1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[sumbrewindude]

Nice! Baltic Porter's getting brewed!

Finally racked my Damphbier off to a keg while the kids watched Planes. While I was at it I prepped the last two kegs so that kegging day goes smooth for the next couple batches.

Gotta say, I am starting to appreciate why folks with larger batches love kegging.

Next up, Dale's Pale Clone and then it's on to pumpkin beers!
:rockin:

 

[fuzzy2133]

here is the bsmx file

You can still use the big kettle. Just use a siphon or use a funnel with screen and pour the wort from kettle.

 

[HomebrewCraig]

Teaser pic... Baltic Porter boiling down slowly... Due to the fact that I squeezed the bejeezus out of the grain bag before and after the dunk sparge, I have a little extra boiling to do... going to be at least 90 minutes on the heat to get down to my desired volume.

 

[Stonewild]

I’m coming off a two year break from brewing and I have some old ingredients and some old questions like, what does beer made from Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast taste like and how old can old hops be? You know, just the normal homebrew experiments. That’s where the beauty of one gallon brewing comes in play.
The Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast was WILD!
Ingredients

1 lbs DME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 1 100.0 %
0.25 oz Cascade really old pellets [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 2 20.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg bread yeast ( Fleischmann’s ) [124.21 ml] Yeast 3 -

Rapid Rise is an understatement - The Fleischmann’s took off like a rocket! It was bubbling in an hour and by the next morning there were bubbles of yeast into my airlock and in 24 hours it was done. The beer fermented for 2 weeks before bottling. It cleared up slowly but nicely in 2 weeks. Half I bottled and the other half I force carbonated. I over carbonated a bit, but it has a really interesting taste that reminds me of a Belgian Ale with fruity flavors. I’m enjoying it.
I saved the yeast and put it on some Wal-Mart apple juice and yeast nutrient. This should be fun. It is bubbling, but not going crazy like from the packet.
Anyone know what kind of yeast or yeasts is in the Fleischmann’s?

 

[SophieMC]

Does anyone know how much is this fermentor capacity? Seems like an Erlenmeyer. I just received the picture but, it's deffinitely too little fermenting. I am also a 1 Gallon brewer, but this seems to be too little (even for me)! Why would someone do this?

 

[ohiobeer29]

Does anyone know how much is this fermentor capacity? Seems like an Erlenmeyer. I just received the picture but, it's deffinitely too little fermenting. I am also a 1 Gallon brewer, but this seems to be too little (even for me)! Why would someone do this?

View attachment 221266

Very odd unless they are experimenting with a few things and don't wanna mess up a whole batch

 

[Darth_Beer]

looks like a 250ml or 300ml flask to me...

 

[Stonewild]

Does anyone know how much is this fermentor capacity? Seems like an Erlenmeyer. I just received the picture but, it's deffinitely too little fermenting. I am also a 1 Gallon brewer, but this seems to be too little (even for me)! Why would someone do this?

View attachment 221266

It looks like a starter.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Looks like a 1L starter to me.

 

[ohiobeer29]

Thoughts on a 1 gallon clone of dogfish head world wide stout clone here is what I have so far

ondering if I'm on the right track here.

rye---1.6oz
roasted Barley----1.6oz
flaked Barley-16 oz
Special B---1.6 oz
Cara Munich malt---1.6oz
Brew above at 155 degrees for 60 minutes
then add:
Extra Dark DME 38.4 oz
Brown Belgian Candi Sugar 6.4oz
1 tblspoons Black Treacle
Columbus Hops 0.05 oz
Magnum Hops 0.05 oz

Boil X 60 minutes, then add
Amarillo Hops 0.04 oz
1 teaspoon Saffron

Boil x 10 minutes, then cool to 80 degrees, put in fermenter

pitch in starter of London Ale yeast

Keep in primary for about 10 days, move to secondary......add 1.14g of Champagne yeast...Dry hop daily with 0.02 oz Amarillo hops in secondary for 16 days . continue in secondary until done. Bottle with fizz drops for priming.

let condition for 3 months

 

[itsratso]

two things, if you're actually going after a wws clone. don't add saffron. yes i read that thread, no i don't know why there is saffron in it and the OP didn't know why either. and two you will never get close to a 20+ abv beer with your method. you would need frequent sugar additions, read the bertus brewery blog on dfh120 cloning.

 

[ohiobeer29]

Awesome thread thanks

 

[itsratso]

so a few posts ago I mentioned that I was having a hard time holding temps in my igloo 5 gallon mash tun on 1 gallon batches. had time to do a few experiments and thought I would post what I found. I used 2 gal of water heated to 150F, an appropriate mash temp. this represents a "torture test" for my mash tun as 2 gallons is probably smaller than any volume I will actually have, and I figure pure water will lose heat faster than a thicker mash will. I used a one hour mash. results:

-heat loss in one hour (no prep): 7F
-preheat tun with 1 gal h20 at 170F for 15 min, then dump immediately before adding test h20 - heat loss in one hour: 6F
-same as above but increase preheat to 2 gal for 30 min: 5F
-same as above but filling dead space above test water with garbage bag filled with Styrofoam peanuts: 4F

for me, the sweet spot seems to be the 5F loss one. seems a little high I know, but as I said I am hoping that with more volume in an actual mash and thicker mash that that will drop a degree or two. btw I tried the same experiment in my 10 gal igloo MT and it dropped in one hour into the 130's

 

[phug]

so a few posts ago I mentioned that I was having a hard time holding temps in my igloo 5 gallon mash tun on 1 gallon batches. had time to do a few experiments and thought I would post what I found. I used 2 gal of water heated to 150F, an appropriate mash temp. this represents a "torture test" for my mash tun as 2 gallons is probably smaller than any volume I will actually have, and I figure pure water will lose heat faster than a thicker mash will. I used a one hour mash. results:



-heat loss in one hour (no prep): 7F

-preheat tun with 1 gal h20 at 170F for 15 min, then dump immediately before adding test h20 - heat loss in one hour: 6F

-same as above but increase preheat to 2 gal for 30 min: 5F

-same as above but filling dead space above test water with garbage bag filled with Styrofoam peanuts: 4F



for me, the sweet spot seems to be the 5F loss one. seems a little high I know, but as I said I am hoping that with more volume in an actual mash and thicker mash that that will drop a degree or two. btw I tried the same experiment in my 10 gal igloo MT and it dropped in one hour into the 130's

Airspace there is a big factor in what's allowing those drops


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[sumbrewindude]

Exactly.

At the bare minimum you should place a piece of tin foil over the top of the mash and insulate it from the deadspace in the cooler.

A better way would be to put a piece of rigid foam insulation in something like a large, plastic foodsafe bag and place that over the mash.

I've used the foil to good effect in all my brews, temp drop is about 2-3deg which is fine for me.

 

[phug]

Exactly.

At the bare minimum you should place a piece of tin foil over the top of the mash and insulate it from the deadspace in the cooler.

A better way would be to put a piece of rigid foam insulation in something like a large, plastic foodsafe bag and place that over the mash.

I've used the foil to good effect in all my brews, temp drop is about 2-3deg which is fine for me.

Actually the foam sounds like a great idea. Take some and cut it to shape to fill the headspace. Maybe stack multiple layers and then place if in the food grade bag. Since you do multiple different batch sizes in the same mash tun, you would want a non permanent method of attaching the layers. Maybe long twist ties threaded through holes in the foam.



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[itsratso]

as you can see above, i didnt see a big drop when i plugged up the airspace, only 1F which wasnt really worth the extra trouble to me. the biggest gain was through preheating that i saw. i would bet that if i was using real mash instead of water at slightly bigger volumes that our numbers will be similar. the tin foil is easy protection though, i will try it.

 

[ericbw]

as you can see above, i didnt see a big drop when i plugged up the airspace, only 1F which wasnt really worth the extra trouble to me. the biggest gain was through preheating that i saw. i would bet that if i was using real mash instead of water at slightly bigger volumes that our numbers will be similar. the tin foil is easy protection though, i will try it.

What about raising the preheat temp?

 

[sportpak]

Hello all, I got mixed results searching, so I thought I'd just ask.
I am enjoying small batch brewing. All extract currently. I am still fiddling around with hops trying to expand my pallet.

Question is, if I am only steeping grains, do I need to be specific with the crush? I would love to buy a pound each of a dozen differnt things to have on hand and just do a quick zip in a coffee grinder as needed. I can't justify a grain mill yet, and would like to avoid constant trips to my LHBS to get small 2-3oz grain bills. I want to keep freshness as high as possible.

Granted, more trips to the store gives more chances to ask questions. I would buy the grains locally, so I am still supporting my local business.

 

[itsratso]

eric 170F has actually bubbled up rhe plastic on my cooler so i dont want to go any hotter

 

[HomebrewCraig]

Hello all, I got mixed results searching, so I thought I'd just ask.
I am enjoying small batch brewing. All extract currently. I am still fiddling around with hops trying to expand my pallet.

Question is, if I am only steeping grains, do I need to be specific with the crush? I would love to buy a pound each of a dozen differnt things to have on hand and just do a quick zip in a coffee grinder as needed. I can't justify a grain mill yet, and would like to avoid constant trips to my LHBS to get small 2-3oz grain bills. I want to keep freshness as high as possible.

Granted, more trips to the store gives more chances to ask questions. I would buy the grains locally, so I am still supporting my local business.

A grain mill is much cheaper than you'd expect. I bought a Corona Mill from Discount Tommy for less than $30 shipped. I put another dollar's worth of washers and a better wingnut and now I have a mill that I trust. I brew BIAB method, and if I crush too much, my paint strainer bag keeps most of the particulates out of the fermenter.

I bet you have most of the gear already, you could easily make the switch into partial mash or all-grain pretty easily.

 

[sumbrewindude]

I've heard bad(ish) things about the coffee grinder for grains, something about it going TOO fine, and you end up with flour in short order.

A slightly better option is either a blender or a foodprocessor pulsed until you get the "crush" you want. The issue with this is that's not really a crush - it's a slice, and as such you're going to cut the hulls and everything rather than smash the grain so that it can get that conversion going.

If it were me and I was desperate to brew (oh who am I kidding, I'm always desperate to brew something...), I'd hit up the food processor a few times to get things chunked up, then put it in a ziplock and break out a rolling pin to really make sure everything was crushed up.

That would work -

The only major issue I can see is that you'll have no consistency in crush rate. Without consistency, you won't be able to plan your extraction amount when designing recipes. Not a huge deal if you always keep some DME around to boost as required, but something to think about.

Good luck!

 

[sportpak]

A grain mill is much cheaper than you'd expect. I bought a Corona Mill from Discount Tommy for less than $30 shipped. I put another dollar's worth of washers and a better wingnut and now I have a mill that I trust. I brew BIAB method, and if I crush too much, my paint strainer bag keeps most of the particulates out of the fermenter.

I bet you have most of the gear already, you could easily make the switch into partial mash or all-grain pretty easily.

I have seen that mill before but haven't talked to anyone whose actually used it. I'll go that way I think. Consistency is a huge deal, looks more accurate then counting 5 blips on a food processor. I'll definitely be trying BIAB before long.

Thanks for commenting.

 

[MrG]

Hi folks -- two questions about scaling and over-hopping.

I brewed BM's centennial ale yesterday (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/).
I scaled the recipe in Beersmith from 5Gal to 1. It scaled the hops down to 0.04oz. When I brewed it, I mistakenly put in 0.4oz.

Question 1: what is gonna happen to the beer? Is it just gonna be super bitter? Beersmith recalculated the IBUs to over 200.

Question 2: are you able to actually measure 0.04oz? Even converting to grams, how do you measure 1.123g?

Any help would be great.
Cheers
-MrG.

 

[Opiate42]

I brewed this up yesterday for giggles and to use up some grain and hops open in my fridge (really need to get a mini fridge for ingredients, my grain bags are taking up enough space it's hard to fit in any food).

Rye Pale w/ Coriander

1.85lbs Marris Otter
125g cararye
125g rye flakes

Mashed w/ 3 quarts 60m at 154-ish (my electric stove isn't the greatest for maintaining temp)

Boil w/ 4 quarts 60m

8g Zythos @ 60
8g Zythos @ 15
1/2 tsp crushed coriander at 10
4g Amarillo @ 5
Half packet Windsor re-hydrated before pitching

Mucked up the timing on the Amarillo, tossed it in at 3 minutes not 5 as I was distracted. Bubbling nicely this morning when I checked.

A grain mill is much cheaper than you'd expect. I bought a Corona Mill from Discount Tommy for less than $30 shipped.

I'll look into that and keep the washers in mind, the mill at my LHBS is about $65 even before shipping

Hi folks -- two questions about scaling and over-hopping.

I brewed BM's centennial ale yesterday (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/).
I scaled the recipe in Beersmith from 5Gal to 1. It scaled the hops down to 0.04oz. When I brewed it, I mistakenly put in 0.4oz.

Question 1: what is gonna happen to the beer? Is it just gonna be super bitter? Beersmith recalculated the IBUs to over 200.

Question 2: are you able to actually measure 0.04oz? Even converting to grams, how do you measure 1.123g?

Any help would be great.
Cheers
-MrG.

Tastebuds Talking: Sounds like my kind of mistake :rockin:

Constructively: I have no idea , your blonde is going to have some crazy bite

Measurement wise you'd have to have a hell of an accurate scale. Most regular kitchen scales only go to a single decimal (if that) from what I've seen unless someone here can recommend one that goes a few dots. My little slim Starfrit glass panel scale doesn't even do decimals, lowest it goes I think is 1gram.

 

[ericbw]

Hi folks -- two questions about scaling and over-hopping.

I brewed BM's centennial ale yesterday (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/).
I scaled the recipe in Beersmith from 5Gal to 1. It scaled the hops down to 0.04oz. When I brewed it, I mistakenly put in 0.4oz.

Question 1: what is gonna happen to the beer? Is it just gonna be super bitter? Beersmith recalculated the IBUs to over 200.

Question 2: are you able to actually measure 0.04oz? Even converting to grams, how do you measure 1.123g?

Any help would be great.
Cheers
-MrG.

I use a scale that measures up to 20g, and I think it's accurate to 3 decimal places. I use that for 1 gallon batches. Not too expensive, and takes the guess work out of it.

 

[fuzzy2133]

I have seen that mill before but haven't talked to anyone whose actually used it. I'll go that way I think. Consistency is a huge deal, looks more accurate then counting 5 blips on a food processor. I'll definitely be trying BIAB before long.

Thanks for commenting.

There are plenty of us that use the Corona Mill. Just take time to get it dialed in and do the mods that are recommended.

In case you have not found the famous thread yet...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/

 

[sportpak]

There are plenty of us that use the Corona Mill. Just take time to get it dialed in and do the mods that are recommended.

In case you have not found the famous thread yet...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/

Thanks for the link. I subscribed and will have to read through it.

 

[MrG]

I know a few jewelry supply shops or even a head shop that might have scales that go down to 2 decimal places. As much as I don't want to handle all the pellets, I was just thinking I could take a package of one ounce, and then divide it like this.
- take a full oz..
- divide it in half (0.5)
- divide that half again (.25)
- divide that half again ( .12)
- divide that in three and then I'll have my (0.04oz)

I'll still let the batch ferment as normal, then bottle, etc... I guess it will be an experiment in what happens when you over-hop.

 

[Darth_Beer]

@MrG
here is a good scale to use (its the one I use for most of my brewing) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003O5K3JQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 Its very highly recommended here on the forum.... I do mostly leaf hops with mine.