Photos from first ONE gallon brew day...

[maltbarleyhops]

okay. im convinced. im going out today, braving the "snowpocolypse" and getting stuff for my maiden voyage into "pitcher batches"

 

[maltbarleyhops]

...and its chilin in the sink, notty soaking up. and it was a blast brewing in the kitchen again.

measuring hops was a bit different, never really thought how little a tenth of an ounce of hops was.

 

[maltbarleyhops]

grav a little off. shooting for 1.052 and got 1.048. im guessing that for some reason the smaller the batch the more critical...everything is.

 

[MetallHed]

...and its chilin in the sink, notty soaking up. and it was a blast brewing in the kitchen again.

measuring hops was a bit different, never really thought how little a tenth of an ounce of hops was.

Try measuring in grams (if your scale allows it). I believe it's more precise for the tiny measurements.

 

[DubbelDach]

Bottled my brown and hefe almost a week ago... I'll tell you... The one flaw in the system is that auto-siphons are too big for mini-buckets... They need to make a super small one. They do make a smaller one, but it's not THAT much smaller.

I used Carbtabs to bottle for the first time... Didn't feel like weighing out and boiling the sugar twice. We'll see how it goes! I got 6 bottles of the brown (had been racked and 2ndaried) and 10 bottles of the hefe (which I got more volume out of anyway...). maltbarleyhops: I think you're right, every measurement has to be more precise because there's not much wiggle room at these volumes!

 

[DoctorDuvel]

so for my second one-gallon batch, i went and rigged up a 2 gallon cylindrical rubbermade cooler for my mash tun, with a threaded ball valve, etc...much better than mashing on the stove

is it me or is mashing for these small batches no cakewalk?...i've really been missing the target temp., either i'm doing something wrong, or beersmith isn't very accurate at the one gallon level

i also have a stuck fermentation in my first batch from last week (used a stove top pot for mashing), so it's either bad yeast, or i screwed up the mash...

 

[Scottatron]

How do did you adjust the amount of hops you add to the batch?

Edit: Forgot to say that this is awesome. It is exactly what I am looking to do.

 

[maltbarleyhops]

How do did you adjust the amount of hops you add to the batch?

Edit: Forgot to say that this is awesome. It is exactly what I am looking to do.

i just divided everything by 5.

 

[Flomaster]

i just divided everything by 5.

so long as you don't divide by zero you should be good to go.

-=Jason=-

 

[maltbarleyhops]

dubbeldach: did your onies ferment out really fast? the blonde ale i did is 5 days into fermentation and is at 1.002!

im going to let it set another few days, but wow!

 

[Nowuries]

Awesome project! I've been wanting to do this for a while now and you've inspired me.

Do you mind sharing your recipes for these 1 gallon batchs?

Did you use dried or liquid yeast? I've only ever used liquid, but shiver at the thought of dumping 6 bucks worth of yeast into 1 gallon....

I get protein powder in these 1.75 gallon containers and thought about drilling the tops out for an air lock.... it should work. They are food grade and they cleaned up really well. No trace of the original smell.

 

[DubbelDach]

dubbeldach: did your onies ferment out really fast? the blonde ale i did is 5 days into fermentation and is at 1.002!

Yes, they were very fast, but I let them sit for 7 days before doing anything...

Awesome project! I've been wanting to do this for a while now and you've inspired me.

Do you mind sharing your recipes for these 1 gallon batchs?

Did you use dried or liquid yeast? I've only ever used liquid, but shiver at the thought of dumping 6 bucks worth of yeast into 1 gallon....

I get protein powder in these 1.75 gallon containers and thought about drilling the tops out for an air lock.... it should work. They are food grade and they cleaned up really well. No trace of the original smell.

I bet the protein powder containers would be awesome... Great idea!

I used dry for the brown ale and liquid for the hefe... I can't bring myself to use dry for the wheat beers. I bit the bullet and dropped the $6.50 in the tiny bucket... Oh well!

Recipes... I did a 45 min mash and a 30 min boil for both:

MINI-Nut Brown Ale

1.6 lbs. American 2-row
0.2 lbs. Crystal Malt 60°L
0.1 lbs. American Victory
0.05 lbs. American Chocolate Malt
0.2 lbs. Oats Flaked
0.3 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 30 min.
0.2 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 15 min.
Yeast : Danstar 3767 Nottingham

MINI-Hefeweizen

1 lbs. German 2-row Pils
1 lbs. German Wheat Malt Light
0.25 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh (Pellets, 3.8 %AA) boiled 30 min.
Yeast : White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale

 

[DubbelDach]

Another project I am doing involving smaller fermentors...

Stout Project 2011

One 5 gallon batch of stout, fermented and racked to five 1 gallon fermentors and assigned some juju,

Blueberry Stout:

Raspberry Stout:

Vanilla Stout:

Coffee Stout: (no pics... the coffee is still cold pressing)

Irish Dry Stout: (the control... nothing added)

Will bottle these in the next few weeks (just realized what a huge pain in the ass that's going to be!) and label them thusly:

All pics here.

 

[DoctorDuvel]

DubbelDach, that's SO AWESOME...yet another great idea!

 

[COLObrewer]

Great idea for something to do on the very bitter days when shop is too hard to heat. I think I'll use this to test my yeasts, got my mind scrambling now, I know I have a small round cooler somewhere, now what to use for fermentors . . . . .

 

[zman]

glad I found this thread again...

 

[Nowuries]

I bit the bullet and dropped the $6.50 in the tiny bucket... Oh well!

Ouch, but worth it on something that's flavor is yeast driven!
At least you didn't have to make a starter! :rockin:
Oh, and thanks for the recipes.... You rock..

 

[lumpher]

i wouldn't cut the normal mash times or boil times despite quantity. shorter mash times=more grain needed, not any big deal for a gallon. shorter boil times=less dms boiloff, = bitter beer. neat little setup, though

 

[dstebor]

This is way cool, small batches means more variety in the refer
although i'd probably stick to extract but wondering too about boil times and hop utilization diferences in small batches

 

[Grasslands]

I've got a ton of 1g jugs leftover from an organic Apfelwein batch I did last year...and I've got a tiny cooler too. This'll be my next DIY project!

Seems like a great idea for test batches.

 

[stokems]

this was a great post. cheers to you brotha!

 

[zman]

Couple of quick and easy additions:

Bottling bucket...

With dip tube. Only leaves 3 ounces in the bucket...

And I built the mash tun a dedicated manifold, of that will stay together and doesn't make me cannibalize my big boy manifold. Only leaves 7 ounces in the bottom of the cooler.

What size hole saw did you use to drill the hole for the bottling bucket? What size stopper are you using? I am assuming the dip tube is made from a racking cane?

 

[zman]

Bottled my brown and hefe almost a week ago... I'll tell you... The one flaw in the system is that auto-siphons are too big for mini-buckets... They need to make a super small one. They do make a smaller one, but it's not THAT much smaller.

I used Carbtabs to bottle for the first time... Didn't feel like weighing out and boiling the sugar twice. We'll see how it goes! I got 6 bottles of the brown (had been racked and 2ndaried) and 10 bottles of the hefe (which I got more volume out of anyway...). maltbarleyhops: I think you're right, every measurement has to be more precise because there's not much wiggle room at these volumes!

I have this one http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/mini-auto-siphon-3-8.html. I am going to use it to bottle some overflow beer that did not make it into the keg

 

[beetlbumjl]

I've got two, one gallon jugs fermenting right now (Left Hand Milk Stout clones). A few things I've thought about:
- Using a refractometer as their sample sizes are small enough not to worry about, even at this small quantity.
- I've had a bit of difficulty maintaining mash temperature as well, and thought about using the oven. The lowest temperature it goes is 170F, but I wonder if it would maintain a steadier level than the stove top.
- Fermentation temperature control, perhaps something involving a large igloo cooler?

 

[DubbelDach]

What size hole saw did you use to drill the hole for the bottling bucket? What size stopper are you using? I am assuming the dip tube is made from a racking cane?

I got a set of hole saws from Harbor Freight... There's like 12 of them in a pack for like $6. Great purchase! I think it's the 7/8" one, but I am not sure... I picked the one that looked snug for the valve I had. Not sure about the stopper... It fits the neck of a bottle (attempted beer gun build) and I had it lying around. And that is a hacksawed racking cane. Wear safety glasses - those pieces chip off pretty nice. And saw it at a slight angle.

I have this one http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/mini-auto-siphon-3-8.html. I am going to use it to bottle some overflow beer that did not make it into the keg

I saw that at my LHBS but didn't feel like it was that much smaller than my large one... Will check it out again. Thanks!

- Using a refractometer as their sample sizes are small enough not to worry about, even at this small quantity.

One of these days... $$$

 

[DoctorDuvel]

a piece of advice based on recent experience: do not use cooper's yeast just because you're doing a one gallon batch and want to keep costs down, it tastes pretty bad in the end (imo, of course)

 

[DubbelDach]

I have never used Coopers... Big Safale 04 and 05 fan though!

Sent from my DROIDX using Home Brew Talk

 

[maltbarleyhops]

well opened a bottle from my first one gallon batch, a nice blonde ale.

WAAAAAAYYYY to much yeast! i introduced an entire 11 gr sachet.

it tastes like yeast water, with a light hint of malt. donated the other 3 bombers of it to the sink drain trolls....sad sad day

 

[Nowuries]

a piece of advice based on recent experience: do not use cooper's yeast just because you're doing a one gallon batch and want to keep costs down, it tastes pretty bad in the end (imo, of course)

Agreed, used cooper's once in an experiment and regretted it. I couldn't get the fg down past 1.025 from an og of 1.050.

 

[DubbelDach]

Update on the Stout Project.... It's ready!

I added 1 lb of blueberries and 1 lb. of raspberries. The raspberry stout is perfect, the blueberry got lost. And I was going to add some blueberry extract that I had, but just forgot. Next time, I'd go 2 lbs blueberries/gallon and then see if it needed extract. The vanilla (2 split scraped beans) is wonderful. Going to try the coffee tonight.