1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

[Immocles]

Paging @TwistedGray

1/2 tsp table sugar funneled into each bottle. Maybe slightly more for 16oz bottles

 

[HemanBrew]

So I bottled yesterday... and siphoning from the carboy was smoother than the first time. But bottling was a pain... only due to the Fizz Drops! I will never, ever, use these again! What a pain... they dont fit most of the 16oz bottles I have! Had to cram them into the openings increasing risk for infection.

I want to continue to bottle from primary and add priming sugar to each individual bottle. What is the best way to do this? Best!

Buy a scale that measures 0.1grams. And use brewersfriend priming calculator.

 

[mygar]

Buy a scale that measures 0.1grams. And use brewersfriend priming calculator.

I do have the small anvil scale to use.

Ok so it looks like that calculator works on a 16oz calculation as well (.125g). Which sugar best … I suspect corn sugar? Also, what's the risk for infection? ie not putting sugar in solution and boiling? Thanks!

 

[HemanBrew]

I do have the small anvil scale to use.

Ok so it looks like that calculator works on a 16oz calculation as well (.125g). Which sugar best … I suspect corn sugar? Also, what's the risk for infection? ie not putting sugar in solution and boiling? Thanks!

I use brewing sugar (pure glucose) from the homebrew shop. Table sugar and corn sugar works also but not as fast.
No infections as long as everything is clean. At least I haven't had any infections this way or heard anyone else suffering infections. I think it doesn't differ from using carb drops of sugar cubes in this matter.

 

[TwistedGray]

So I bottled yesterday... and siphoning from the carboy was smoother than the first time. But bottling was a pain... only due to the Fizz Drops! I will never, ever, use these again! What a pain... they dont fit most of the 16oz bottles I have! Had to cram them into the openings increasing risk for infection.

I want to continue to bottle from primary and add priming sugar to each individual bottle. What is the best way to do this? Best!

I finally made a thread about this - Individual Bottle Priming Instructions with Cane Sugar

Paging @TwistedGray

1/2 tsp table sugar funneled into each bottle. Maybe slightly more for 16oz bottles

Imma just make a damn thread already, lol.

I use brewing sugar (pure glucose) from the homebrew shop. Table sugar and corn sugar works also but not as fast.
No infections as long as everything is clean. At least I haven't had any infections this way or heard anyone else suffering infections. I think it doesn't differ from using carb drops of sugar cubes in this matter.

What's your carbonation times using "brewing sugar" to carbonate compared to cane sugar (aka "table sugar")?

I usually like to give my beers one week to rest in the bottle to ensure all the sediment settles, and they're plenty carbonated at that stage. Depending on the style, I'll give them two full weeks to carbonate, settle, and condition before starting to chuck them in the fridge.

 

[Joshua Hughes]

I finally made a thread about this - Individual Bottle Priming Instructions with Cane Sugar



Imma just make a damn thread already, lol.



What's your carbonation times using "brewing sugar" to carbonate compared to cane sugar (aka "table sugar")?

I usually like to give my beers one week to rest in the bottle to ensure all the sediment settles, and they're plenty carbonated at that stage. Depending on the style, I'll give them two full weeks to carbonate, settle, and condition before starting to chuck them in the fridge.

I’ve use Twisted’s method since I asked him about it a while back. It works better than other methods assuming you get the right amount in each bottle. I’ll never do anything else with my 1 gallon batches.

 

[HardyFool]

It would be very interesting to see a brewing day of yours!

Haha fair enough! I filmed parts of one which I should get around to finally posting, but I also made some substantial upgrades after that, so there may be another one after that. In any case, I'll get on it!

 

[HemanBrew]

What's your carbonation times using "brewing sugar" to carbonate compared to cane sugar (aka "table sugar")?

I

Table sugar needs usually 2 weeks.
Brewing sugar makes good carbonation in one week.
At least in my brews.
BU remember that bottle conditioning is more than just carbonation. So 2-3 weeks is my normal "ready beer". But it's nice to taste a bottle in 1 week with good carbonation (at least ipas and neipas)

 

[mygar]

Haha fair enough! I filmed parts of one which I should get around to finally posting, but I also made some substantial upgrades after that, so there may be another one after that. In any case, I'll get on it!

Cool...it would be great to see your equipment at work!

 

[mygar]

I finally made a thread about this - Individual Bottle Priming Instructions with Cane Sugar



Imma just make a damn thread already, lol.

The pictures were a help ... giggle lol

What's your carbonation times using "brewing sugar" to carbonate compared to cane sugar (aka "table sugar")?

I usually like to give my beers one week to rest in the bottle to ensure all the sediment settles, and they're plenty carbonated at that stage. Depending on the style, I'll give them two full weeks to carbonate, settle, and condition before starting to chuck them in the fridge.

The pictures were a help ... giggle lol

 

[TwistedGray]

Table sugar needs usually 2 weeks.
Brewing sugar makes good carbonation in one week.
At least in my brews.
BU remember that bottle conditioning is more than just carbonation. So 2-3 weeks is my normal "ready beer". But it's nice to taste a bottle in 1 week with good carbonation (at least ipas and neipas)

I've never had an issue on any styles after one week with table sugar, but I stopped brewing IPAs about two years ago and PAs last year. Everything else holds up to a week in the bottle though, but yeah...2-3 weeks is the norm unless it's a big beer.

 

[InspectorJon]

1/2 tsp table sugar per 12 oz. bottle.

 

[HardyFool]

Hey all,

I make tons of weird and merely fairly pleasant beers, but this was a banger. The only hassle is that you have to add the raspberries like 90% of the way through fermentation to ensure that the yeast will eat the sugars (or don't I guess!), and the recipe is virtually exactly this one but rephrased for 1 gallon. If you want an Easy Win like I did, give it a shot

Oh, and use whole, frozen raspberries (or hell, fresh)

 

[jimdkc]

If you use fresh raspberries, it might be better to freeze and then thaw them first. It breaks down the cell walls and releases more juice!

Interesting recipe... going to add it to my list!

 

[HardyFool]

If you use fresh raspberries, it might be better to freeze and then thaw them first. It breaks down the cell walls and releases more juice!

Interesting recipe... going to add it to my list!

I seriously considered fresh raspberries, but they were about double the price, out of season, and brought a slight infection risk (though in this beer, it would take a lot of Brett, say, to register on the palate) - though I intend to do this if I see tempting-enough fruit in the future

And glad to hear it!

 

[Elric]

I just did up a gallon of a raspberry sour using the new philly sour. started with a 2.75 gallon batch and put one gallon of it on a pound of frozen raspberries for a week after. The hydrometer sample tasted good today. Now to wait for the keg to carb!

 

[HardyFool]

Nice! I'm dying to try that Philly Sour

 

[pdcm]

Hey all,

I make tons of weird and merely fairly pleasant beers, but this was a banger. The only hassle is that you have to add the raspberries like 90% of the way through fermentation to ensure that the yeast will eat the sugars (or don't I guess!), and the recipe is virtually exactly this one but rephrased for 1 gallon. If you want an Easy Win like I did, give it a shot

Oh, and use whole, frozen raspberries (or hell, fresh)

View attachment 699275

That container looks nice and solid, if you don't mind sharing, what is it? I recently picked up a couple of cheap (thin) PET jugs for 1G experiments, but I'm not sure how long they'll last.

 

[HardyFool]

That container looks nice and solid, if you don't mind sharing, what is it?

I cannot recommend this setup more, though one caveat: it's not a perfect seal (you could line the indent in the lid with silicone putty and solve that problem, but I haven't thus far for fear of sanitation issues), which means that cold crashing and long term storage (say, 4+ weeks) isn't viable due to the very real possibility of oxidation (I had a perfectly good altbier ruined this way)

Having said that, here's the shopping list:

Clear fermenters rock, and honestly I have been loving the heck out of my 6qt Cambro fermenters - get one of these (but get one at a restaurant supply for less than half of that price), toss two of these in the lid, toss a thermowell in one of those, and throw one of these on the front and you have the best 1 gal fermenter in the biz

 

[HardyFool]

Yet another sour recipe for y'all:

I've been playing around with Voss Kviek yeast from Lallemand, since I discovered you can just vacuum seal dried yeast right after using it and it remains viable (!!), so pt.3 of said experimentation was a "Berliner Vosse," and it's an absolute banger. From grain to glass in 8 days, including kettle souring, and since you kettle sour and ferment at 95˚F, it couldn't be simpler or harder to mess up. The recipe's below, but it's also obvious: ~150˚ mash, 50:50 wheatils, 5 IBUs any noble hop. I carb'd at 18 psi at 38˚, so like 3.1, but I'd bet anything north of like 2.8 would work

 

[HardyFool]

since you kettle sour and ferment at 95˚F, it couldn't be simpler or harder to mess up.

Oh one note: I like the tartness where it is, but if you'd like a milder version, kettle sour at ~86˚ instead for the same two days (mine hit 3.2, this strategy will be closer to 3.4-3.5 which is more of a textbook target - and this is, I should mention, using the absolute champion SourPitch which, you guessed it, you can reseal and make up to 10 (!) kettle soured 1 gallon batches with if you have a vacuum sealer and bags)

 

[mashpaddled]

If you use fresh raspberries, it might be better to freeze and then thaw them first. It breaks down the cell walls and releases more juice!

Interesting recipe... going to add it to my list!

You're not really getting more juice out of the fruit by freezing them first that isn't happening by the cells swelling in complete hydration in the beer. The difference with freezing first is that you will rupture the cell walls with freezing and extract the juice quicker.

 

[Elric]

Oh one note: I like the tartness where it is, but if you'd like a milder version, kettle sour at ~86˚ instead for the same two days (mine hit 3.2, this strategy will be closer to 3.4-3.5 which is more of a textbook target - and this is, I should mention, using the absolute champion SourPitch which, you guessed it, you can reseal and make up to 10 (!) kettle soured 1 gallon batches with if you have a vacuum sealer and bags)

Or just get philly sour and your souring agent and yeast are a single purchase!

 

[HardyFool]

Or just get philly sour and your souring agent and yeast are a single purchase!

True, and since it's not like the insane speed of this beer is a necessity, and because I'm not looking for any particular weird yeast character, I very well may switch to that at some point. The brewery I work at is about to use it in a Gose (after having done a kettle-soured version first), so I'll get to check it out first hand!

 

[pdcm]

I've got three of these little experiments going now. These are 5L polypropylene containers, probably not as high quality as the Cambro ones, but I do like that lid snaps down in place. The snaps on the side compress the silicone gasket around the rim which made them water tight, until I drilled a hole in the lid for the airlocks. I added the spigots on two of them, the other two are au natural for the time being. Liking them a lot so far, they stack really well when empty (and no airlock)... if I could only figure out a way to stack them while they're fermenting.

 

[HardyFool]

Those are sick! I love the sealing gasket, I'd kill for the ability to cold crash without oxidation risk, and those spigots are life changers, especially if you're bottling (though they're a noticeable improvement either way). Hell of a pair!

 

[Alphadawg]

Nice. Can you share where you bought them? I'd like to try this

 

[pdcm]

Nice. Can you share where you bought them? I'd like to try this

Oops, I had meant to put the link in my post - I guess I forgot. I found them on Amazon when looking for something to store small amounts of grain. These are the ones I got : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086MT1C1T

 

[jimdkc]

I like those! Here's a similar one in a 7L (1.7 Gallon) size!:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081J7942W/

 

[HardyFool]

Also apparently these exist, since I'm already deep down the cambro rabbit hole - I'll let y'all know if they're effective once I snag a few

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Domino Dots FYI (apparently 198 count dots are no longer available)

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

With "Hop Sampler", one generally only needs one or two bottles for the initial sample.

Has anyone left the remaining bottles for 30 / 60 / 90 days to see how they taste at that point in time?

 

[mgalbus]

... but for now, here's a video I made of what I claim to be the most advanced one gallon brewery (shots fired!)

Just finished watching your video... thank you for posting. I am curious on what kettle you are using. My main reason for asking is that I am trying to understand the wall thickness so that I can get a solid non-flimsy surface to connect to.

 

[HardyFool]

Just finished watching your video... thank you for posting. I am curious on what kettle you are using. My main reason for asking is that I am trying to understand the wall thickness so that I can get a solid non-flimsy surface to connect to.

Well thanks for watching! Maybe I should finally get around to editing and uploading that brew day video...

As for the kettle, I'm using this, which is evidently like 202-grade Stainless, but I've had no off flavor or degradation issues. It may look cheap, but it's not flimsy, and as someone who has drilled like four big holes in this thing (3 and 4 being the element and then the tri-clamp housing for the element), I'd be reticent to use anything thicker-walled. Heck, I even installed a comically huge tri-clamp fitting for my element recently, and while I had to literally sit there and hammer the wall surrounding the hole flat so that the fitting would seal, the kettle holds water some ten-ish brews later.

But yeah, to answer your question, the wall is pretty thin (I dunno, half a millimeter?), but it can hold a decent amount of weight, so far up to a heating element and a fairly heavy tri-clamp rig

 

[z-bob]

I just finished a 6 quart mash -- making some bottles of 1.040 wort to pressure cook and use later to make yeast starters. And I can see the appeal of 1 gallon (or thereabouts) brewing. I did everything easily on my kitchen stove without any special equipment except a paint strainer bag for Home Depot.

Now I need to drag out the pressure canner and see if all these bottles fit...

 

[jimdkc]

I'm going to make a full post soon, with brew day footage and pictures of each piece of gear and their magnificent Valhalla of a cabinet, but for now, here's a video I made of what I claim to be the most advanced one gallon brewery (shots fired!)

Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see or know, for instance the like 20 different mash heating options I've considered and how to build them all

Cheers!

Enjoyed your video. I like seeing how different people approach small batch brewing. I have to know, though... where did you find a 1650 watt fold-back heating element short enough to fit in a kettle that small?

 

[HardyFool]

Enjoyed your video. I like seeing how different people approach small batch brewing. I have to know, though... where did you find a 1650 watt fold-back heating element short enough to fit in a kettle that small?

Glad to hear it! And same, there's an absolute zoo of options, it's great to see. And yeah, that is indeed a challenge, and an especially pressing one I faced for my RIMS tube, since I had to use as small of a radius of tubing as possible since V is proportional to r^2 for a cylinder.

In any case, my go-to for electric brewing is generally brewhardware.com, and here's the element. They have a serviceable element housing, that I actually use (it's very light which is great), but the cadillac of element housings is this, granted it's triclamp only, so you'll need something like this, and even then you'll find that you need, like, two fat silicone gaskets that you have to buy individually. Pretty insane, right?

One last thing, though - they're not even remotely Low Wattage Density or ULWD, but Stick Heaters can't be beaten for space, and if I were building a simple water heater, or a "f*** it" tiny RIMS tube, I'd consider using one. This one's too long for one gallon, but these are too expensive - I'm sure a middle ground exists.

 

[HardyFool]

...and even then you'll find that you need, like, two fat silicone gaskets that you have to buy individually. Pretty insane, right?

I'll save you some time if you want to follow in my erratic, meandering footsteps - 41mm worked for me for those gaskets

 

[JWW2987]

Good evening all!

I just got into the brewing game and started with a one gallon "Craft A Brew" American Pale Ale I received as a gift. This Saturday will be bottling day and so far everything has seemingly went well. I already have the itch to begin another beer before even knowing if I have succeeded in the first! I am interested in brewing a one gallon NEIPA and will be following the "Craft A Brew" steps for their NEIPA, however, I purchased my own variety of hops (Galaxy, Citra, Cashmere) to try instead of what their kit provides. Being extremely new to the brewing field and wishing I had paid more attention in high school chemistry, my solid plan for the NEIPA has gotten more confusing the more I read online. My question (which I am sure has been asked a thousand and one times) is is there a general rule of thumb in amount of grain, hops and yeast to follow when brewing this type of beer per gallon? I have read the 1.25-1.5 lbs/gallon for grain, but the hops and yeast amounts I am a bit confused on. Thanks in advance for the information!

 

[HardyFool]

My question (which I am sure has been asked a thousand and one times) is is there a general rule of thumb in amount of grain, hops and yeast to follow when brewing this type of beer per gallon? I have read the 1.25-1.5 lbs/gallon for grain, but the hops and yeast amounts I am a bit confused on. Thanks in advance for the information!

Someone with more expertise on IPAs is sure to follow with better specific advice, but the broad strokes response:

- Welcome to brewing!
- I'd recommend just following other people's recipes for, like, 5-10 batches before considering doing your own; even if your recipe is excellent, your method is sure to be flawed, and so there'll be no real way to know what went well or not in your recipe beyond "I liked these hops" or maybe "that was a ton of crystal malt in retrospect, my bad;" you may even want to just buy pre-made kits from reputable sources, Brooklyn BrewShop for instance
- Speaking of them, I'd recommend two books, namely the obvious one and a second, specific-to-one-gallon book that's a solid repository of recipes (I've tried a few, not all, but they're bangers)
- they also have a second book that's maybe good? And after, like, 10-20 brews, you're allowed to buy this - such is the will of the gods
- I begrudgingly offer this, though you'll need BeerSmith more or less the second you stop brewing kits, if for no other reason than record keeping (and there are like a million reasons)
- For hazies, I'm no expert, but there are a range of tricks - a number of breweries only add hops at Whirlpool and later in order to avoid the majority of...bittering, let's say (isomerization, don't sweat the details) and hop oil loss, and to get that haze, you'll need to employ a combination of a haze-friendly yeast (London Ale III and Voss Kveik, say, Lallemand's, are common), and malt selection (people like, what is it? White wheat malt and flaked barley? Someone will have a specific answer there)

Good luck, and if you need a small batch quality cheat code, grab something like this (for posterity: a thermoelectric wine fridge with a built-in temperature setter)