1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[violinguy]

Cracked open a bottle of Zombie Dirt (NB) at day 12 and it is amazing. I'm going to wait a few more days on the rest of them to see if it clears up a bit and maybe gets a little more balanced. So much grapefruit (citrus - citra hops used). I used Domino "dots" as priming sugar and it is carbonated just right.

Oh how sweet it is. I drank another today and the heavy grapefruit taste is gone. The aroma is still there though which is awesome. Now the beer tastes just like it should - classic 312 or other Chicago-brewed IPA.

This is my first brew that I've been "wowed" by. Some of my others have been fine, almost good even. This one is really outstanding. I may have to brew a larger batch and just to have some around to drink for a while...

 

[jmcdaniel0]

Thats great news!

I just put a 1 gallon Batch of Zombie Dirt, White House Honey Ale, and White House Honey Porter (all from NB)

I have heard great things about the Zombie Dirt. I had a 20% Coupon and couldnt resist the white house variety.

 

[Brownalemikie]

Thats great news!

I just put a 1 gallon Batch of Zombie Dirt, White House Honey Ale, and White House Honey Porter (all from NB)

I have heard great things about the Zombie Dirt. I had a 20% Coupon and couldnt resist the white house variety.

I usually just brew Caribou Slobber, but just brewed both White House brews from NB. Just tried my first Honey Ale after 3 weeks of bottle conditioning and it turned out great. Have to wait one more week before I try the Honey Porter. Btw, both are extract recipes.

 

[CrixusOfCapua]

Thats great news!

I just put a 1 gallon Batch of Zombie Dirt, White House Honey Ale, and White House Honey Porter (all from NB)

I have heard great things about the Zombie Dirt. I had a 20% Coupon and couldnt resist the white house variety.

Where did you get a 20% off?

 

[noslenwerd]

Having a hard time finding anything solid on water displacement via BIAB. I have a 5 gallon kettle, want to end up with 4 gallons pre-boil. I have about 7.5lbs of grain. Is there some kind of calculator online I can use? Not sure if I can do a full mash, or will need to sparge some water in after the mash.

Thanks!

 

[Big Monk]

Having a hard time finding anything solid on water displacement via BIAB. I have a 5 gallon kettle, want to end up with 4 gallons pre-boil. I have about 7.5lbs of grain. Is there some kind of calculator online I can use? Not sure if I can do a full mash, or will need to sparge some water in after the mash.

Thanks!

0.32 quarts/lb for displacement

So your MLT Sizing needs to be at least;

Strike Volume (gal) + ((0.32/4) * Grain Weight (lbs))

 

[noslenwerd]

0.32 quarts/lb for displacement

So your MLT Sizing needs to be at least;

Strike Volume (gal) + ((0.32/4) * Grain Weight (lbs))

Thanks! So 7.5 lbs of grain, should displace 2.4 quarts of water.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

That does not account for grain absorption, which is equal to grain displacement.

Strike volume = Preboil (gal) + 0.08 (gal/lb) * grain bill (lb)

Mash volume = Strike volume + 0.08 (gal/lb) * grain bill (lb)

 

[Big Monk]

That does not account for grain absorption, which is equal to grain displacement.

Strike volume = Preboil (gal) + 0.08 (gal/lb) * grain bill (lb)

Mash volume = Strike volume + 0.08 (gal/lb) * grain bill (lb)

Your strike volume is calculated with grain weight and WtG ratio. At some point in the beginning of your mash, when grains have yet to absorb water, you will be in a situation where you could potentially exceed the size of your tun.

I'm not sure you can claim equivalence on the grounds you specify. I've never seen strike water calculated using preboil volume as a variable.

 

[jmcdaniel0]

Where did you get a 20% off?

They sent it to me in my email

 

[NSMikeD]

Having a hard time finding anything solid on water displacement via BIAB. I have a 5 gallon kettle, want to end up with 4 gallons pre-boil. I have about 7.5lbs of grain. Is there some kind of calculator online I can use? Not sure if I can do a full mash, or will need to sparge some water in after the mash.

Thanks!

BIABacus (free) and BeerSmith2 (not free) have been pretty spot on in calculating if a recipe fits in my kettles for BIAB.

Both enable me to adjust the recipe to hold back water and then add it when there is sufficient room.

I just did this over the weekend on beer smith. It was a larger grain bill and it flagged that the mash volume would exceed my kettle, so I plugged in hold back numbers (to add to the boil) until I zero'd in to an amount that hit my targeted mash volume (maximum amount). The predictions were correct.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Your strike volume is calculated with grain weight and WtG ratio.

Except for ya know, those that don't adhere to mash thickness and instead either sparge at a fixed volume, or sparge to a fixed mash volume (maxi-biab), or don't sparge at all (no sparge). There are a lot of brewers that don't care about mash thickness (wtg ratio).

At some point in the beginning of your mash, when grains have yet to absorb water, you will be in a situation where you could potentially exceed the size of your tun.

That's why you don't try to go for a mash volume of 4.99 gallons in a 5 gallon kettle. I have gotten quite close and learned the lesson. You need room to stir, my rule of thumb is at least 1" headspace above the mash.

I'm not sure you can claim equivalence on the grounds you specify. I've never seen strike water calculated using preboil volume as a variable.

Well it works just as well, and is often times a more generalized formula as mash thickness isn't fully generalized (it doesn't fit every brewer). Malted barley displaces on average 0.08 gal/lb, but that will vary slightly with how finely it's crushed and which types of malt you're dealing with. It absorbs 0.08 gal/lb for BIAB with a good squeeze. Mash tuns generally absorb 0.125 gal/lb.

If you can find any other credible source on grain displacement, let me know and I'll revise my formulas.

Here's how the generalized approach goes, if any readers use a fixed mash thickness when determining their strike volume, which I would imagine is less common for 1 gal brewers as the prevailing mashing method is no sparge BIAB (which doesn't care about mash thickness).

Strike = Preboil + MashtunLosses + Grain Absorption (0.08 for biab, 0.125 for mashtun)

or

Strike = GrainBill (lb) * Mash Thickness (or WtG for you) / 4 (qt/gal conversion)

Mash Volume = Strike + Displacement (0.08 gal/lb).

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

I am a newbie 1 gallon brewer, currently nearing the end of a first stage fermentation on some mead, and then I am going to start with my first beer. Being a Canadian, good maple syrup is something I can come by easily, not the store bought crap either, but good farmers market quality product. I am thinking of using honey crisp apples and local maple syrup in my beer recipe, but I have no idea what kind of hops or yeast I want to use for the recipe. I want to make either an ale or a nice strong IPA.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

If you want to use maple syrup, I think its a good idea to do a specialty ale. I think the maple flavor would muddy the hops flavors in an IPA. Use the calculators and make a recipe that is under 8 percent. Or better yet use a recipe you find online since it is your first beer. It'll be very easy to get a high ABV with maple syrup. Since maple syrup is mostly sugar you may want to mash high if you are all grain.. If you use LME the maple will thin it out nicely.

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

If you want to use maple syrup, I think its a good idea to do a specialty ale. I think the maple flavor would muddy the hops flavors in an IPA. Use the calculators and make a recipe that is under 8 percent. Or better yet use a recipe you find online since it is your first beer. It'll be very easy to get a high ABV with maple syrup. Since maple syrup is mostly sugar you may want to mash high if you are all grain.. If you use LME the maple will thin it out nicely.

I don't mind a beer with a high ABV. I have only ever drank one maple syrup infused beer before, the Flying Monkey's City and Colour Imperial Maple Wheat a few years ago and I have yet to find a substitute to it's likeness since then, sadly.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I don't mind a beer with a high ABV. I have only ever drank one maple syrup infused beer before, the Flying Monkey's City and Colour Imperial Maple Wheat a few years ago and I have yet to find a substitute to it's likeness since then, sadly.

I'm the same way. If I'm going to go to the trouble of making a nice beer, I'd rather be in the higher ABV range. There are pitfalls the higher you get though and small mistakes get magnified a lot when you get into the 6% + range.

 

[CrixusOfCapua]

BIABacus (free) and BeerSmith2 (not free) have been pretty spot on in calculating if a recipe fits in my kettles for BIAB.

Both enable me to adjust the recipe to hold back water and then add it when there is sufficient room.

I just did this over the weekend on beer smith. It was a larger grain bill and it flagged that the mash volume would exceed my kettle, so I plugged in hold back numbers (to add to the boil) until I zero'd in to an amount that hit my targeted mash volume (maximum amount). The predictions were correct.

I have beersmith2 on Android and can't figure out how to calculate if a recipe fits in my kettle for BIAB. Can you help me?

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I definitely don't recommend the apps for bs2, they're super clunky to use (even more so than the official bs2 software). If phone usage is important, I would recommend using an online one.

If you already have a recipe set, you can use my mash calculator

 

[NSMikeD]

I have beersmith2 on Android and can't figure out how to calculate if a recipe fits in my kettle for BIAB. Can you help me?

I do all the recipe design and equipment profile on the laptop and the volume tabs is where i can check an fix them. As for the apps, I only have the lite version (so I don't need to bring the laptop in the kitchen) so I can't help you.

The beer smith forum folks should be able to help you.

 

[deanoaz]

Well, my grandson and I bottled my first batch of ale today. One gallon of a Fat Tire Clone. Very few problems: too little water, hops added at wrong time and slow start.
1.6 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine malt
1.6 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt
1.6 oz Munich Malt
1.2 oz Biscuit Malt
.2 oz Chocolate Malt
(above steeped in 3 qts for 30 minutes@154 degrees & rinsed with 1 1/2 qts 170 degree water)
1/2# Amber Dry Extract
8.5 grams Willamette Hops
2.8 grams Fuggle Hops (added here by mistake; should have been @ 20 minutes from end)
(above added and brought to boil)
1/2# Extract added@15 minutes left
2.8 grams Fuggle Hops added at end for flavor
1/2 pkg SafBrew Specialty Ale yeast
(I added some more yeast after 48 hours of no activity)
10 days to bottling (We did a small taste at bottling time and it is good.)

We're pretty proud of our first batch and will take any criticism provided in a helpful manner....Ha! Ha! By the way, the one place my decision to go the 1 gallon path didn't go over well was at my local brewing supplier. I think it was because he was only set up for 5 gallon brewers. He basically made me feel like I was stupid. One reason I chose to go this way was because I'm not a big beer drinker and didn't want a whole lot sitting around. I'm a retired engineer and am more enamored with the process.
CHEERS!

 

[violinguy]

You never have to apologize for brewing 1 gallon. There are a lot of folks here who (whether they intend to or not) seem to look down on us people who brew 1 gallon at a time. Space, equipment, and knowledge dictate how much I brew at a time. To me, testing out recipes is a lot more efficient when brewing 1 gallon. If you screw it up, you only have 9 bottles of @#$tty beer.

I am on my way to brewing larger batches, but I doubt I will ever brew my own recipe without testing on a 1-gallon batch first.

 

[jimdkc]

The unwarranted derision that we small-batch brewers face is one of the reasons for the existence of this thread. Frankly, I feel no need to share with any of my suppliers what size batches I'm brewing!

 

[VagueSkunk]

Looking for some cheap fermenters for small batches. I'm seeing that Orchard Supply Hardware has 2 gallon paint buckets for something like $3, but their listing doesnt say that they're food grade (they're designed for paint after all...). Should these be safe or should I keep looking? I want something cheap and plastic, dont feel like messing around with glass if possible. Thanks!

 

[prophet413]

Looking for some cheap fermenters for small batches. I'm seeing that Orchard Supply Hardware has 2 gallon paint buckets for something like $3, but their listing doesnt say that they're food grade (they're designed for paint after all...). Should these be safe or should I keep looking? I want something cheap and plastic, dont feel like messing around with glass if possible. Thanks!

www.homebrewsupply.com/2-gallon-plastic-fermenting-bucket.html

$7.25 after you include the lid

 

[ba-brewer]

Lowes has 2 gal buckets and lids that are labeled food safe, don't recall the price.

 

[beernbourbon]

By the way, the one place my decision to go the 1 gallon path didn't go over well was at my local brewing supplier. I think it was because he was only set up for 5 gallon brewers. He basically made me feel like I was stupid. One reason I chose to go this way was because I'm not a big beer drinker and didn't want a whole lot sitting around. I'm a retired engineer and am more enamored with the process.

CHEERS!

You never have to apologize for brewing 1 gallon. There are a lot of folks here who (whether they intend to or not) seem to look down on us people who brew 1 gallon at a time. Space, equipment, and knowledge dictate how much I brew at a time. To me, testing out recipes is a lot more efficient when brewing 1 gallon. If you screw it up, you only have 9 bottles of @#$tty beer.

I am on my way to brewing larger batches, but I doubt I will ever brew my own recipe without testing on a 1-gallon batch first.

The unwarranted derision that we small-batch brewers face is one of the reasons for the existence of this thread. Frankly, I feel no need to share with any of my suppliers what size batches I'm brewing!

A whole lot of this. I used to do only 5 gallon batches, and I kept thinking how dumb it was to waste all of those ingredients (some rather expensive, relatively) on something I wasn't sure I was doing right. Then I tripped over this thread, and the lightbulb came on with a whole bunch of 'duh' on my part. Now I perfect everything about each recipe before I go to the 5 gallon setup. Then that batch is stellar, and I enjoy each and every ounce that much more.
It's really stupid for people to look down on small batch brewing. How do they think people who brew commercially do it? They gonna make 100bbl batch that tastes like sh!t because that combination of ingredients was just wrong? Makes no damn sense at all.

 

[jpoppinmoneyunit]

I make one gallon batches because I really enjoy the taste of beer and the many different styles out there. Therefore, 5 gallons is way too much for me to drink. If you're brewing 5 gal batches to let other people try some, good for you because I hope they're pitching in on the price of ingredients!

My dream setup is the 10L (2.5gal) braumeister. If I had a batch that I really liked, I could brew up 2.5 gallons and wouldn't feel like I'm drinking it forever.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

The unwarranted derision that we small-batch brewers face is one of the reasons for the existence of this thread. Frankly, I feel no need to share with any of my suppliers what size batches I'm brewing!

This is very true. I think it extends from the cost of the equipment. Basically if you aren't willing to put down the money for a 5 gallon all grain + kegging system, you aren't a true homebrewer. I experience the same thing shooting clays with my pump shotgun. It doesn't even matter that I can out shoot 90% of the shooters, I just am not a serious shooter because I am not carrying an over under shotgun.

 

[Timberline]

Looking for some cheap fermenters for small batches. I'm seeing that Orchard Supply Hardware has 2 gallon paint buckets for something like $3, but their listing doesnt say that they're food grade (they're designed for paint after all...). Should these be safe or should I keep looking? I want something cheap and plastic, dont feel like messing around with glass if possible. Thanks!

It may have already been said but it's worth repeating. Visit some local cake decorating shops and ask for their frosting buckets. Frequently these places buy frosting in 2, 3, 5 gallon buckets and then throw them away when they're empty. A lot of those buckets have gasket-sealed lids too. My wife owned a bakery and sub-let space to cake decorators and I was aghast at the nice buckets they were tossing in the dumpster. I "liberated" these until they piled up to the point that even a hoarder like myself was getting embarrassed - that was before I started brewing. You can also try restaurants for pickle/olive/etc buckets. Naturally you'll want to do a thorough job of cleaning them first and pickle buckets will take a bit more cleaning than frosting buckets.

 

[Big Monk]

Lowes carries 2 gal food safe buckets with gasket lids. $3.50 per bucket and $1.99 per lid.