1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[Uncruliar]

This is maybe an odd thing to ask in a one gallon thread but here goes anyway.

I have been brewing one gallon batches for six months now and will definitely be continuing to do so. Two of the things that attracted me to this approach to brewing were the very small amount of special equipment needed and the fact that I could try lost of different recipes.

However, I have found a couple of beers that I would like to brew in larger batches - 1 gallon just doesn't last long enough! So I am wondering how I might scale up without having to buy loads of kit that won't be used very often. At the moment I mash in a stockpot in my oven and use the same pot for my boil. My pot is just big enough for a one gallon batch but no more. I am wondering whether I could mash and boil a larger grain and hop bill in my current pot to produce a wort with a higher SG and then add cooled boiled water to dilute it down to a larger batch with the target OG?

Any thoughts?

 

[violinguy]

Two ideas:

1. You could brew extract and steep grains, then top off before fermentation
2. You could try BIAB - just need a kettle (I have a 21 quart that I use for 3 gallon batches - $49) and a bag.

If it were me, I'd probably go with #2. As a matter of fact, that's exactly what I did. After about a dozen 1g brews (3 AG, the rest extract), I bought the 21-quart pot and a bag and I love it. You can still use all your other equipment - thermometer, hydrometer, sanitation, fermenter (maybe have to get a bigger one of these - another $30-40 or so). I was lucky and got a big mouth bubbler with spigot as a Christmas gift.

I'm thinking about making a couple of 1g test brews shortly. FWIW, I'll post my Dunkelweizen recipe here if anyone wants to have a go.

 

[treacheroustexan]

I'm thinking about making a couple of 1g test brews shortly. FWIW, I'll post my Dunkelweizen recipe here if anyone wants to have a go.

Been wanting to brew a dunkel. Would love the recipe!

 

[violinguy]

This is the scaled version of my 3g recipe. I haven't brewed it yet, so I'm going to do a 1g first. I currently don't have 3g fermenter space available anyways right now - a nice problem to have.

Der Rosenkavalier Dunkelweizen 1G

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: Dunkles Weissbier
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 1 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 2 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.020
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.006 (based on Safale 06 - would be 1.012-ish with Wyeast)
ABV (standard): 5.68%
IBU (rager): 16.5
SRM (morey): 19.84

FERMENTABLES:
1 lb - German - Dark Wheat (53.3%)
0.5 lb - German - Pilsner (26.7%)
2 oz - American - Aromatic Malt (6.7%)
1 oz - German - Dark Munich (3.3%)
2 oz - United Kingdom - Pale Chocolate (6.7%)
1 oz - Belgian - Special B (3.3%)

HOPS:
0.15 oz - Hallertau Mittelfruh, 60 min, IBU: 12.98
0.25 oz - Hallertau Mittelfruh, 5 min, IBU: 3.51

YEAST:
Wyeast 3638 - Westphailian (sp) Wheat
or, Safale WB-06 - Wheat Beer Yeast - not sure about pitching half a bag of liquid yeast....

 

[violinguy]

Oh, and if I have to use the dry yeast, I might add a very small amount (like really small amount) of cloves to get that normal Dunkel taste/aroma.

 

[violinguy]

OK, let's scratch that. I'm re-working the recipe to be a little more simple, and I think I'm going to go with Danstar Munich for the yeast. It ferments at a cooler temp than the others, but it's easier to control that with one gallon.

 

[MrG]

Sadu: Which calculator are you using to determine how much sugar?

I'm still using the BBS method of about 3tbsp/1 cup of boiled water which gets added to the one gallon of wort, in a similar method you're using.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Sadu: Which calculator are you using to determine how much sugar?

I'm still using the BBS method of about 3tbsp/1 cup of boiled water which gets added to the one gallon of wort, in a similar method you're using.

Does that work pretty well? I'm getting ready to bottle my 1 gal wheat beer and I was only going to use 2 tbsp to a cup or so. I need a new scale so I can't measure out weight. Am just using regular table sugar.

 

[MrG]

@treacheroustexan: I find that it works well, but after looking at the BBS page, they say "Dissolve 3 tablespoons honey with 1/2 cup water"

I have had good results with that in the past with no bottle bombs.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

This is maybe an odd thing to ask in a one gallon thread but here goes anyway.

I have been brewing one gallon batches for six months now and will definitely be continuing to do so. Two of the things that attracted me to this approach to brewing were the very small amount of special equipment needed and the fact that I could try lost of different recipes.

However, I have found a couple of beers that I would like to brew in larger batches - 1 gallon just doesn't last long enough! So I am wondering how I might scale up without having to buy loads of kit that won't be used very often. At the moment I mash in a stockpot in my oven and use the same pot for my boil. My pot is just big enough for a one gallon batch but no more. I am wondering whether I could mash and boil a larger grain and hop bill in my current pot to produce a wort with a higher SG and then add cooled boiled water to dilute it down to a larger batch with the target OG?

Any thoughts?

I ferment in 2 one gallon carboys and have done a couple big beers by scaling up my grain bill in a 3 gallon pot. I think you could do the same, but without the room in your pot you can't get enough water in to mash efficiently. After having done it, it makes more sense to me to buy a bigger pot. It does depend on what ABV you are looking for though. I routinely do 6% ABV in my 3 gallon pot.

 

[djaquay]

TL;DR: I'm thinking I'm missing something, scaling a recipe down.

I'm new to brewing, with a couple of batches of 5gal under my belt, and am starting to play with small batches, going with 5/6 gal (because the recipes seem to divide by 6 easier than 5 ). I messed up somewhat on my first try, because when I scaled things down, I scaled down the water for the boil, and practically ended up with syrup until I was done. But after I stopped the boil (a few minutes early), I added enough water to hit 5/6 gal, and was half-surprised (and half-not) to find that my OG was 1.030, rather than the 1.040 that the recipe said to expect. Fermented, bottled, and it was quite tasty.

But I decided to try again anyway, this time with the right amount of water in the boil. Started w/1 gal, and only needed to top off with 2 cups to hit 5/6 gal in the fermenter. But, once again, OG was 1.028. So I grabbed a copy of Brewtarget, plugged in the recipe, scaled it down, and sure enough, it gave me the same scaled down recipe that I was using, but told me to expect 1.040! What gives?!

My recipe is the Palace Bitter from Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing. My scaled down recipe, for the fermentables anyway, is 12oz English light DME and 2oz Crystal 10L. (The original is 4.5lbs DME and 12oz Crystal.) Am I missing something obvious? I'm using Briess Golden Light DME, but that's what I picked in Brewtarget...

Thanks,
Dave

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

The only thing I can think of is you are weighing quite small amounts, maybe your scale is a little off.

 

[djaquay]

Thanks, AZ, that's about what I've come down to as well. I've ordered a refractometer, to be able to take measurements at various points along in the process, see if I can tell anything better. (Well, that and because I just need more toys ).

Brewing up a 5/6 gallon batch of Belgian Wit at the moment, first time I've ever tried that. Nicely surprised at the white wort (well, that *is* what wit means, right?)

Dave

 

[PTYstefan]

Hi Guys, finally found a 1 gallon thread just about what fits me at the moment.
i am playing around with beertarget at the moment (Just starting out and might try beersmith in the future)

my problem is when i start scaling down the recipes, they end up with lower number of ag,bg,og,abv. I found out that when I start rising the grain bill, or reducing the water in the program will get me to target numbers.

Is that correct??

 

[GrimBrewer]

I use brewers friend, which has a feature to downscale a recipe.

If the efficiency of the recipe is not the same as the tool then your values will be out.

Are you doing all grain ?
The amount of water that you need to mash and sparge you can downscale, but water loss to mash-tun and boil off cant be downscaled. You need to learn this from your equipment and technique.

If you "Create from scratch", start with your new grain volumes :
1.Enter the final volume of wort, you want in your fermenter, into the tool: 1 Gallon etc
2.Set the Efficiency the same as the recipe you using.
3.Enter the same grains with ratio. 1 gallon from 5gallon is 20% grain.
You actually want the ratio of base malt and specialty ratio to be the same.
4.You should now have the same OG. It may be one or two point out if the grains stats of the tool is not the same as the one from the recipe.
5.You then change the efficiency to what you normally get and if you dont know, reduce it.
6.Now you increase only the base malt to correct OG, if you reduced the efficiency.
7.Dont worry about FG prediction as it differ from tool to tool with yeast and fermenting temperature you are using.
8.You grain bill volume will give you your staring boil volume. This can be downscaled from original recipe, but you will most likely lose more water during boiling, depending or you pot size, boil rate etc. So you can start with a higher boil volume for a smaller batch. Or you can keep topping it up. But dont go overboard. From experience you will learn what you loss rate is. Better to end with a lower volume that can be fixed. You will just have a bit lower IBUs from you hop.

Have top up water ready...you will most likely not hit your target volume.
Have DME as backup....if you dont hit your final OG.

 

[AZBeer]

Chugging along brewing small batches. I've been shooting for 1.25 gallons in the fermentor so I get a solid 12pack. But now that I am feeling confident in my brewing skills, at least enough to justify an increased equipment spend, I am considering the SS Brewtech 2.5g kit.

Anybody have any thoughts/ or experience with SS Brewtech? Either with their small batch kit or just in general? The kit is a chunk of cash, but I think it would be worth it.

 

[Brownalemikie]

Chugging along brewing small batches. I've been shooting for 1.25 gallons in the fermentor so I get a solid 12pack. But now that I am feeling confident in my brewing skills, at least enough to justify an increased equipment spend, I am considering the SS Brewtech 2.5g kit.

Anybody have any thoughts/ or experience with SS Brewtech? Either with their small batch kit or just in general? The kit is a chunk of cash, but I think it would be worth it.

Yep, that's what I did after about 15 one gallon batches. Bought a couple 3 gallon carboys and a 4 gallon brew pot and off I went. Plus, I buy 5 gallon recipe kits and split it up into 2 batches. Brew the 2nd batch about a month later so I know what changes I may want to do.

Btw, you'll save lots of $$$ buying 5 gallon recipe kits vs 1 gallon kits.

 

[AZBeer]

Thanks Mikie. I pretty much just buy bulk ingredients and use my own recipes these days, but it might be nice to have some kit options.

 

[blaggard]

Super rookie question. Stove top 1 gallon brew. During the mash do you keep a lid on the pot? I have done 3 all grains and everytime I have used the proper amount of liquid for the mash and the sparge and by the time I bottle I'm getting 6-7 beers. I assume I'm losing too much liquid to evaporation during the boil. Thoughts?

 

[AZBeer]

Super rookie question. Stove top 1 gallon brew. During the mash do you keep a lid on the pot? I have done 3 all grains and everytime I have used the proper amount of liquid for the mash and the sparge and by the time I bottle I'm getting 6-7 beers. I assume I'm losing too much liquid to evaporation during the boil. Thoughts?

What's your starting volume?

 

[Anon111]

Super rookie question. Stove top 1 gallon brew. During the mash do you keep a lid on the pot? I have done 3 all grains and everytime I have used the proper amount of liquid for the mash and the sparge and by the time I bottle I'm getting 6-7 beers. I assume I'm losing too much liquid to evaporation during the boil. Thoughts?

Just before cooling, do you top it up to 1 gallon? If you start with 1.25 gallon I'd expect you'd end around 1 gallon, but if you start with less, it needs a top-up.
Stove-topper myself.

 

[Big Monk]

Just before cooling, do you top it up to 1 gallon? If you start with 1.25 gallon I'd expect you'd end around 1 gallon, but if you start with less, it needs a top-up.
Stove-topper myself.

Fermenter deadspace is a biggie. I have about a liter under the bottling spigot on my 2 gallon bucket so I adjust my water to account for that.

 

[badlee]

@blaggard
If you are using recipe software, it will tend to account for 10-12% evaporation in the boil, or maximum 15%.
If you change that number to 20% evaporation you will be much better off, in my opinion.

 

[azntaiji]

Been about five years since I've been in the homebrewing game. After buying a house recently, I'm back! And yet, I've decided to stick with small scale.. just picked up a bunch of equipment the other day.

The 1 gal BIAB method is so appealing to me (previously I mashed w/ a DIY home depot cooler)... I honestly don't drink enough beer to justify 5 gallon batches, I get bored of the same stuff, and I love to experiment. Doing all the work is a large part of the enjoyment. Plus, it saves me some money.

 

[r4dyce]

Been about five years since I've been in the homebrewing game. After buying a house recently, I'm back! And yet, I've decided to stick with small scale.. just picked up a bunch of equipment the other day.

The 1 gal BIAB method is so appealing to me (previously I mashed w/ a DIY home depot cooler)... I honestly don't drink enough beer to justify 5 gallon batches, I get bored of the same stuff, and I love to experiment. Doing all the work is a large part of the enjoyment. Plus, it saves me some money.

Yep, I could echo all the same sentiments. I hit a middle ground where I do some 3 gallon biab batches. The main reason behind it is gives you enough to easily share with people. But I still most often do one gallon batches. It's just such a faster brew day too.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Those doing smaller batches, 1-3 gallons, what are you using for bottling buckets? I recently bought three of these with an eye towards future experiments and smaller batch beers.

 

[r4dyce]

Those doing smaller batches, 1-3 gallons, what are you using for bottling buckets? I recently bought three of these with an eye towards future experiments and smaller batch beers.

With a 1 gallon I will just siphon into a kitchen pot and then siphon into bottles from there. For 3 gallon batches I've put faucets on my buckets so I usually bottle directly from the fermenter with a sugar cube in each bottle, Or of I really want to dial in a carb level I will transfer to an empty bucket with a spout per usual. I have smaller buckets though I think they are 4 or 5 gallons I can't remember exactly.

 

[AZBeer]

Those doing smaller batches, 1-3 gallons, what are you using for bottling buckets? I recently bought three of these with an eye towards future experiments and smaller batch beers.

I use those little big mouth fermentors for my 1.25 gal batches. I siphon straight out of that, and add a sugar cube to each bottle. I get C&H locally, which is a bigger cube, and I picked up some Domino cubes off Amazon. I use the super scientific method of using the Domino cubes most of the time, and use the bigger C&H if it's a style that needs a little more carbonation.

I am gathering gear for 2.5-3 gal batches, and the fermentor has a valve on it, so I will go straight from there into bottles in the future.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Thanks guys, I may try bottling straight from the fermenter. BTW, I just noticed this at Lowe's. I can cut a hole and put a spigot on it and be good to go.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Letica-2-Gallon-Residential-Bucket/50434788

 

[auburntsts]

Thanks guys, I may try bottling straight from the fermenter. BTW, I just noticed this at Lowe's. I can cut a hole and put a spigot on it and be good to go.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Letica-2-Gallon-Residential-Bucket/50434788

That's what I'm doing right now, fermenter-to-bottle, since my wife bought me a package of those carbonation sugar drops along with my equipment. Once they are used up I'm switching to a bottling bucket with a spigot.