1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[Ash1616]

That'll work fine, Ash.

Don't forget, you can also lager in the bottle after primary - so once you've gone through fermentation and the diacetal rest, bottle up and stick 'em in the fridge to lager.

I believe Yooper had on here a good rule of thumb, one week of lagering for every 0.01 of drop from OG to FG. Eg, if you go from 1.050 to 1.010, that'd be a .04 difference so 4 weeks of lagering.

Have fun!

Thanks for the feedback. One question though...how are you all taking OG and FG readings on such small batches? I'm worried about using up all my tasty hard work when the final output is only going to be around 9 bottles or so.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Ash -

I used to use a hydrometer, and because of this I scaled my recipes up to 1.5gal to account for losses. After a few brews I got a refractometer. After doing some comparing of the two measurements, I felt confident with using the refractometer and using the alcohol correction factor (because alcohol will screw with the FG reading, you need to account for it - there's all kinds of calculators out there for it on the web so you don't need to do crazy math unless you're weird like me).

Is it as accurate as a hydrometer for FG, IMO no - but it does get me VERY close to the real number and only uses a few drops of solution to get there.

An alternate method I used to use was to sanitize the hydrometer and put it into the bottling bucket, but you need a deep bucket for that to work.

 

[Ash1616]

Thanks a lot, I'll go see what the prices for a refractormeter are like at my LHBS.

 

[Owly055]

I haven't used my hydrometer for a long time........ I use only a refractometer for the reasons stated. There is no doubt that the hydrometer can be more accurate........ though I've had issues with getting bubbles not to stick to it and screw up the reading... a bunch of air CO2 bubbles will completely screw up the reading, and this can be an issue. The refractometer is good enough for me..... it tells me what I need to know.

H.W.

 

[Owly055]

Traditionally beer is stored in dark bottles due to the desire to protect it from light. I have more beer in clear flip tops than I have in brown.. I have about 3 times as many clear as brown bottles. I decided some time back that light is really not a very big issue unless you are planning an extended storage, and that can ......... and probably should be in a plastic tote...... preferably a dark colored one. They also are good insurance if you happened to screw up your priming sugar calculation........though that seems unlikely, and of course I use ONLY EZ Cap swing top bottles which I know from using them with kombucha will not explode.........They vent, and can hold a tremendous amount of pressure.

I want to SEE my beer........ I ferment in clear fermenters, bottle in clear bottles, and drink out of clear pilsner glasses..........

Am I alone out here?

H.W.

 

[plath]

just subbing in to this thread

 

[sumbrewindude]

Traditionally beer is stored in dark bottles due to the desire to protect it from light. I have more beer in clear flip tops than I have in brown.. I have about 3 times as many clear as brown bottles. I decided some time back that light is really not a very big issue unless you are planning an extended storage, and that can ......... and probably should be in a plastic tote...... preferably a dark colored one. They also are good insurance if you happened to screw up your priming sugar calculation........though that seems unlikely, and of course I use ONLY EZ Cap swing top bottles which I know from using them with kombucha will not explode.........They vent, and can hold a tremendous amount of pressure.

I want to SEE my beer........ I ferment in clear fermenters, bottle in clear bottles, and drink out of clear pilsner glasses..........

Am I alone out here?

H.W.

I don't think you're alone - I do enjoy watching the process and seeing what those little beasts can do to sugar. That said, I'm going the other way - looking to move to opaque, sealed containers for both fermenting and storage to glass. No real reason other than I'm trying to keep the process contained and maximize what little space I have for this growing hobby.

I can't believe how kombucha is exploding on the HB scene - always seemed like a fringe beverage but somehow it's working it's way into mainstream. I'm wondering (even if it is low ABV) when the FDA's going to crack down on the home-sellers I've been seeing on CL.

 

[Owly055]

I don't think you're alone - I do enjoy watching the process and seeing what those little beasts can do to sugar. That said, I'm going the other way - looking to move to opaque, sealed containers for both fermenting and storage to glass. No real reason other than I'm trying to keep the process contained and maximize what little space I have for this growing hobby.

I can't believe how kombucha is exploding on the HB scene - always seemed like a fringe beverage but somehow it's working it's way into mainstream. I'm wondering (even if it is low ABV) when the FDA's going to crack down on the home-sellers I've been seeing on CL.

I make a LOT of kombucha..... I have been making it for over a year, and I supply the local microbrewer with kombucha that he puts on tap, and shares (free) with good customers and friends. I supply him with about 5 gallons a month of ginger flavor.

my personal favorite is a hybrid. I use a partially fermented wort in a small percentage as "bottling syrup" for kombucha. I either make a dark rich all grain wort, or one made from dark DME. It has a lot of malt in it, and I pitch yeast and ferment it about half out, then add about 1/2 cup per liter when I bottle the kombucha. It makes a rich tasty kombucha with probably about 2% alcohol when it's finished. I use my safety system with rubber bands holding the bail down on 1L flip top bottles, and let it ferment about a week in the bottle. The safety system relieves at about 30 psi. The result is a beery kombucha with a wonderful tang, and a lovely head........it's almost a sour session beer.

H.W.

 

[Owly055]

My refractometer reads in brix and potential alcohol......... I just ordered another on from Ebay that reads in brix and SG. I'm tired of having to refer to charts to find the OG and FG. I like the POT chart though. One added plus is that I can use the same refractometer for testing coolant in vehicles.

I have one beer that refuses to read on the refractometer out of the fermenter....... I just get an absolute blank. My hydrometer reads 1.012 SG........ which I don't believe! Interestingly now that I put it in a hydrometer tube, and dribbled a drop on the refractometer, it reads.......but doesn't agree. I get about 1.020 according to the conversion charts. I presume that bubbles which I couldn't see were clinging to the hydrometer. Drinking flat beer out of a hydrometer tube today ;-).............What else are you going to do with it??

I find myself using the potential alcohol scale instead of converting to SG..........Hopefully with the new refractometer that will change......but it means that I will be wasting TWO DROPS of beer instead of one!! Don't laugh if you see me licking my refractometer clean ;-)...........

H.W.

 

[roastquake]

Don't laugh if you see me licking my refractometer clean ;-)...........

H.W.

Oh good, I'm not alone

 

[KindofBlues71]

I use my safety system with rubber bands holding the bail down on 1L flip top bottles, and let it ferment about a week in the bottle. The safety system relieves at about 30 psi.

Would you mind posting some pics of this? My interest is piqued...


Sent from my KFSOWI using Home Brew mobile app

 

[sumbrewindude]

Tasting day!

I was on call last week so I didn't get a chance to sample the two beers that aged in - my Warshpale and the Brit Stout.

Warshpale was my first real try at water chemistry. That, in combination with learning that my water sucks for light beers also led to a trial run with acidulated malt to balance the pH. Overall, it was an outstanding success. If I had to describe it, it would be like an American Bitter - a pale ale base then hopped like an english beer using American backing hops (Cascade/Chinook) with bunch of EKG in the whirlpool. Very clean, crisp, and finally a bitterness that I was hoping for. Yay chemistry, yay crisp satisfying beer!

Also tried the Brit Stout. Sampling into the carboy was amazing - coffee, carmel, toffee, roasted awesome. Sampling into the bottling bucket was dissappointing - very dry, burnt, no carmel/toffee. Sampling the undercarbed bottle (still young, needs another two weeks really), hope was renewed - coffee returned, burnt gave way to roast again, still missing the sweetness and it's still dry but it hides it's 6.2ABV so well you're in trouble before you know it. I was worried it had too much black patent in it (and it probably still does), but I think the big issue was the yeast selection - Notty. It just chewed through everything and left a nice dry stout.

I'm going to slightly mod the recipe, and try it again with a low attenuating yeast and try and hold onto some of that sweetness. That and mash it crazy high, just for giggles.

So many beers, so few bottles...

 

[bleme]

Also tried the Brit Stout. Sampling into the carboy was amazing - coffee, carmel, toffee, roasted awesome. Sampling into the bottling bucket was dissappointing - very dry, burnt, no carmel/toffee. Sampling the undercarbed bottle (still young, needs another two weeks really), hope was renewed - coffee returned, burnt gave way to roast again, still missing the sweetness and it's still dry but it hides it's 6.2ABV so well you're in trouble before you know it.

I named my 3rd brew Schitzo Stout because every week it was a completely different beer. It's pretty cool being involved in the whole process from beginning to end (especially the end).

 

[Owly055]

Would you mind posting some pics of this? My interest is piqued...


Sent from my KFSOWI using Home Brew mobile app

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24840069/IMG_20131231_132531.JPG

Here's a link to a photo of the system....

H.W.

 

[KindofBlues71]

Thanks Owly055!

 

[Owly055]

Thanks Owly055!

You're welcome........... It doesn't get any simpler than that does it?

H.W.

 

[d-usa]

Bottled a Saison that has been sitting in primary for 3 weeks. Used 70% Pilsner Malt, 20% Rye, 10% C20 with Summit and Willamette for hops as well as Honey, Sage & Thyme for flavor. Wyeast #3711 for yeast and keeping it in a room with a space heater cranked to 85 a couple hours each day for about a week. Primed it with honey and going to let it sit for a couple of months.

OG 1.055, FG 0.997. The sample I tasted was pretty dang delicious. A sweet earthy taste, nice and dry, just a tiny tiny hint of the herbs in the background. I'm really looking forward to tasting a bottle once it is all said and done. I'm thinking this might be a good fall beer.

 

[sumbrewindude]

D-usa:

That sounds really, really good. I just racked my saison off the tangerines and into a secondary where I'm gonna just let it rock out for a few weeks. Gravity's still in the low teens (pretty impressive for only being in the fermenter for a week or so), but it's got a ways to go yet. I figure after a couple I'll pitch the Citra dryhops and then into a keg!

Smell out of the primary was amazing, fruit and pepper with a hint of belgian. Honestly can't wait for this one to finish up. I can see a couple more saison's being made this summer when the heat is stupid.

Also - a friend from work overheard that I was starting hop rhizomes so he dropped off a grocery bag of Hallertau, Cascade, and Fuggle rhizomes to play with. That brings my total to 6 if you add in Columbus, Chinook, and Nugget.

Gonna be a busy fall if they take off - Columbus is in the lead right now with a whole mess in the starter pot. Both Chinook/Nugget have bines out and are reaching...

 

[sparge_at_large]

I brew 30 gallon batches with my brew club Norwich Nano Brewers. Recently I started brewing 1 gallon batches not get a quantity but try things out on my own and develop new recipes. I get plenty of beer from my share of brew day around 5 gallons or so. But I love the freedom that if I totally flub my brew it's only 1 gallon, and if I love it and my brew club loves it we can upscale and do up to 30 gallons if we wanted. Upcoming 1gallon batches will include rose water, cucumber infused water, butternut squash, blueberry, tea, etc...


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Owly055]

I brew 2.5 or 2 gallon brews...... depending on the fermenter that's available. I have two 2.5 gallon fermenters and one 1.5 gallon fermenter. When I brew with the 1.5 gallon fermenter which is actually 2 gallons total capacity, I've been brewing "concentrate", and when the krausen has fallen, I add half a gallon of sterile water.

1 gallon yields 6-7 half liter ezcap bottles of beer. 2.5 gallons yields 16 bottles +. The scale works against your yield in small batches. I've decided to "push" my 2.5 gallon fermenters out to 3 gallons using the beer concentrate technique which seems to work quite well.

I could probably mash for 5 gallons in my large brew bag, but I can't handle a 5 gallon boil as I work on the kitchen stove. I find handling 2-3 gallons reasonable, and it works well with my incremental cold crashing method where I crash a gallon at a time in an ice tea jug in the fridge. I add about an ounce (weight) of sugar when I crash, and a bit of gelatin, both of which are dissolved in boiling water, and simply poured in. This allows me to bottle directly out of the jug.............. it works extremely well.

H.W.

 

[sakeyfour]

I put a piece of racking tube in the inside of the pick up spout. The tube drops to the bottom of my beverage dispenser toward the back. I wedge it forward when I rack into it and allow it to settle with anything I picked up racking falling to the bottom in the front then take the wedge out so it is level to bottle and drawing from the back.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Summer's (kinda) here!

Unfortunately that means more time outdoors, prepping the garden, trying to figure out why my transplanted hops are sucking wind, playing with the kids, and a distinct reduction in brewing time.

Why is that when it's cold and nasty out it's so easy to brew away, but when the sun's out and the weather's nice I don't want to be hole'd up in the house? I think I've found a small issue with electric brewing... I think I need to find an extension cord...

Also - moved to 3gal batches now, and enjoy the change. With less days brewing, it'll be nice to still have a full pipeline. I still have 4 cases worth of beer in the basement from the 1gal experiments, so no beer shortage here.

As soon as I get my kegerator/keezer setup finalized, I'll be sitting in fat city. Looking at 6 empty kegs is killing me, all it does it encourage me to continue to spend money refining my fermenting process..

 

[EJay]

Hi all - I've read all 400+ pages of this thread and am learning a lot. A bit about me is here.

I've done several all-grain 1-gallon kits, but I'd like to try me first non-kit recipe. Im thinking a Smash. I've got about 2.2 lbs of 2-row on hand, and an ounce or so of cascade hops.

I think that grain is about right, but I don't know enough about hopping to know just how much and when. Since its a smash, I want to be able to taste the hops, but I don't want them overwhelming. Can any of you give me some advice?

 

[flippedcracker]

I would recommend you looking in to a software or app to tell you what your recipe is going to come out like. The recipes i've been playing with call for roughly .25oz.

 

[robbyhicks]

Ejay, if you have android I really like the BrewR app... plugging in 65% efficiency 1gal batch with 1.5 boil... ive got 2.2# 2row... cascade
.1oz @ 60min
.4oz @ 5min

1.053 og
23.4 ibu
3.8 srm
1.013 fg est.
5.2% abv est

This should give a nice amount of hop aroma without as much of the bitterness from early hopping... hops are perceived as follows
60-30 min bittering
30-10 min taste
10- 0 min aroma

 

[ericbw]

Depends on what you like. If you like hoppy, then .25 oz at 60 minutes and .25 at flame out. If you like more hops, then another.25 as dry hops. But if you want something lighter, then maybe .25 oz at 45 minutes and that's all.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Cascade's a great hop for a SMASH.

An ounce would be a lot into a 1gal recipe, even spread out - you'll definitely get a good idea of what the hop will be like.

I vote: Cascade -
FWH: 0.125oz (as soon as you pull the bag and start to ramp temps to boil, toss 'em in)
15min: 0.250oz
5min: 0.250oz
Dryhop: 0.375oz 5 days

Assuming 6.00AA, that should get you around 37IBU and plenty of aroma.

 

[fuzzy2133]

We all have our own tastes and some have to use up hop inventory.

My Cascade Smash:
60 min boil
0.65oz @ 15min ~34ibu's (5.50% alpha)
0.50oz @ 0min
No dry hop needed

This one was interesting, at 2 weeks in bottle (not fully carbed) got more grape fruit aroma and flavor. A week later once fully carbed it became more floral and bright. Not sure if there were still residual sugars at 2 weeks or just need a few days to finish maturing.

 

[EJay]

Thanks everyone - this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get.

I don't HAVE to use up my hop inventory, I just knew I wanted to do a smash and I have to buy my hops in 1oz increments. I'll probably play with the online calculators and end up using half that for now.

It sounds like several of you have done cascade smashes before with good results so that is encouraging.

I might cook this up tonight if I don't bottle an amber thats ready for the bottle.

 

[hoghead_homebrew]

I just wanted to check in. Im a new homebrewer, i just bottled my first 1gallon batch (an american wheat) monday. And i have my 2nd (irish red) in the fermenter. I cant wait to try them!!