How Much Grain/Water to Use for 1-Gallon

[TimBrewer91]

Hi! I'm a newer brewer looking to make the jump from extract/AG kit brewing to developing my own recipes. My question is how much grain/water should I be using? I brew pretty much only brew IPA/APAs on a 1-gallon size (don't have much room to go bigger) and I'm just not sure how much grain to start off with which then makes me unsure of how much water to use for the mash & sparge.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I use the brewers friend OG FG calculator to get my grist weights. For an OG of 1.060 I would enter 1 3/4 gallons in the wort collected box and 1 1/4 gallons in the batch size box. Then I would select the different grains and amounts to fit the style until I hit the OG I wanted. For an IPA I might use
2.5 lbs. American Pale Ale
2 oz./.12lbs Carapils Dextrin Malt
4 oz./.25lbs. Crystal 40L Malt
OG 1.063
I usually shoot a little high with my grain bill so that if my efficiency isn’t great then I am still in the ball park for my style.
For how much water, I use the brew365 water calculator. For the grist in my example you would need 2.2 gallons of water for full volume no sparge biab.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I also use Brewer's Friend for recipe calculations, and for water.
For my 1 gal batches I use full volume no sparge biab. It's great.
The only water losses for me are grain absorption and boil-off. Once you measure those after your first brew you can set up your equipment profile and get accurate predictions on subsequent brews.

Brew on!

 

[Sparkncode]

If you really want to play with recipes and keep track of them etc a tool like beersmith is a great investment. A bit of setup/calibration required but once set to your process really conveniant.

Makes tweaking and scaling recipes easy

 

[Griffin495]

Do you know how much you lose to evaporation during your 1 hr boil? That is an important number. I lose .5 gallon when I do small batches on my stove. You might have different results.

 

[Druman07]

Hi! I'm a newer brewer looking to make the jump from extract/AG kit brewing to developing my own recipes. My question is how much grain/water should I be using? I brew pretty much only brew IPA/APAs on a 1-gallon size (don't have much room to go bigger) and I'm just not sure how much grain to start off with which then makes me unsure of how much water to use for the mash & sparge.

I do only small batches, and typically my grain amounts range from 32 - 40 oz, and the mash water is between 1.3-1.5 qts per lb grain. Sparges are between 4 - 4.5 qts. This gives me enough wort to compensate for evaporation, waste, and a taste sample.