OMG Please Help Noawh!!!

[ViperMan]

Lol... Wonder what kind of attention that title will get me...?

HERE'S MY PROBLEM... I'm enjoying home-brewing WAY too much and my mind is just FLOODING with ideas - raspberry wheats, coffee hazelnut ales, cerveza clones...

But I can't keep throwing a 5-gallon brew into a bucket everytime a brain-fart gets out of control. I've drank more beer since Christmas (when I bought my starter kit from Brewer's Best) then I have the 10 years since I turned 21 ('cause I CERTAINLY didn't drink before then... ) Believe me - I'm starting to feel it...

So how would one go about making, say, one-gallon-batches? I do understand that since I normally boil about a three-gallon batch and then "dilute" it to 5, some unique chemistry happens, especially in regards to the hops. If I did some one-gallon batches, it'd basically be a full-boil. Would Beersmith help me determine the measurements at one-gallon boils to keep the final product in "check"? Has anyone else ever tried this?

BTW This site has been awesome and I'm very thankful to those who have lended their expertise to me.

 

[gingervitis]

Absolutely people do small batches all the time. Use a recipe calculator to help you out and you'll be able to use the equipment you already have (it just won't be as full).

 

[Caboose]

I agree this site is amazing! Im honestly not sure at all how to do a 1 gallon batch but Im in the same boat. I need to start testing in 1 gal batches instead of 5 gal ones!

 

[Gatoreye]

Instead of using all that math to produce one pallon batches just send me four gallons of every beer you make......of course I'll help on the shipping.


Problem solved :rockin:

 

[Homercidal]

I was in your shoes at one time, grasshopper. I wanted to brew many more, smaller batches. But I found that the work was about the same, so now I focus on doing a better job with the batches I do brew.

I would not advise going less than 2.5 gallons. Just scale everything down. It's not rocket science. Have you tried Beersmith? It can scale recipes down and help you tune in your own recipe.

 

[Nreg]

Note: I have not attempted this.........yet, but , Here's an idea: make a 5 gallon batch of wort then seperate the wort out into 5 seperate 1 gallon containers. At that point you could do 5 variations in one style of beer. Experiment with adjuncts, dry hopping, yeast strains or even add variations in a reboil. That way you could do taste comparisons within a relative shorter timeframe and see how sensitive your palate is. Granted, this would take more time in the beginning but the pay off would be very interesting.

 

[JohnTheBrewist]

I usually do 10 gallon batches, but I've come to like doing 1.25 gallon batches just for fun. I use brew target to calculate my recipes(AG), and they come out fine. I do 1.25 gallons so I get a 12 pack out of it. I also think that doing small batches is an easy way for beginners to step into all grain without additional equipment. Check out the 1 gallon all grain kits at brooklynbrewshop, and watch their videos, you'll see how easy it is.

Moose

 

[ViperMan]

I usually do 10 gallon batches, but I've come to like doing 1.25 gallon batches just for fun. I use brew target to calculate my recipes(AG), and they come out fine. I do 1.25 gallons so I get a 12 pack out of it. I also think that doing small batches is an easy way for beginners to step into all grain without additional equipment. Check out the 1 gallon all grain kits at brooklynbrewshop, and watch their videos, you'll see how easy it is.

Moose

I like this idea... I'm not worried about how LONG the brewing process takes - I'm just trying to avoid having tons of 5-gallon buckets sitting around, having to buy multiple cases of bottles, etc etc etc... Having a few 12-packs of various brews around sounds like a really good idea.

It's all in the interest of saving some money while trying to protect my waist-line!

 

[Revvy]

There is a ton of small batch threads on here, iA little searching would net you all the info you need.

You can brew any sized batch you want. I do a lot of 2.5 gallon recipe test batches. You can even do 1 gallon AG brews. The basic brewing guys call that the six pack brew.

A recipe is scalable, so a 1 gallon recipe is 1/5th of a 5 gallon one....a 2.5 gallon one is half the ingredients.

2.5 gallons is one case of beer.

I use my normal 5 gallon mash tun for most of them, but I do a lot of Experiments, test recipes, or beers that I know I won't need/want more than a case of.

I sometimes use an unmodified 2 gallon cooler for a lot of my small btaches it holds up to 4 pounds of grain.

I just us a folding steamer in the bottom along with a grain bag. Just break off or unscrew the center post.

One of these, it helps to lift the grain bag above the spigot to keep the drainig from getting stuck.

I posted a lot of info in the mr beer thread that you may find helpful.

I posted some all grain small batchrecipes here, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/785533-post702.html

ANd a bit of a primer on AG with pics here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/738927-post659.html

But I mostly use my regular 5 gallon cooler mash tun which holds 14 pounds of grains...and 14 pounds of grain for a 2.5 gallon batch can be a mighty big beer.....


One of our memebers chubbykid had plans for a minikeg mashtun http://sites.google.com/site/chubbykidhomebrew/Home/equipment/mini-keg-lauter-tun

THe basic brewing radio guys are big fans of tiny batch brewing...3/4 gallon (1 6pack) in a 1 gallon winejug fermenter.

They demo the 6-pack IPA here

[ame]http://en.sevenload.com/shows/Basic-Brewing/episodes/PERGFAJ-01-12-06-Basic-Brewing-Video-A-Six-Pack-of-IPA[/ame]

and they also have done barleywines as well.

I ferment my 2.5 gallon batches in all manner of things, I have a 3 gallon better bottle, I also use 3 gallon water jugs, AND my old Mr Beer keg (it's perfect because you can even lager in your own fridge with it when you are starting out.)

You can even ferment a 2.5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy if you want, though I would say a 6.5 gallon carboy is a little too much headspace for my confort.

Hope this helps....any more questions feel free to ask...But look through ALL THE OTHER INFO first and I bet you, you won't HAVE any other questions. This has been thoroughly covered like just about everything else.

Oh, and you don't have to do anything with hops in terms of hop utilization, except scale it in the same proportion, as you do your grain. Nothing else.

 

[Adamb258]

I used beeralchemy to help formulate 2.5 gallon batches, which is the perfect size for me.

 

[JohnTheBrewist]

I use that same 2 gal cooler as my mash tun, but I've been lining it with a paint strainer bag. I like the steamer idea, may have to give that a try next time. I'm also using 2 gallon buckets from home depot as fermenters, just added spigots to them so I can use the same bucket for bottling, and an airlock.

Moose