How to cook beer?

Grossy · Sep 28, 2011

I really want to learn the fine details of brewing. I have a few batches under my belt, but I really do not understand the underlining basics.

"What will be the outcome if I add .5oz of Citra at 30 minutes, while doing a full boil?" I want to KNOW what that taste will be before I do it.

And nothing beats experience.

So my idea is to brew small experimental batches in the kitchen. And I mean small.

What I would like to do is make a one gallon extract batch in the kitchen, and then split that into two 1 gallon glass bottles to ferment. A two gallon fermenter will mean more space, and therefore less batches (at 3-8 weeks a batch, thats a lot of storage space.) This also lets me experiment with more dry hop options.

This will also allow me the space to make my full size 5 gallon batches.

Here in Tucson AZ, I have to use a fermentation chamber so space is at a premium.

I have read Deathbrewers "Recipe Formulation & Ingredients Descriptions" post and it was a great source of information and I will start with that.

Any problem with making batches that small? Thoughts, comments, suggestion? :drunk:

BonnieJ · Sep 28, 2011

No experience here, but maybe it will be hard to transfer amounts from one gallon to five gallon? I mean, from what I know about baking, you can't always just double/triple/quadruple the batch without making some adjustments (especially salt!).

Maybe doing a batch and trying one thing different each time you make it, and only that one difference?

I'm just talking out loud about the way I think I might go about it.

h22lude · Sep 28, 2011

A premium supporter with 5 homebrewed beers in primary or bottles and the title reads "How to cook beer?" I was a little nervous about this thread lol but your question was not what I thought you were going to ask

Anyway, you can definitely make smaller batches. Nothing wrong with that at all. For us homebrewers, that is a perfect way to test recipes. I haven't brewed a 1 gallon batch but I have brewed a blonde ale and split that up after brewing into different batches and used fruit extract flavoring to see if I liked it. As long as your recipe is good, you can brew any size batch.

Grossy · Sep 28, 2011

Here is what Fermentation Fridge looks like, it is not a basement.

djfriesen · Sep 28, 2011

AFAIK, the only thing you need to be careful of is hops utilization. This does not scale linearly as everything else in the recipe does. I just got 1 gal batch of a 5 gal porter recipe in primary, and it is the first experience I have with scaling down, so I can't tell you for sure how the results will be. I left the hops at the linear scale reduction, as I had no baseline to compare to, and I hoped the likes of a porter would at least semi-hide/mellow something that was a little overhopped. If nothing else, it will age well while I wait for the hops to fade a little

I think you can fiddle around with your resizing in software like Beersmith to achieve proper IBUs and aroma. I haven't done this, so it's possible that the software will auto-correct. Either way, I think you will figure it out in the end. Maybe this whole hops question is the perfect topic to tackle with this experiment. I would be curious to see how things work out.

TopherM · Sep 29, 2011

I say just brew more 5 gallon batches. A 1 gallon batch takes just as long to make as a 5 gallon batch. I'm on about batch 20, and just started a few batches ago to really understand the ins and outs of what each type of grain, hops, and yeast add to the final taste. So, whether you do 1 gallon batches or continue with 5 gallon batches, you are going to get there.

Instead of doing 1 gallon experiments, I would recommend doing a few SMASH brews with only one type of grain and one type of hop. Do 2-3 of these, and you'll really start to understand exactly what the types of grains and hops you use taste like and what they add to the beer.

I did a Marris Otter/Centennial SMASH, a Pale Two-Row/Citra SMASH (best of the bunch, BTW), and a Golden Promice/Simcoe SMASH (I think Simcoe is my current favorite hop!), and now I know exactly what each of these base malts and hops taste like, and have been able to start formulating my own recipes from there by just reading up on the characteristics of various specialty malts.

Hope that helps. Good luck!