's the correct type of yeast). The three most common yeasts I use right now are Notty, US05, and S04 - between those three I'm sure I can find SOMETHING to brew.

Collecting a slurry from a finished batch is easy, and really doesn't take any time/hardware other than a little bit of bottled water and a clean, sanitized mason jar and lid.

Once you get done racking the beer into bottles, take a little bit of bottled water and pour it into the jug and swirl around the old yeast/trub to get everything back into suspension. Then, pour that slurry into the mason jar, and put the lid on it making sure to lightly screw the ring down. Label the jar with some painters tape (can you tell I like using bluetape to label?) so you know what it is, what generation (how many times you've pitched that slurry before), and what date it was collected. Once that's all done, the put it into the fridge on the top shelf and leave it alone - after a day or so it'll separate out with a little beer on top, yeast, then the old trub. You can leave it like this until you're ready to brew again, for me about a week, sometimes two weeks. No more than 3 weeks total, then you're better off either washing it out, or just pitching fresh yeast. I try to time out and brew beers that will work with the yeast I have present at that time.

When you're ready to pitch the slurry, just decant off the old beer, then pour the yeast and a little of the old trub (don't stress over it, it'll go to the bottom with the new trub) into the new batch. Shouldn't need much at all, as the yeast will be on top, so when it starts to pour "clumpy" (and you'll see it as you pour), you're done.

Fermentation will take off like a rocket with the slurry, so have your blowoff tube on!


Some will say that re-pitching dry yeast is a waste, as it's so cheap. I perfer to think of it as cost containment, and practice for when I get a fancy/expensive yeast that I want to step up or keep on hand. I've got 5 packs of dry yeast in the freezer right now, and I'm still using slurry yeasts I bought 3 months ago - can't beat that at all in my book. :rockin:

 

[doc8402]

SBD thanks man

On a side note Sunday does not get any better then chicken on the smoker and beer in the kettle!

 

[gwaugh]

Hi everyone. I mostly brew 5 gallon batches but have brewed a few 1 gallon kits from northern brewer. My question is how does everyone bottle? I made a pretty good mess with my last bottling attempt and ended up with about 6-7 bottles. Any tips or tricks?

 

[doc8402]

Hi everyone. I mostly brew 5 gallon batches but have brewed a few 1 gallon kits from northern brewer. My question is how does everyone bottle? I made a pretty good mess with my last bottling attempt and ended up with about 6-7 bottles. Any tips or tricks?

Gwaugh I am new to this too but and I asked the same question having gotten only 6 from one batch and 8 from another. The reply's I received said that 8 is about average. Hope this helps. I don't have any tips I just use the bottle filler that came with my small batch starter kit.

Doc

 

[sumbrewindude]

Hi everyone. I mostly brew 5 gallon batches but have brewed a few 1 gallon kits from northern brewer. My question is how does everyone bottle? I made a pretty good mess with my last bottling attempt and ended up with about 6-7 bottles. Any tips or tricks?

Hey Gwaugh!

Have you checked out Revy's bottling sticky? That's basically what I use, just on a smaller scale. Instead of a 5gal bucket, I use a 2gal bucket but everything else is just about the same. I also use a #2 stopper with a small 1/4" copper elbow as a pick up tube to get as much as I can. Other than that, its just transfer to the bucket, then into bottles via the bottling wand.

I know a couple guys (and possibly gals) use just an autosiphon directly attached to a bottling wand and do it that way, but I'm not that talented/have that many hands. Bottling bucket works fine for me!

 

[matthewmurray]

I bottle directly from the fermenter with a mini auto-siphon hooked to a bottle filler. I prime each bottle, usually with sugar cubes. Never less than 9 bottles.

 

[jimmyjjohn]

I have been brewing partial extract kits 5 gallons,and I want to make a 1 gallon batch but have no idea how to either cut ingredients from a 5 gallon kit,which I wouldn't really wanna do anyways. I was thinking cutting a mr beer kit between two 1 gallon fermenters,

any ideas on that?