1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[Oberon67]

I find that often when nobody answers a question I've asked, it's because it's a stupid question. Has this been one of those times?

 

[burninator]

I find that often when nobody answers a question I've asked, it's because it's a stupid question. Has this been one of those times?

Nah. Just a slow thread sometimes. So extract big beer on a small scale?

 

[Oberon67]

Doesn't have to be extract, I can mash, boil and sparge just like anybody else. Scale is small, though.

 

[fuzzy2133]

Oberon67 there is no stupid questions! This thread has its quiet times.
I am hesitant to tell you to do a barleywine or triple if you are still new to home brewing, I do not want to set you up to fail, things are more likely to go wrong as the OG gets higher.
What other styles do you enjoy?
Can you expand on what you see as complicated? When I first started brewing I thought the grain bill and mashing (all grain) was complicated until I saw a demonstration for all grain brewing.

Edit: I type slow and you 2 ^ beat me.
And if you have a handle on things say so I have seen many new members who have been brewing for a few years.

 

[Calichusetts]

So I need a recipe recommendation. I'm going to have an empty one-gallon fermenter this weekend, and for my next batch I have some definite ideas in mind. I need a recipe that meets the following requirements:

• It makes a gallon of beer.
• It's a big-flavor style with some heat, like a Belgian Tripel or a Barleywine.
• It's not too complicated (I'm new at this).

I can brew from malt or from extract, not picky that way since I'm just starting out.

Any help you could give would be much appreciated.

Well, belgians and big beers don't often go with "not too complicated" but here is a tasty Rye barleywine...consider adding bourbon soaked oak chips after a month. Trying to simplify it as much as possible:

3 lbs pale ale or Marris Otter (depends on if you want an american or english barleywine)
.5 lbs Rye
.25 lbs flaked barley
2 oz EACH: Caramel 20. 60. 120

Should come in over 10% depending on your system...good luck

 

[Oberon67]

I find myself running into brewer's shorthand a lot.

So when you say the following:

"2 oz EACH: Caramel 20. 60. 120"

Does that mean two ounces of Caramel added at 20, 60, and 120 minutes into the boil?
Should I infer from that that it's a two-hour boil?
I find references to Caramel malt, but nothing called "caramel" in hops. Does this recipe involve hops at all?

So with this recipe I would mash the grain bill for an hour at 145-155, finish it at 170, sparge with my 160-degree water (which I assume will be about 1.5 gallons), then boil to target volume. I will either add or not add hops, depending on what you tell me about this, then I will chill the wort to 70 degrees and pitch the yeast I have (which is D47).

Then I'm thinking a month of primary fermentation (because this is a big beer), followed by priming and bottle conditioning. I will prime with four tablespoons of honey or maybe molasses and rack from the fermenter into the priming pot, then bottle. Then I'm guessing it'll be a month or more until it's fit to drink, and will only get better after that.

Am I close?

 

[Calichusetts]

I find myself running into brewer's shorthand a lot.

So when you say the following:

"2 oz EACH: Caramel 20. 60. 120"

Does that mean two ounces of Caramel added at 20, 60, and 120 minutes into the boil?
Should I infer from that that it's a two-hour boil?
I find references to Caramel malt, but nothing called "caramel" in hops. Does this recipe involve hops at all?

So with this recipe I would mash the grain bill for an hour at 145-155, finish it at 170, sparge with my 160-degree water (which I assume will be about 1.5 gallons), then boil to target volume. I will either add or not add hops, depending on what you tell me about this, then I will chill the wort to 70 degrees and pitch the yeast I have (which is D47).

Then I'm thinking a month of primary fermentation (because this is a big beer), followed by priming and bottle conditioning. I will prime with four tablespoons of honey or maybe molasses and rack from the fermenter into the priming pot, then bottle. Then I'm guessing it'll be a month or more until it's fit to drink, and will only get better after that.

Am I close?

Sorry, let me break it down.

Caramel malt is what I was referring to. Caramel 20, caramel 60 and caramel 120. Whatever hops you like will work. I would suggest Columbus for bittering and throw the rest in at flameout. Maybe an ounce of liberty as well for some spice.

As for mashing, heat up your water to about 161. At the same time, heat up your oven on preheat or the lowest setting, 170ish. Mash in the grains, stir for a minute or two and turn off the oven. Your mash should be at or around 150. Toss it in the oven. The higher temp of the oven will hold the temp perfectly.

Be careful when carbing this. If this is truly a 1 gallon batch, 4 tablespoons seems rather high, I would suggest 2, maybe three at most. Honey works well.

Good luck

 

[JeffoC6]

I'm posting in here for the first time in a LONG time. I'm actually the OP. I haven't brewed since March 2013, and prior to that, it hadn't been since fall 2012. I was hoping that my layoff (from fall 2012 to March 2013) would have helped me get over the frustrations I was having with my finished products, but that didn't happen. Everything I basically brewed came out with a metallic aftertaste. I started with tap water, then went to spring water, and then to distilled water with some sodium chloride (I think that's what it was) added prior to my boil. Nothing worked, so I quit. I'm now itching to start again, and I think I may start out slower than I originally did. Rather than trying my hand at bourbon vanilla stouts with step mashes, I think I'm going to go with a basic SMASH recipe, and keep brewing it until I nail it. Then move to the next SMASH recipe, etc. I'm going to get myself a refractometer, because I was using a hydrometer and taking samples and pouring my samples back in after measuring my SG. I think that may have also screwed up my final product...Too much room for error there. So with a refractometer, I feel that I can still take SG readings (as long as I take my initial SG post boil) and not waste any wort, or risk pouring wort back in. Anyway...how's it goin, folks. Nice to be back, but I'm still hesitant....And my frozen hops are now 2 years+ old lol.

 

[Oberon67]

I'm going to get myself a refractometer, because I was using a hydrometer and taking samples and pouring my samples back in after measuring my SG. I think that may have also screwed up my final product...Too much room for error there. So with a refractometer, I feel that I can still take SG readings (as long as I take my initial SG post boil) and not waste any wort, or risk pouring wort back in.

Since I'm only working with a gallon batch, I just wash and sanitize the hydrometer and ease it gently down into the fermenter. I don't plunk it in... don't want it to hit bottom and break.

 

[fuzzy2133]

Anyway...how's it goin, folks. Nice to be back, but I'm still hesitant....And my frozen hops are now 2 years+ old lol.

Welcome back and see what you started!!! lol

Did you ever get any ideas on where the metallic taste might be combing from?
2 year old hops can be used if you stored them in a vacuum seal bag. Yea it may just be safe to get fresh hops too.

 

[Oberon67]

I would suggest Columbus for bittering and throw the rest in at flameout. Maybe an ounce of liberty as well for some spice.

I'm thinking an ounce of Columbus for bittering and an ounce of Chinook at the end, for the piney aroma thing.

Now I'm off to the brewing supply websites...

EDIT: Oh, and is D47 a decent yeast for this product?

 

[fuzzy2133]

D47 is for Wine, Mead and Cider.

You want a beer yeast, IMO US-05, WLP001 (or WLP090) or other American ale yeast that has a high alcohol tolerance.

 

[Oberon67]

See? That's why I keep asking questions.

 

[fuzzy2133]

All good keep, them coming!

 

[Broham1]

I need a recipe that meets the following requirements:

• It makes a gallon of beer.
  
• It's a big-flavor style with some heat, like a Belgian Tripel or a Barleywine.
  
• It's not too complicated (I'm new at this).
  

I would lean toward Tripel, because if you don't hit the OG, you can still add sugar and keep it in style.

3lbs Belgian Pilsner
1.25oz Caramel 10L
4oz Sugar

9g Saaz at 60 minutes
3g Saaz at 5 minutes

WLP550 (or sub any Belgian Ale yeast)

 

[Broham1]

I'm thinking an ounce of Columbus for bittering and an ounce of Chinook at the end, for the piney aroma thing.



Now I'm off to the brewing supply websites...



EDIT: Oh, and is D47 a decent yeast for this product?

An ounce of Columbus might be a bit much for one gallon. Puts you around 140 IBUs.

 

[JeffoC6]

Welcome back and see what you started!!! lol

Did you ever get any ideas on where the metallic taste might be combing from?
2 year old hops can be used if you stored them in a vacuum seal bag. Yea it may just be safe to get fresh hops too.

I didn't, but I'm guessing it had to do with some of these things:

1) using a turkey baster to take hydrometer samples (that had been used on food for several years- but still washed thoroughly and sanitized).
2) using a pyrex casserole dish to soak all of my tools in (in starsan) that was also used on food quite often
3) pouring back my hydrometer samples
4) potentially getting some metallic off flavors from my stainless steel kettle. have been reading about things like passivating your kettle before using (due to potential iron leaching into my boil)

*edit* I'm actually boiling water in my stainless steel kettle right now and then am going to pour the water in tea cups, let them cool, and then pour them into a glass and drink the water to see if it's "metallic." If so, then I think I know where my problem is. Also, this article was quite interesting: http://www.eckraus.com/blog/cleaning-a-new-brew-kettle I tried this experiment and definitely have spots and "rainbows" all over the bottom of my kettle. I'm excited, as I may have found my problems with metallic off flavors.

 

[dukesbb37]

For those of you who use a mash tun in your 1 gallon brews... do you sparge? I have a 5 gallon mash tun, and usually stary my boils with 1.75G of wort. If i put less than a gallon in my mash tun (2 part sparge), it only covers the bottom few inches, and I'm worried about it 1) not working well with that little fluid, and 2) massive heat loss as less than a gallon of water is dumped into a 5 gallon tun.

Is it significantly better to sparge with 1 gallon or just put the whole 1.75G in the tun and mash it all at once (and perhaps add a pound of grain or so to adjust for efficiency)?

 

[fuzzy2133]

I didn't, but I'm guessing it had to do with some of these things:

1) using a turkey baster to take hydrometer samples (that had been used on food for several years- but still washed thoroughly and sanitized).
2) using a pyrex casserole dish to soak all of my tools in (in starsan) that was also used on food quite often
3) pouring back my hydrometer samples
4) potentially getting some metallic off flavors from my stainless steel kettle. have been reading about things like passivating your kettle before using (due to potential iron leaching into my boil)

*edit* I'm actually boiling water in my stainless steel kettle right now and then am going to pour the water in tea cups, let them cool, and then pour them into a glass and drink the water to see if it's "metallic." If so, then I think I know where my problem is. Also, this article was quite interesting: http://www.eckraus.com/blog/cleaning-a-new-brew-kettle I tried this experiment and definitely have spots and "rainbows" all over the bottom of my kettle. I'm excited, as I may have found my problems with metallic off flavors.

Interesting article usually its aluminum that needs to be passivated. However with all the cheap alloys (not true to the standards like 304SS) coming from china I can see it as a precaution now.

 

[Avocado_Power]

I didn't, but I'm guessing it had to do with some of these things:

1) using a turkey baster to take hydrometer samples (that had been used on food for several years- but still washed thoroughly and sanitized).
2) using a pyrex casserole dish to soak all of my tools in (in starsan) that was also used on food quite often
3) pouring back my hydrometer samples
4) potentially getting some metallic off flavors from my stainless steel kettle. have been reading about things like passivating your kettle before using (due to potential iron leaching into my boil)

*edit* I'm actually boiling water in my stainless steel kettle right now and then am going to pour the water in tea cups, let them cool, and then pour them into a glass and drink the water to see if it's "metallic." If so, then I think I know where my problem is. Also, this article was quite interesting: http://www.eckraus.com/blog/cleaning-a-new-brew-kettle I tried this experiment and definitely have spots and "rainbows" all over the bottom of my kettle. I'm excited, as I may have found my problems with metallic off flavors.

Thanks again for making this thread possible, and still contributing to this day. I hope you find the culprit soon and get back into brewing. Your article on metallic off flavors is timely for me as I recently purchased some crappy brew kettles from China and am thinking I need to treat them before I keep brewing...also seeing rainbows.

Oh, and buy some new hops!

 

[Oberon67]

Oh, hey, fuzzy2133 and Calichusetts... With my barleywine, do I need to rack into a secondary fermenter and keep it there for a few months, or can I just prime and bottle it after a month or so in the primary?

 

[Calichusetts]

Up to you. I usually bottle after 5-6 weeks primary only. I secondary if I oak or dry hop it

 

[eadavis80]

Today I did my 2nd all-grain 1 gallon batch. Both of them were Brooklyn Brewing batches. I did their IPA a few weeks ago (bottled this weekend) and today did their oatmeal stout. The stout was on clearance at Meijer for $7.50, so I figured that's a fair price. No way I'd spend $15 on a 1-gallon kit given you only get about 10 beers out of them. While I really love home brewing, I just don't see myself doing any more 1-gallon batches. You go through all the work as a 5-gallon batch and yield 1/5th of the beer. I could see myself making 5 gallons of wheat and then splitting that into a couple of different styles - say raspberry and cherry wheats in different 1-gallon jugs, but I just don't think it's worth it. Plus, with the Brooklyn Brewing kits, they're all-grain so they take even longer than extract and you get way less. Have any of you had the two kids I made and if so, what were the results?

 

[Oberon67]

I have had a batch of Everyday IPA in the bottles for just a week. I had one cap look like it was bulging, so I opened it, poured an ounce out of the bottle, and re-capped it. We'll see if that solves the over-carbing issue with that bottle, but in the meantime I had an ounce of my beer (albeit early) to test.

It was good. It tasted like a decent (not incredible, but good) hops-forward IPA. We'll see what it's like in another week or two.

 

[Calichusetts]

I have had a batch of Everyday IPA in the bottles for just a week. I had one cap look like it was bulging, so I opened it, poured an ounce out of the bottle, and re-capped it. We'll see if that solves the over-carbing issue with that bottle, but in the meantime I had an ounce of my beer (albeit early) to test.

It was good. It tasted like a decent (not incredible, but good) hops-forward IPA. We'll see what it's like in another week or two.

BBS tells you to use way to much honey/sugar to carb with. No idea why they still haven't addressed it. They usually recommend (depending on the kit) 3 tablespoons of honey when 2 is far more fitting for most styles.

 

[mtnagel]

Does anyone use a 2.5 gal pot for their 1 gal batches? I normally do 5 gal batches in a 10 gal pot, so I bought a 2.5 gal pot for 1.25 gal batches, but I then realized if they boil off is anywhere near what I get in my 10 gal pot, I'm going to quickly max out the volume of the 2.5 gal pot.

So what boil off should I assume for a 2.5 gal pot? I know it's dependent on a lot of variables and I will measure it, but just wondering what everyone gets.

This is the one I got.

 

[phug]

I get about 2.2 litres per hour boiloff with a similar setup. So what is that 2.4 quarts-ish?

 

[Calichusetts]

I got a 3 gallon pot, boil off was around .6 gallons an hour, can't say what you will get, just do a boil test one day before you brew

 

[mtnagel]

I get about 2.2 litres per hour boiloff with a similar setup. So what is that 2.4 quarts-ish?

Great thanks. That's about 0.58 gal and I assumed 0.6 gal.

I got a 3 gallon pot, boil off was around .6 gallons an hour, can't say what you will get, just do a boil test one day before you brew

That would make sense wouldn't it Stupid thing is I did boil water in it to "season" the aluminum and I could have checked then. But I didn't And I'm planning on brewing today. I did assume 0.6 gal/hour, so hopefully that's pretty close to what I get. Although now I'm regretting getting the 2.5 gal pot. Probably would have been better off with the 3 to 3.5 gal pot.

 

[phug]

some fermcap will help you make the most of of your 2.5 gallon pot. you probably will be fine during the boil using some foam control techniques. but you may find that when mashing, if you do full volume mashing you may be pushing the limits of the pot. Either sparge to make up the volume, or top up afterwards. But I think you'll be fine with the 2.5 gallon