10 Things I Love About 1 Gallon Brewing

[kombat]

I've been brewing 5 and 10 gallon all grain batches for a couple of years now, but in the past few weeks I've actually begun experimenting with 1 gallon BIAB all grain brewing, and I've got to say, I'm really enjoying it. Here are some of the things I like about 1 gallon all grain BIAB brewing:

1. It's so much faster than a 5 or 10 gallon batch. Less time heating strike water, less grain to mill, no sparge step, less time getting up to a boil. In fact, I can easily do a 1 gallon batch on a weeknight (did one last night, actually), whereas a 5 gallon batch would consume my entire evening and only barely have me finishing by bed time.

2. Less cleanup. No mash tun to scrub out, no hop spider or chiller or pump to clean.

3. Lower cost. Just a few dollars' worth of ingredients in any given batch. Even the fermenters cost peanuts, and I can buy several and have a bunch of batches on the go at any given time.

4. Don't need to wait for an empty keg. I don't have to consult my spreadsheet to ensure I'll have a keg kicking about the time the batch is done cold crashing. All I need is a handful of empty bottles and some caps.

5. Less risk investing in ingredients if the batch doesn't turn out. I haven't actually had a batch completely finish yet (I've got a batch of Brown Ale with another week of bottle carbing to go), but I feel fearless regarding trying new things, since if it doesn't work out, it's only a few dollars' worth of ingredients wasted.

6. Can do it indoors. This is a big one in the winter. I don't have to stand around a propane burner in my garage freezing my butt off, wondering if I have enough propane. I can just do it on my stove and keep an eye on things while I watch TV inside a nice warm house.

7. Higher efficiency. I can crush finer, and I'm finding I'm getting higher efficiency from my grains using BIAB.

8. Can chill in kitchen sink, don't need to set up chiller and pump. With 15 minutes left in the boil, I just dump my fridge's ice cube resevoir into the sink and add a few inches of cold water. Then at knockout, I just move the pot from the stove into the sink, give it a swirl with my (sanitized) spoon to get a bit of a whirlpool going and speed chilling, then go back to watching TV for another 15-20 minutes while it cools.

9. Easier on my back. I'll be honest, a full 5 gallon brew day for me involves a lot of lifting. Carrying the boil kettle from the mash tun (indoors in winter) out to the burner in the garage, lifting the mash tun to dump the grains into the compost, carrying the carboy full of beer from the garage down the stairs to the basement, lifting buckets of cleaning solution, sanitizer, and collected waste chiller water all around, lifting a carboy full of Oxyclean to the sink to clean it - it all takes a toll on my back. A 1 gallon carboy weighs nothing by comparison.

10. Easier to manage logistically, can fit several in my fridge. I can fit the empty fermenters in my cupboard, cleaning/sanitizing them is easier, I'm not worried about it shattering on me while I'm simply carrying it and slicing my arms to shreds.

All that said, there are a few problems I'm still working on overcoming with 1 gallon brewing.

1. How do deal with leftover partial hop quantities (reseal 3/4 of an oz?)
2. Pitching proper amount of yeast (popular dry and liquid packages are sized for 5 gallon batches)
3. Preventing cold break and hop trub from going into fermenter

I know the biggest criticism of 1 gallon brewing is that you get so few bottles out of it, what's the point? I'm taking the approach of using these 1 gallon batches kind of as my own little "pilot brewery" to try out new recipes and new techniques. If they work out and I get 8 bottles of tasty beer, I'll scale the recipe up and brew it as a full batch. But in the meantime, if it's a weeknight and I've got nothing else to do and I feel like brewing, 1 gallon batches fit the bill perfectly.

 

[donovanmaxwell]

You and I are on the same page with 1 gallon brews. I'm a new brewer and in the process of starting 1 gallon batches. For me, the benefit of making a SMaSH batch for the point of learning about various hops makes more financial sense than a full blown 5 gallon recipe. Honestly, if I could find a better yeast solution for 1L batch, I would do that.

Let us know what you come up with on the yeast. I'm leaning towards a slightly higher OG and just rehydrating half a pack of dry yeast and pitching that in the hopes of brewing a second batch the following evening.

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[LilRoundHouse]

Ditto what DonovanMaxwell said.

New to brewing, skipped extract all together (not really interested), and working in smaller increments makes learning all-grain on the go much less intimidating than if I were trying for 5-gallon batches.

Also, I like beer a lot, but I don't always like a lot of beer, if that makes sense. One gallon batches are much more appropriately scaled to our consumption tendencies than 5-gallon batches (50 bottles would last a loooooong time around here).

Plus all the points kombat mentions above.

The "pilot" batch idea is so spot on. I don't know that I'll ever commit to a batch larger than a gallon if I haven't already made it in that format first. I literally have shelves full of the gallon jugs, and the smaller inputs of time and ingredients needed means I can have many more batches and brew days than I would otherwise.

 

[Brewmenn]

Are 1 gallon glass jugs what people are using for this or are there other options?

 

[kombat]

I'm using clear glass 1 gallon jugs I purchased at my LHBS. A #6 rubber bung fits the mouth perfectly.

 

[fury413rb]

I just recently started my first gallon. Friend from work gave me two more similar glass gallon jugs - carlos rossi whatever. I think I am going to do a couple of these gallon brews before I move into anything bigger.

I like the idea of small batches for all the same reasons listed and its less intimidating. If I ruin 10 bottles of beer it isn't a huge loss.

 

[Leithoa]

Carlo rossi, 365 apple juice, HPLC grade water, are some of the 1G(4L in some cases) jugs I use.
Some places also sell 1G food grade buckets. I think you can get second hand icing or pickle buckets that are 1G. I suppose you could also brew in a 6L PET bottle some of those mini-keg systems use. There's also the option of open container brewing in your boil kettle.

 

[Brewmenn]

I'm thinking maybe I'll try to 1 gallon batches when (if?!) the weather warms up. My main reasoning for that would be the it would be easier to manage the temperatures with a gallon jug than a 5 gallon bucket or carboy. I don't have central air in my house so once the daytime highs get above about 80° (can't wait) I'm not going to want to brew much. But with a gallon jug it would be easier to keep cool.

I also want to try some SMaSH brews and play with some recipes, and maybe try my hand at all grain brewing.

 

[finsfan]

I have not made a 1 gallon batch yet, but plan to very soon. I just a bunch of 1 gallon fermenters and cant wait to use them. I first plan to experiment with a couple gallons of saison that I have already fermented. One will be all brett, one will be brett/pedio/lacto. I also want to try and do my clone attempts in 1 gallon batches so I dont end up with a bunch of bottles that im not truly satisfied with. My first one will be a moo-hoo clone that I may do some evening next week, which would not normally be possible with a 5-6 gallon batch. I cant wait to start more cloning and souring experiments in 1 gallon format.

 

[AlCophile]

Anyone tried those 6 liter Party Pigs to ferment in? They have enough headspace to accommodate kraeusen, and you would wind up with a true gallon(6x22oz. bottles) of beer. They are PET, food-grade, non-breakable, with curved bottoms.

 

[elkshadow]

I make 3 gallon batches and several things on the list are applicable.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Love small batch brewing.

For hops I usually try to queue up a few recipes that will use the same hops; or at least use half the amount that I'd consider in a full batch and then toss the rest in as a dryhop. Sometimes that just doesn't work, like for Warrior or Magnum - these I just nip the corner and when done I fold the packet over and try to squeeze out as much air as I can, put a piece of blue painters tape over the roll, and mark the remaining weight on the tape for future reference. These are then put into a ziplock, and into the freezer.

Ideally, I want an open pack gone within 2 months, and if I notice one hanging out I'll either purposely make a recipe to use it or it gets tossed in as a dryhop with something of similar aroma.

For yeast, I use dry yeast almost exclusively (unless I have to use a liquid, eg Kolsch). Same procedure as the hops, 1/3rd of a packet and then folded over and ziplocked. I'll time out 3 recipes with the same yeast so I can use it within a month of opening.

Haven't had any issues using these procedures, so long as I'm timely about moving open product along.

 

[hio3791]

Love small batch brewing.
For yeast, I use dry yeast almost exclusively (unless I have to use a liquid, eg Kolsch). Same procedure as the hops, 1/3rd of a packet and then folded over and ziplocked. I'll time out 3 recipes with the same yeast so I can use it within a month of opening.

Maybe a dumb question but how do you weight the yeast or do you eyeball it? My scale has 1 gram resolution but how would I weight out the 3.67g of yeast without contaminating it?

 

[sumbrewindude]

I've done it both ways - eyeballing it (actually folding the packet into thirds, trying to make sure that the yeast amount is close in each area), and putting it into a glass dish on the scale.

With the glass dish I've done the OMG-STERILIZE-IT-WITH-FIRE (okay, not really fire, but 200% ethanol and allowed to air dry) and "what the heck" pour it in with no sanitizing and dump it into the beer.

Both ways turned out fine with no infection.

Seeing as how one packet of dry yeast is more than enough for 5gal of average (~1.050) gravity beer, I've gone to eye-balling it and dealing with a slight over-pitch.

AFA liquid, one packet's usually good for up to 2-2.5gal without a starter, so I just direct pitch and call it a day.

I'm learning not to stress out over making beer.

 

[Clintaurus]

I put my leftover hops in a ziplock and squeeze as much air out as possible then just label the bag how many grams, strand and A.A. The yeast I use aprox 1/2 of a pack wether it be dry or a Wyeast. And the wort I swirl the kettle very hard and siphon out from the side. I generally get my full gallon without much Trub every time.


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[Hello]

I'm a fan of 1 gallon batches but cost, I am not on board with that. Sure it is cheaper but per unit, is it cheaper?

I intend to do a couple 1 gallon batches soon enough just for kicks after I start on some rice wine.

 

[adiochiro3]

I make 3 gallon batches and several things on the list are applicable.

^this^ is exactly what I thought this morning when I first read the post. I can brew a 3 gal. batch for $8-12, especially if I am harvesting yeast. I did a one gallon batch of perry and am disappointed with the small number of bottles.

 

[elkshadow]

^this^ is exactly what I thought this morning when I first read the post. I can brew a 3 gal. batch for $8-12, especially if I am harvesting yeast. I did a one gallon batch of perry and am disappointed with the small number of bottles.

I put 3 gallons into the fermenter and I usually end up with 29 bottles. I make big beers so my cost was averaging about a dollar a bottle but I'm getting a mill and vacuum sealer and ordering bulk grain and hops from now on. I was paying up to $3.50 an ounce for hops and up to 1.85 a pound for grain. No thanks when I can get a pound of hops for 14 bucks and bags for $50 off the internet. I harvest yeast but even with that I'm going to use dry when I can from now on.

Small batch for the win!

 

[Brewmenn]

I'm a fan of 1 gallon batches but cost, I am not on board with that. Sure it is cheaper but per unit, is it cheaper?

I intend to do a couple 1 gallon batches soon enough just for kicks after I start on some rice wine.

No there's no way that it's cheaper per volume of beer produced. But if's your worried about cost per unit volume it's probably cheaper to just buy beer at the store.

But if you're brewing for the fun of it and/or to try something different the ingredients and equipment costs for 1 gallon are much less than for 5 gallons.

 

[kombat]

I make 3 gallon batches and several things on the list are applicable.

Several, but not all.

It would take more time. More grain to mill, more time heating 3x as much water to strike temperature, more time heating 3x as much wort to a boil, more time to chill that much wort in a simple water bath, more time bottling. Bottling 8 bottles of beer is painless. Bottling 24 ... now you're talking about a serious time investment.

More money down the drain per batch if it doesn't turn out.

I couldn't do 3 gallon batches indoors. My stove won't boil that much liquid. It can handle the 1.75 gallons I start with for a 1 gallon batch, but there's no way it could boil the almost 4 gallons I'd have to start with for a 3 gallon batch.

The weight issues start to become a concern at that size, too. Lifting a 2 gallon pot of mash from my stove into my oven and back is fine, but you're almost doubling that weight for a 3 gallon batch.

3 gallon carboys require more storage space and are more expensive to buy. If I wanted to have 8-10 small batches on the go, the cost is trivial to acquire that many 1 gallon glass jugs. But that many quality 3 gallon glass fermenters (if we're comparing apples-to-apples) starts to become a serious cash investment and storage issue.

 

[elkshadow]

Several, but not all.

It would take more time. More grain to mill, more time heating 3x as much water to strike temperature, more time heating 3x as much wort to a boil, more time to chill that much wort in a simple water bath, more time bottling. Bottling 8 bottles of beer is painless. Bottling 24 ... now you're talking about a serious time investment.

I mill at the store. My brew day is 3.5 hours start to finish. Bottling takes me 90 minutes. If it's about wasting time waiting for water to boil why even bother?

More money down the drain per batch if it doesn't turn out.

I've been brewing since 94 and never had a bad batch.

I couldn't do 3 gallon batches indoors. My stove won't boil that much liquid. It can handle the 1.75 gallons I start with for a 1 gallon batch, but there's no way it could boil the almost 4 gallons I'd have to start with for a 3 gallon batch.

My stove boils the 4.25 I start with down to 3 with no problem.

The weight issues start to become a concern at that size, too. Lifting a 2 gallon pot of mash from my stove into my oven and back is fine, but you're almost doubling that weight for a 3 gallon batch.

This is a fair point. This is the main reason I do small batches. Moving 40+ pounds of hot liquid around is not happening for me. I'm not interested in buying pumps so I'm limited to what I can carry.

3 gallon carboys require more storage space and are more expensive to buy. If I wanted to have 8-10 small batches on the go, the cost is trivial to acquire that many 1 gallon glass jugs. But that many quality 3 gallon glass fermenters (if we're comparing apples-to-apples) starts to become a serious cash investment and storage issue.

I don't use glass. Too dangerous and better bottles are too expensive. 3.5 gallon food grade HDPE buckets from the restaurant supply store cost $4.50 and $1 for the lid.

I'm not knocking your 1 gallon system. Several of your points related to my small batches and thought I would join the conversation. I'd like to see more small batch brewers. I hear about "test" batches but nobody seems to be content with brewing a case or less at a time.

 

[BigAndo]

I'm in the one gallon club, although I think I might cook up a couple of bigger batches of a tried and tested favourite recipe.


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[BigRock947]

I'm not knocking your 1 gallon system. Several of your points related to my small batches and thought I would join the conversation. I'd like to see more small batch brewers. I hear about "test" batches but nobody seems to be content with brewing a case or less at a time.

I'm very content brewing 1 gallon batches. I started brewing 5 gallons then dropped to 2.5 gallons...now I brew 1 to 1.5 gallons batches and very happy that I switched.

 

[kombat]

I mill at the store.

That kind of kills the whole spontaneity aspect of the whole process, doesn't it? The nice thing about 1 gallon brewing is if I'm sitting at home on a weeknight, having finished supper and finding nothing good on TV, I can say, "Hmm, I feel like brewing. Let's go look at my recipes in BeerSmith and see what I haven't made in a while." Then I gather up the grains from my inventory, mill them, and get to work.

My brew day is 3.5 hours start to finish.

That's still longer than it takes me to do a 1 gallon batch, but I suppose not by that much. However, my time includes milling the grain.

Bottling takes me 90 minutes.

That's exactly what I mean, that seems like an awfully long time. If you don't include the time I spend waiting for the priming sugar solution to cool back down, I figure it takes me maybe 20 minutes to bottle a 1 gallon batch. I've only done 1 batch so far, and I only got 7 bottles out of it (I was still dialing in my volumes), but it didn't take hardly any time at all.

I've been brewing since 94 and never had a bad batch.

Maybe I should've been clearer, I didn't mean "bad" as in an infected dumper, I meant "bad" as in, fermented too warm, or I should have added more hops, or the malt profile wasn't what I was hoping for, ... that sort of stuff. The batches were still drinkable, I was just glad I only had 1 gallon to go through rather than 5.

My stove boils the 4.25 I start with down to 3 with no problem.

Well, that's great. Mine doesn't.

I don't use glass. 3.5 gallon food grade HDPE buckets from the restaurant supply store cost $4.50 and $1 for the lid.

Right. And 1 gallon buckets are even cheaper. But I ferment in 1 gallon glass jugs, so that's why I explicitely stated I compared it to glass so it would be an "apples-to-apples" comparison.

Don't get me wrong, I've done waaaay more 5 gallon batches than 1 gallon batches. But the reasons I listed make 1 gallon brewing attractive to me, under certain circumstances.

 

[Calichusetts]

I'm not knocking your 1 gallon system. Several of your points related to my small batches and thought I would join the conversation. I'd like to see more small batch brewers. I hear about "test" batches but nobody seems to be content with brewing a case or less at a time.

115 batches and going strong. I have some of the equipment to go up to 2.5 gallons, but I just don't see the need at the moment.

 

[Corey_SS]

I would prefer to have more bottles out of each batch, but 1g are still my preferred method of brewing right now. I still do 5g batches, but if I only did 5g every time I'd only be able to do like 6 batches a year. 1g is less efficient but I can do them almost any evening. Being able to brew more often is more important to me personally.

 

[beersk]

Being able to brew more often is more important to me personally.

This is the appeal for me. I brew 4 gallon batches on my normal system inside, but have been toying with the idea of brewing smaller than that so I can brew more often and have more variety. I'd have to bottle them as I currently keg my 4 gallon batches in 5 gallon kegs. But, going to smaller batches and bottling has had an appeal for me lately...it just seems so much simpler. So tonight, I plan to brew a 2 gallon batch of hefeweizen, ferment it in the 3 gallon kettle I'm boiling it in with the lid on (clear glass lid). It's been on my mind all day and I can't wait to get home!

 

[sumbrewindude]

... I'd like to see more small batch brewers. I hear about "test" batches but nobody seems to be content with brewing a case or less at a time.

Everything in the sig is a 12pk (1.5gal).

Not going to lie, some of the really good ones I wish I had done at least 3gal worth. :rockin:

Speaking of which, I really need to another series of recipes ready, this weekend is bottling and brewday!

 

[elkshadow]

Well, I stand corrected. I never knew there were really so many people making a gallon at a time and enjoying it that much. I guess I'm going to have to make my own "what I love about 3 gallon batches" list.