Kit for Tiny Batches?

[Clint Yeastwood]

Being a violent rustic, I have more than one ammunition scale, so I should be okay.

 

[hotbeer]

You can ferment in any sort of container you can put a lid or stopper in and make a hole for a blow off tube or airlock. I've even wondered about using bladders from something like a camel back or those hot fill bags they make for no-chill brewing.

One gallon jug won't quite have enough headspace for one gallon of beer. 8 to 9 12 fl. oz. bottles was my average. 5 liters size container works better if you have to have at least one gallon of beer. Then you can count on at least 10 bottles.

Hop amounts can be trouble to weigh such small amounts. So get a scale that reads to the 100th of a gram (0.01) and then it'll probably do well for tenths of a gram (0.1). I got one off of Amazon for about 15 bucks.

And a kitchen scale that weighs in grams or pounds works for malts and water.

As another suggested earlier, BIAB works really well with small all-grain recipes. And most anything can be the bag. Even a small hop sock.

Hydrometer readings during the ferment period are really just for ones own comfort. IMHO! If you are patient and wait for the beer to clear, then it'll be long past the time it reached FG. And if you wish to know you can take one at bottling time if you remember to do it before you add priming sugar.

That being said, I do use a RaptPill now. However I did make many a batch of beer and never checked SG but twice. Once for OG and then FG at bottling time. A Tilt or i-spindle is pretty much the same. Or a refractometer will let you use just a drop.

 

[Drewch]

You can ferment in any sort of container you can put a lid or stopper in and make a hole for a blow off tube or airlock ... One gallon jug won't quite have enough headspace for one gallon of beer....

But you can buy a gallon jug of apple juice, drink one glass, and then make cider out of the remainder directly in the jug. It's slightly less than a gallon, but it's very convenient.

 

[Rish]

5 liters size container works better

5L Carlo Rossi wine jug is what I use!

 

[InspectorJon]

I've found that really small batches just don't have enough thermal mass to hold temp as well as a 5+ gallon batch — even with a towel or blanket.

Some ovens have a Keep Warm setting that can help you hold mash temp (warm it up and then turn it off before putting the kettle in) — you get a lot less temp drop when your ambient temp is like 150F.

My oven has a minimum temperature setting of 170 F. I find that a 20 quart pot is a good mash kettle for smaller batches and a 5 gallon paint strainer for BIAB. With the pot covered and in the oven on that low setting there is very little mash temperature fluctuation over an hour.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Dude, I occasionally make 0.25-gallon batches in an asparagus steamer and the world’s smallest Wilser bag.

0.25 gallons? Really? That's not an actual Wilser bag, he just sent you his old athletic supporter.

 

[IslandLizard]

I wonder if you could fit the tiny mash tun into something like a water bath canning pot along with a sous vide heater to maintain the temperature. I think I'll try this for my next 1 gallon batch, because I agree that it's hard to maintain a stable mash temp.

Good idea! It should keep it close enough.

Similarly, back in my partial mash days, putting the mash pot (or pots) with lid inside a pre-warmed but turned-off oven worked very well.
I'd check the temp after 15-20' and if needed give it a little boost on the stove, then back into the oven.

Now you may need to tweak the oven temp setting a bit, those oven thermostats aren't all that precise I noticed, and many don't go lower than 175F.

 

[AlexKay]

0.25 gallons? Really? That's not an actual Wilser bag, he just sent you his old athletic supporter.

Hey, it’s pre-boil, no problem.

 

[Bobby_M]

It's not impossible to make tiny batches but just be aware that it's more difficult. You have to be extremely precise in your measurements if you want to have any hope of successfully scaling up to larger sizes. Weigh your hop additions with a scale accurate to .1 gram at most.