1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[Immocles]

I just watched those this evening. Might try it out and compare with a more regular hop additions brew.

 

[treacheroustexan]

How many grams or ounces of hops do you add for those 30 minutes?

Higher AA, half oz, lower AA, full oz. Though I goofed and added a whole oz of pacific jade into a 1 gallon batch. I’m not sure what to except from that one.

 

[Immocles]

Seems to be the place to ask 1 gallon questions...
This might seem obvious to some folks here, but how do you weigh out your yeast for small batches? I’m figuring on using about a third of a package for each brew. Do you guys just sorta guess while dumping it from the package or weigh it out on a scale? If so, what kinda sanitizing needs to be done? If I put a piece of foil on the scale, I’m assuming I’d need to spray it with sanitizer first and give it time to dry completely?
Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is eye rollingly silly haha

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I actually do two 1 gallon jugs per batch. The calculators usually say to use about a pack of dry yeast for that, so I just sprinkle a little back and forth into my fermentors until its gone or if I rehydrated the yeast I stir it up really good and put half in one and half in the other. Once the pouch is open, I don’t think it keeps very well so if I was afraid of over pitching on a true one gallon batch, I think I’d just eyeball half the pack and
toss the rest.

 

[Griffin495]

Seems to be the place to ask 1 gallon questions...
This might seem obvious to some folks here, but how do you weigh out your yeast for small batches? I’m figuring on using about a third of a package for each brew. Do you guys just sorta guess while dumping it from the package or weigh it out on a scale? If so, what kinda sanitizing needs to be done? If I put a piece of foil on the scale, I’m assuming I’d need to spray it with sanitizer first and give it time to dry completely?
Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is eye rollingly silly haha

Probably not the "best " practices, but I just weigh out about 3.5g of dry yeast for a one gallon batch in a small dipping size bowl. I don't sanitize it. I make sure its clean, but don't sanitize it. It looks like you thought it through and realize if it was wet, the yeast would stick to it and you wouldn't be able to get it into your fermenter. Don't quote me and I maybe wrong, but if you allow the sanitizer to dry, then it would lose all sanitizing properties. I'm probably 15 or more one gallon batches in and I haven't had a problem...yet, so I'll keep doing it this way.

As for the unused portion, I vacuum seal it and toss it back into my garage/beer fridge until the next brew day. I can get three brews out of a package of dry yeast.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Probably not the "best " practices, but I just weigh out about 3.5g of dry yeast for a one gallon batch in a small dipping size bowl. I don't sanitize it. I make sure its clean, but don't sanitize it. It looks like you thought it through and realize if it was wet, the yeast would stick to it and you wouldn't be able to get it into your fermenter. Don't quote me and I maybe wrong, but if you allow the sanitizer to dry, then it would lose all sanitizing properties. I'm probably 15 or more one gallon batches in and I haven't had a problem...yet, so I'll keep doing it this way.

As for the unused portion, I vacuum seal it and toss it back into my garage/beer fridge until the next brew day. I can get three brews out of a package of dry yeast.

This is exactly what I do.

 

[Druman07]

Similiar process, but I split the yeast package weighing half the amount on a piece of foil used as a tray. I do rehydrate the yeast, which i find jump starts the fermentation process. As in most brewing, there is debate whether this is necessary, but it works well for me.

 

[Soulshine2]

"Honestly if I brewed five gallon batches all the time there would be too much beer in the house "

No such thing. its like bacon. Now,never say that again .

 

[Ahks]

But... Some beer doesn't age well. And as much as I like giving people beer... It's kind of a waste of money

 

[Immocles]

Thanks for the input guys. I’ll try weighing some out, I’m cheap and don’t wanna waste an entire package. Much rather pitch a third of a package and keep the rest in the fridge for a couple weeks until I make another batch.

 

[Soulshine2]

But... Some beer doesn't age well. And as much as I like giving people beer... It's kind of a waste of money

drink faster

 

[Soulshine2]

I actually do two 1 gallon jugs per batch. The calculators usually say to use about a pack of dry yeast for that, so I just sprinkle a little back and forth into my fermentors until its gone or if I rehydrated the yeast I stir it up really good and put half in one and half in the other. Once the pouch is open, I don’t think it keeps very well so if I was afraid of over pitching on a true one gallon batch, I think I’d just eyeball half the pack and
toss the rest.

if youre just going to toss it , just pitch the entire package. Dry yeast keeps just fine. keep it dry and cool.

 

[Immocles]

So I have a couple of gallon jugs fermenting away. These are my first real ventures into the small batches. Is the fermentation time similar to 5 gallons? or slightly earlier? I was planning on dry hopping one of these, and leaving the other as-is, and I was originally looking at waiting 2 weeks before bottling if everything checks out. Is that a bit long, or could it be possibly shortened a few days? Hydrometer won't fit to test, and id rather not pull multiple samples from a small batch.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

So I have a couple of gallon jugs fermenting away. These are my first real ventures into the small batches. Is the fermentation time similar to 5 gallons? or slightly earlier? I was planning on dry hopping one of these, and leaving the other as-is, and I was originally looking at waiting 2 weeks before bottling if everything checks out. Is that a bit long, or could it be possibly shortened a few days? Hydrometer won't fit to test, and id rather not pull multiple samples from a small batch.

My beer seems to take longer than 5 gallon people’s. But I can’t really say for sure because I wait for the beer to clear and that’s how I tell it’s done. My beers take 3-4 weeks to be “done”.

 

[Druman07]

i typically wait 18-21 days before bottling. That's one of the challenges with 1 gallon batches, taking samples for a hydrometer impacts your final yield, so I don't do it.

 

[Ahks]

If you invest in a refractometer you can take samples on the scale of a few drops, rather than ounces. And there are calculators in Beersmith or online to use a refractometer after alcohol production has started. I verified their accuracy across a couple batches and at varying points in fermentation and the calculators seem to be more accurate than me reading a hydrometer. I'm probably not going to use my hydrometer much at all anymore

 

[ba-brewer]

I use a refractometer for big and small batches, and then do a final reading with a hydrometer. The calculated value usually come pretty close to the hydrometer. If you are just looking for when the gravity stabilizes you don't need to use a calculator.

 

[Immocles]

Guess I was just hoping the turnaround was a little quicker for smaller batches. Oh well, patience is usually rewarded. I’ve never looked into refractometers. Guess I’ll do some reading and see what it’s all about.

 

[ba-brewer]

If you scale the amount of yeast a 1 gal batch should finish about the same as 5 gal batch, but if you over pitch which can be easy to do with small batches it can finish a bit quicker. I usually brew modest gravity beers in the 5 to 6% range and they are normally done fermenting in 3 or 4 days and then I give them another 3 or 4 days to clean up and move to a keg.

edit; if I dry hop then it is few more days, so like 10days.

 

[mashpaddled]

Over the course of my almost ten years of homebrewing I've brewed one gallon batches more than anything else. Like many here I started out brewing five gallon batches and found it was just too much beer and kept me from having fun brewing. You need equipment to brew on a small scale (e.g. precise gram scale, refractometer) but once you're set up you can brew anything you could on a larger scale. This blog has a lot of one gallon homebrew recipes already built but it's fairly easy to just divide a larger recipe down to a smaller size.

 

[TonyKZ1]

I've also brewed quite a few 1G recipes, I went from 2G Mr Beer to 1G AG and Extract recipes. Here's one of the 1G recipe books I use, Beer Craftr. He also has a beginner's guide and sends out an update to his recipe book ever so often.

 

[Immocles]

Thanks for the link Tony. Looks like good stuff

 

[Soulshine2]

i typically wait 18-21 days before bottling. That's one of the challenges with 1 gallon batches, taking samples for a hydrometer impacts your final yield, so I don't do it.

do you at least take a hydrometer reading just before you bottle? How do you know you didnt get a stuck or stalled fermentation?

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

do you at least take a hydrometer reading just before you bottle? How do you know you didnt get a stuck or stalled fermentation?

I do take a hydrometer sample during bottling to get an FG. I had a Wee Heavy that “stuck”. That’s the only time it has happened to me. I added Champagne yeast that could tolerate the alcohol level and it was able to chew up my priming sugar. Live and learn.

 

[2_gal_brewer]

I still brew Mr Beer and the 2 gal fermenters are a good size. And they are cheap too. So even if you don't use their fermentables look at the fermenters. I cannot physically move 5 gal stuff around from starting in kirchen to fermenting in basement. Mr B forum also has standardised the safe time in the fermenter as 21 days especially for newbies to better the results. 3 weeks in fermenter. 4 weeks carbonation and 3 days in rhe fridge. Of course if you monitor closely you can reduce these times.

 

[Druman07]

Yes I do a test at bottling so i know what the FG is. I just don't sample during the fermentation. If I was doing bigger batches I would definitely sample to see when fermentation has ended.

 

[mhedman]

+1 for beercraftr.com. I've brewed several of his recipies. Great stuff.

As a follow up, if you sanitize everything when you take a gravity reading, why wouldn't you return the sample to the batch? Especially mid fermentation batches?

Also another note on beercraftr, he scales his recipies to 1.3 gallons just so you can toss samples out and still get 1 gallon at the end.

 

[jimdkc]

+1 for beercraftr.com. I've brewed several of his recipies. Great stuff.

As a follow up, if you sanitize everything when you take a gravity reading, why wouldn't you return the sample to the batch? Especially mid fermentation batches?

Also be sure not to introduce oxygen... avoid too much splashing, excessive stirring, etc.

Also another note on beercraftr, he scales his recipies to 1.3 gallons just so you can toss samples out and still get 1 gallon at the end.

I like that... pretty clever!

 

[AppyWyn]

Will be brewing my 3rd overall batch. This time a Dry Irish Stout recipe kit from Craft A Brew. First two were an IPA (which was a fail) and a Porter (which went well) from Brooklyn Beer Kit. Should I go with the hops and ale yeast that came with it or experiment with other?

 

[BongoYodeler]

Will be brewing my 3rd overall batch. This time a Dry Irish Stout recipe kit from Craft A Brew. First two were an IPA (which was a fail) and a Porter (which went well) from Brooklyn Beer Kit. Should I go with the hops and ale yeast that came with it or experiment with other?

IMO go with the kit.