Small batch (1 gallon) BIAB

[HopHog87]

Hey everyone on the BIAB board, I've been really bit with the AG bug.

It started when I was looking for a new kit to brew (been about 6 months since my last/first 5 gallon extract) and ran across the Micro-Bru series of 1 gallon all grain batches on Midwest Supplies website.

I have since started a few 1 gallon extract kits which are bubbling away but I keep coming back to the through of doing AG on a small scale. After wasting countless hours on these forums (maybe not wasted ;-)) and going back and forth with "I am just gonna go all in and go full AG" to "NO, don't have time or money for that so stick with the small batch/extract stuff" to "I"m gonna do small AG batches BIAB style."

And that's where I am now. I've been out on the road last four days in which I've advanced some brew knowledge by reading "The Joy of Homebrewing," and literally hundreds of threads/tutorials on here and other brew sites. But I really, really like the idea of BIAB at a small (1-1.5 gal) level because I can use my 3ish gallon kettle and extra 1 gallon jugs for fermenting.

I'd like an honest opinion of if my method will work:

Take a relatively simple, yet delicious clone recipe for a 5 gallon batch and scale it back to 1 gallon by dividing by 5. From my understanding, usually scaling grain bills back is fine while Hops may be a different story. But I'll just have to try and see if it works for the hops too/follow some guidelines in terms of hop quantity from the extract 1 gallon kit instructions as reference.

I figured this GENERALLY (for most recipes) winds up with roughly 3 lbs of grain. So, if I want to calculate how much water I'll need, I will go:

.5 gal boil off/hr (from my latest 1 gallon boils)+ trub loss (appx .2 gal)+1 gallon (of wort)= 1.7 gallons

Then so as not to forget grain absorption:

3 lbs of grain x .125 gal/lbs grain absorption= .375gal

For a total of 1.7 gallons + .375 = lets call it 2.1 gallons

On brew day I take my 3ish (really don't know quantity as Im away from home and can't really measure it) gallon kettle on the stove top insert bag, bring 2.1 gallons of water to about 160-165 degrees and then dough in the grains, so as to shoot for 155ish temperature for approximately 60 minutes.

At the end of mash, bring temp up to 170 for a few minutes to mash out (does everyone mash out in BIAB?) and then bring bag/grain out of wort. Here is where I guess I could squeeze the heck outta the bag to get as much liquid as I can into the wort or have massed in less water and now place bag/grains in another, separate kettle with some 170 degree water to dunk sparge and then add that water back into wort (seems a bit more complicated), then discard grains.

Bring wort to boil (hopefully have about 1.7 gallons left pre boil), and carry on just as though it were extract kit and we'd just added the extract.

Does this sound doable for such a small batch and who has actually scaled 5 gallons (or larger) recipes back to such a small AG brew?

I know this is a long post but I am very interested in if I'm on the right track and wanted to be thorough as I know there is a keg of knowledge to be tapped on this forum.

Thanks.

 

[Calichusetts]

Looks good, pretty standard for BIAB. Good luck.

 

[RM-MN]

Lets make this simple. You might lose a little efficiency on this batch but you can make another batch to refine the process and get the efficiency back up. Forget sparging this time. Plan on a no sparge, no mash out. Find out the size of your pot so you know how much grains and water will fit and scale the recipe to account for that since you will be using the full amount of water. Bring the water to strike temp, probably about 161 to 162, drop in the bag and stir the grains in. I like to use a wire whisk to break up any "dough balls" and get the grains fully mixed in. Pop the cover on the pot, wrap it in a towel, jacket, sleeping bag, anything insulating and leave it alone for your mash period. Don't worry about heat loss or stirring this batch, just leave it alone.

When the mash period is over, pull the bag and let it drain. While it is draining, turn the heat on to bring the collected wort to boil. As the temperature climbs, squeeze out what extra wort you can from the bag and discard the grains. Watch the pot closely as it nears boil as your hot break will billow up tremendously and will want to spill over. You can control it by turning off the heat for a minute or 2, then turn it back on or you could stir the hot break to keep it from spilling over. Add your hops and continue the boil. Chill and put it in the fermenter. Add yeast and put it somewhere dark and cool (low 60's) for a week, bring it out to somewhere dark and room temp for another week or 2 and you have beer.

 

[HopHog87]

Thanks guys, it sounds like, while I've got a lot to learn through experience, I have the general idea. It's very reassuring to hear. Now I'll try it out!

 

[Puddlethumper]

This is a great thread. I've been wanting to make a few 1 gal. batches to try out some recipes I want to try and it seems that BIAB might be a great way to do that. A couple of questions for those of you with experience in this technique:

1. Will this method give a fairly accurate idea of how a conventional full-scale AG beer will taste following the same recipe?
2. For a 1 gal batch is it safe to just figure 1/5 of every ingredient including hops additions?
3. For a small batch what do you use for a fermenter?
4. Do you move the beer to a settling tank and/or cold crash as with any other batch of beer?

Thanks for any input you may want to share.

 

[HopHog87]

This is a great thread. I've been wanting to make a few 1 gal. batches to try out some recipes I want to try and it seems that BIAB might be a great way to do that. A couple of questions for those of you with experience in this technique:

1. Will this method give a fairly accurate idea of how a conventional full-scale AG beer will taste following the same recipe?
2. For a 1 gal batch is it safe to just figure 1/5 of every ingredient including hops additions?
3. For a small batch what do you use for a fermenter?
4. Do you move the beer to a settling tank and/or cold crash as with any other batch of beer?

Thanks for any input you may want to share.

1- This was my first All Grain batch and it was Brew in a Bag so I don't have any experience with conventional AG

2- That's what I did. I took a 5 gallon generic smoked porter and just divided by 5 for grain/hops. We will see how it turns out.

3- I got some of those glass carboys from Northern Brewer that come with a cap and a length of blowoff tube and airlock. About 8 dollars. I've heard from others you can use wine gallon jugs, apple juice jugs, etc. I guess if you can find a cork/cap and fit and airlock you're golden.

4- I plan on racking directly into bottles using an autosiphon from the carboy. I figure with only 1 gallon I wouldn't be able to use my bottling bucket and get every last drop?? (maybe someone could shine light on this subject).

 

[Puddlethumper]

1- This was my first All Grain batch and it was Brew in a Bag so I don't have any experience with conventional AG

2- That's what I did. I took a 5 gallon generic smoked porter and just divided by 5 for grain/hops. We will see how it turns out.

Thanks! That's a great looking batch of beer. Hope it turns out great.

 

[Calichusetts]

There used to be a small batch online brew store, I bought a 2 gallon bottling bucket from them, but you could easily make one. You can still use a larger bottling bucket, especially if you have a diptube. I used to rack directly to bottle but found it a very tedious process

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Hey everyone on the BIAB board, I've been really bit with the AG bug.

It started when I was looking for a new kit to brew (been about 6 months since my last/first 5 gallon extract) and ran across the Micro-Bru series of 1 gallon all grain batches on Midwest Supplies website.

I have since started a few 1 gallon extract kits which are bubbling away but I keep coming back to the through of doing AG on a small scale. After wasting countless hours on these forums (maybe not wasted ;-)) and going back and forth with "I am just gonna go all in and go full AG" to "NO, don't have time or money for that so stick with the small batch/extract stuff" to "I"m gonna do small AG batches BIAB style."

And that's where I am now. I've been out on the road last four days in which I've advanced some brew knowledge by reading "The Joy of Homebrewing," and literally hundreds of threads/tutorials on here and other brew sites. But I really, really like the idea of BIAB at a small (1-1.5 gal) level because I can use my 3ish gallon kettle and extra 1 gallon jugs for fermenting.

I'd like an honest opinion of if my method will work:

Take a relatively simple, yet delicious clone recipe for a 5 gallon batch and scale it back to 1 gallon by dividing by 5. From my understanding, usually scaling grain bills back is fine while Hops may be a different story. But I'll just have to try and see if it works for the hops too/follow some guidelines in terms of hop quantity from the extract 1 gallon kit instructions as reference.

I figured this GENERALLY (for most recipes) winds up with roughly 3 lbs of grain. So, if I want to calculate how much water I'll need, I will go:

.5 gal boil off/hr (from my latest 1 gallon boils)+ trub loss (appx .2 gal)+1 gallon (of wort)= 1.7 gallons

Then so as not to forget grain absorption:

3 lbs of grain x .125 gal/lbs grain absorption= .375gal

For a total of 1.7 gallons + .375 = lets call it 2.1 gallons

On brew day I take my 3ish (really don't know quantity as Im away from home and can't really measure it) gallon kettle on the stove top insert bag, bring 2.1 gallons of water to about 160-165 degrees and then dough in the grains, so as to shoot for 155ish temperature for approximately 60 minutes.

At the end of mash, bring temp up to 170 for a few minutes to mash out (does everyone mash out in BIAB?) and then bring bag/grain out of wort. Here is where I guess I could squeeze the heck outta the bag to get as much liquid as I can into the wort or have massed in less water and now place bag/grains in another, separate kettle with some 170 degree water to dunk sparge and then add that water back into wort (seems a bit more complicated), then discard grains.

Bring wort to boil (hopefully have about 1.7 gallons left pre boil), and carry on just as though it were extract kit and we'd just added the extract.

Does this sound doable for such a small batch and who has actually scaled 5 gallons (or larger) recipes back to such a small AG brew?

I know this is a long post but I am very interested in if I'm on the right track and wanted to be thorough as I know there is a keg of knowledge to be tapped on this forum.

Thanks.

To answer the question of "will this work?" It sure will...It will make beer! Just maybe not the exact one you were hoping for....my fist attempt at an ESB turned into a Barleywine....yea. I then started looking into the math of how to make things work. "How to Brew" by John Palmer has all the formulas you need (at least the print version). I do small batches (1-2 gallons) BIAB. It works pretty good. You just need to tailor the formulas to your equipment. If you want to talk more specifics feel free to PM me or reply here, I'll share some formulas.

Someone wanted to know about a good fermentor size....Brew Gadgets (based out of Michigan) has 2 gallon buckets with a drilled lid for cheap..about $5 I think. http://brewgadgets.com/

 

[Puddlethumper]

I was in Lowe's the other day and noticed they had 2 gal. paint buckets with what appeared to be a pretty tight lid. They were white so probably food grade. A drill and electrical gromet = 2 gal. fermenter for about $3. Amybody here ever try those?

 

[dstranger99]

The 1 gallons look like fun, but your spending the same amount of time when you could be doing at least 3 gallons of wort. Since you like doing small batches, get you a plastic carboy and toss 3 gallons in that sucker!!.......

 

[Puddlethumper]

The 1 gallons look like fun, but your spending the same amount of time when you could be doing at least 3 gallons of wort. Since you like doing small batches, get you a plastic carboy and toss 3 gallons in that sucker!!.......

Can't speak for others, but I'm currently serving out of 3 kegs in the keezer + a 5 gal. batch fermenting. I don't really need more beer. The idea for me is to make very small batches as "samplers". 6 bomber bottles should give an adequate sampling of a new recipe before committing to a full batch.

My concern is how "true to the recipe" the beer will turn out if I do a BIAB and only 1 gallon. We're introducing two variables into the process.

Cheers!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I do 2.5g batches at the moment due to limitations on the stove, but it provides me with enough variety to keep me from buying commercial. 50 bottles of the same thing gets boring even if it's great.

 

[RM-MN]

I do 2.5g batches at the moment due to limitations on the stove, but it provides me with enough variety to keep me from buying commercial. 50 bottles of the same thing gets boring even if it's great.

Not if you have 50 bottles each of 15 varities of beer, but it does tie up a lot of bottles.

I mix up between 2 1/2 gallon and 5 gallon batches with the favorite varieties being larger batches. That has let me leave some beers in bottles much longer and I've discovered I like some that way and some don't seem to be as good with longer time in the bottles. Pale ales don't improve much with age and at 3 months they are past prime. A good stout becomes really good at a year and phenomal at 2 years. I'd try the stout at 3 years but I'm down to one last bottle and I don't think I can keep my hands off it that long.

 

[BigRock947]

I was in Lowe's the other day and noticed they had 2 gal. paint buckets with what appeared to be a pretty tight lid. They were white so probably food grade. A drill and electrical gromet = 2 gal. fermenter for about $3. Amybody here ever try those?

I made a bottling bucket out of a 2 gallon paint bucket. Just make sure you run your drill bit backwards so it doesn't chew up the plastic...

 

[Calichusetts]

I was in Lowe's the other day and noticed they had 2 gal. paint buckets with what appeared to be a pretty tight lid. They were white so probably food grade. A drill and electrical gromet = 2 gal. fermenter for about $3. Amybody here ever try those?

Exactly what I have...just has a measuring sticker down the side for volume

 

[LabRatBrewer]

I was in Lowe's the other day and noticed they had 2 gal. paint buckets with what appeared to be a pretty tight lid. They were white so probably food grade. A drill and electrical gromet = 2 gal. fermenter for about $3. Amybody here ever try those?

Most bakeries (even the ones in super markets) will happily give 1, 3 or 5 gallon icing buckets with lids that have rubber gaskets for free. They work great and of course are food grade.

 

[Puddlethumper]

make sure you run your drill bit backwards so it doesn't chew up the plastic...

great tip!

 

[HopHog87]

This is all good information...I have already started 1 gallon of porter and I'm enjoying the BIAB process, however, I agree that perhaps scaling back this much might give me undesirable results due to perhaps magnifying small errors as the batches get smaller.

I think I will be doing some 2.5 gal batches in the near future or maybe even 3 gallon. I'm limited right now by brew kettle size.

What I wonder is, can't I just do the Mash with grain for a 2.5 or 3 gallon batch and then, once the grain is strained and removed, boil and then add top-off water to get to a full 2.5 or 3 gallons? AND, if I calculate the grain for such a batch, could I just add the water to the fill line (2.5 or 3 gallons) without worrying too much about it changing the O.G. of the batch? I.E. in the boil doesn't mostly just water come out and the fermentable stay in there so that when the top-off water is added it should be pretty darn close to the planned O.G.? I understand some guys do this using sparge water so it sounds pretty doable.

Thoughts?

 

[LabRatBrewer]

In case you haven't seen it, here is a great thread on small batch brewing (about 4k posts) https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/1-gallon-brewers-unite-311884/

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Can't speak for others, but I'm currently serving out of 3 kegs in the keezer + a 5 gal. batch fermenting. I don't really need more beer. The idea for me is to make very small batches as "samplers". 6 bomber bottles should give an adequate sampling of a new recipe before committing to a full batch.

My concern is how "true to the recipe" the beer will turn out if I do a BIAB and only 1 gallon. We're introducing two variables into the process.

Cheers!

Well, it can be 100% true to recipe.... especially if you make your own recipe. BIAB makes the same quality of beer as 3 vessel. Even if your efficiency is lower, you can always account for that in your calculations by adding more grain. To be true to the recipe, you need to take the ingredients, and calculate how much of each based on OG, IBU, and SRM (among other things)....if you "just divide by 5" it will probably be close, but not 100%....it will still make beer, probably good beer at that.

5 gallons is not the "be all end all recipe", batch volume is just another variable.

 

[HopHog87]

Well, it can be 100% true to recipe.... especially if you make your own recipe. BIAB makes the same quality of beer as 3 vessel. Even if your efficiency is lower, you can always account for that in your calculations by adding more grain. To be true to the recipe, you need to take the ingredients, and calculate how much of each based on OG, IBU, and SRM (among other things)....if you "just divide by 5" it will probably be close, but not 100%....it will still make beer, probably good beer at that.

5 gallons is not the "be all end all recipe", batch volume is just another variable.

So what app can I use to properly scale back to 1 gallon or even 3 gallon if that's what I wind up doing? I have beersmith on my phone and it has a "scale recipe" function although I find it very cumbersome to scale any recipe to a 1 gallon BIAB. Anyone done this before?

 

[Hello]

So what app can I use to properly scale back to 1 gallon or even 3 gallon if that's what I wind up doing? I have beersmith on my phone and it has a "scale recipe" function although I find it very cumbersome to scale any recipe to a 1 gallon BIAB. Anyone done this before?

Actually I just tried it because there is a recipe I am basically making myself of commercial beer and I am very unsure of the outcome. I entered in everything for 5 gallons, hit scale and tried BIAB (my equipment) and the ABV jumped from 10.4 to 15.7. That seemed weird so I just fixed all numbers until I got the ABV I was shooting for.

 

[Calichusetts]

If you convert the recipe to a % based grain bill, its not that hard to scale. I do my hops in grams for the ease of measurements, so keep in mine that there is a little over 28 grams in an ounce. I don't really scale 5 gallon recipes or do clones though.

 

[Puddlethumper]

....if you "just divide by 5" it will probably be close, but not 100%....it will still make beer, probably good beer at that.

5 gallons is not the "be all end all recipe", batch volume is just another variable.

I agree that the "divide by 5" rule will still yield a good beer but if it isn't true to the recipe it doesn't serve my purpose. And yes, I also agree that batch volume is another variable. I believe that was my point.

Cheers!

 

[LabRatBrewer]

I agree that the "divide by 5" rule will still yield a good beer but if it isn't true to the recipe it doesn't serve my purpose. And yes, I also agree that batch volume is another variable. I believe that was my point.

Cheers!

I believe the divide by 5 is true to a 5 gallon recipe. You need to take into account your boil off rate for the different pot, and as stated earlier hops in grams are much easier to deal with. A jewelers scale is only a couple dollars on amazon. Beersmith does a great job if you have customized '"My Equipment" to account for different pot sizes and varying efficiency (if any).

 

[Puddlethumper]

I believe the divide by 5 is true to a 5 gallon recipe. You need to take into account your boil off rate for the different pot, and as stated earlier hops in grams are much easier to deal with. A jewelers scale is only a couple dollars on amazon. Beersmith does a great job if you have customized '"My Equipment" to account for different pot sizes and varying efficiency (if any).

Totally agree with working with grams instead of lbs/ozs and I do have a scientific scale to use. Have never used Beersmith but perhaps I should give it a whirl. I've been using BrewTarget and it works pretty good for typical batches but I haven't tried to use it to scale a recipe down.

So you believe the recipe with BIAB will come pretty close to true as long as the boil-off rate is figured pretty close?

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Totally agree with working with grams instead of lbs/ozs and I do have a scientific scale to use. Have never used Beersmith but perhaps I should give it a whirl. I've been using BrewTarget and it works pretty good for typical batches but I haven't tried to use it to scale a recipe down.

So you believe the recipe with BIAB will come pretty close to true as long as the boil-off rate is figured pretty close?

Yes, I do believe that.

 

[Calichusetts]

Hopefully by now you have a pretty good idea what your boil off is so you can nail your system down. If you stay consistent with your water/grain ratio and sparging rates you should be fine. I always do a little extra in my sparge (say a 1.5 qt-to-pound ratio.) You can always boil longer and it should only be 10-20 minutes.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Hopefully by now you have a pretty good idea what your boil off is so you can nail your system down. If you stay consistent with your water/grain ratio and sparging rates you should be fine. I always do a little extra in my sparge (say a 1.5 qt-to-pound ratio.) You can always boil longer and it should only be 10-20 minutes.

Great point.

Planning to do this on the stove-top in the kitchen instead of setting up the whole brewing rig in the garage. That introduces a few more variables

Right now I'm gathering up the materials to take a stab at making a batch. Do most of you guys use a paint strainer bag for this?

 

[HopHog87]

Great point.

Planning to do this on the stove-top in the kitchen instead of setting up the whole brewing rig in the garage. That introduces a few more variables

Right now I'm gathering up the materials to take a stab at making a batch. Do most of you guys use a paint strainer bag for this?

Again, I've got limited experience with the technique but, yes. I went to Lowes and bought a 5 gallon paint strainer bag. 2 pack for something like 3 bucks. Worked perfectly and fit well around the top of my kettle.

 

[smyrnaquince]

So what app can I use to properly scale back to 1 gallon or even 3 gallon if that's what I wind up doing? I have beersmith on my phone and it has a "scale recipe" function although I find it very cumbersome to scale any recipe to a 1 gallon BIAB. Anyone done this before?

I use the BIABacus from biabrewer.info. It scales, adjusts hops properly for IBU, estimates boil-off based on pot dimensions, and even estimates efficiency based on the OG of the recipe.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[monkeyman1000]

I will second the Biabacus.

 

[Puddlethumper]

I use the BIABacus from biabrewer.info. It scales, adjusts hops properly for IBU, estimates boil-off based on pot dimensions, and even estimates efficiency based on the OG of the recipe.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Thanks for the link! Hadn't run across that site and it has a ton of info. Think I need to spend a few hours there now.

Cheers!

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

I was in Lowe's the other day and noticed they had 2 gal. paint buckets with what appeared to be a pretty tight lid. They were white so probably food grade. A drill and electrical gromet = 2 gal. fermenter for about $3. Amybody here ever try those?

Ok, so I did a little research, and what I learned is that most HDPE buckets are good to use (they have the "2" inside the triangle). Lows does sell 5 gallon HDPE buckets that would be fine to primary in for small batches, as the C02 produced would take up the headroom. If you secondary, you want to use glass anyway. I'm going to pick some up soon for my 3-4 gallon batches.

 

[smyrnaquince]

There are multiple threads in the "All Grain & Partial Mash Brewing" forum about not needing a secondary for most beers.

For a smaller, food-grade bucket, go to your local voc-tech (with a bakery) or a bakery. Frosting comes in 3- and 4-gallon buckets. I've also gotten 2-gallon buckets from them, as well.

 

[divrguy]

Can't speak for others, but I'm currently serving out of 3 kegs in the keezer + a 5 gal. batch fermenting. I don't really need more beer. The idea for me is to make very small batches as "samplers". 6 bomber bottles should give an adequate sampling of a new recipe before committing to a full batch.



My concern is how "true to the recipe" the beer will turn out if I do a BIAB and only 1 gallon. We're introducing two variables into the process.



Cheers!

I think they turn out nearly identical. IMO. I love doing all sizes from 1 and up. Don't let anyone sway you any different. It's a great way to test new recipes..test hops and grains...have a few on hand of a beer you can only have a few of.. And many more. The argument about it taking as much time as a big batch is just BS too. I can do an all grain 1 gallon batch pretty darn quick and the best part of it is I get to brew more often and I love brewing as much as drinking the result!


Cheers!