Taking a step up

[voltron6]

After using the Mr. Beer kit my wife bought me last month and getting mediocre results, I've decided to upgrade my equipment. Due to space constraints, and the fact that I would rather brew more often than brew more beer, I've decided to stick with small batch brewing. I have an oversized wine bottle (fairly thick glass) that holds just over a gallon and a half that I'll be using as my primary, and I have 2 1 gallon jugs for secondary fermentation. The problem is that the mouth of the bottles 7/8 inch- does this eliminate the possibility of dry hopping? And should I use a funnel to add the wort to the fermenter or should I rack it?

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Not sure how a 1.5 gallon bottle is an upgrade from a 2.5ish gallon mr beer keg. I'd primary in the mr beer and then transfer to the bottles for secondary so I could get another batch in primary. Just buy good yeast and ingredients not from mr beer to use in the mr beer fermenter.

 

[freisste]

After using the Mr. Beer kit my wife bought me last month and getting mediocre results, I've decided to upgrade my equipment. Due to space constraints, and the fact that I would rather brew more often than brew more beer, I've decided to stick with small batch brewing. I have an oversized wine bottle (fairly thick glass) that holds just over a gallon and a half that I'll be using as my primary, and I have 2 1 gallon jugs for secondary fermentation. The problem is that the mouth of the bottles 7/8 inch- does this eliminate the possibility of dry hopping? And should I use a funnel to add the wort to the fermenter or should I rack it?

Good for you. First question, why not keep using the little brown keg for small batches? Just build your own from extract or grain. Actually, one of the guys from my LHBS loves using his LBK.

Regarding neck diameter, you may need to use pellets instead of whole cone hops. But you can certainly use it.

Regarding the funnel, it will be great for going from the boil kettle to the primary where splashing and adding oxygen is good. I wouldn't use it to go from primary to secondary.

 

[Foosier]

Totally agree with Smokey. the Mr Beer fermenter is fine. Save your money and just get better ingredients.

 

[Foosier]

Noticed you are in Indianapolis. Check out Great Fermentations for your ingredients. If you are near the NE side they are really convenient and offer great service.

 

[prpromin]

If you use those, you'll probably need to dry hop with loose pellets. I can only imagine what a nightmare getting a little bag into (and out of) that bottle would be.

Small batch is just fine - check out the "1 gallon brewers unite" thread. Also, you probably have almost all the equipment you'd need to do brew in a bag - look at the BIAB sticky in the All Grain Brewing section.

One other suggestion - Home Depot has food safe 2 gallon buckets and lids cheap. Drill a hole, fit a grommet, and you have a mini fermentor. They'll be easier to deal with than the bottles and jugs. Might make your brewing experience a little better.

 

[voltron6]

For me upgrading isnt about increasing size. I'd rather have 1 gallon of great beer than 2 gallons good beer. I also believe that my LBK is slightly warped around the lid and not sealing. I just had a massive overflow on my double black diamond stout yesterday and it was leaking from more than the vent holes. The wine bottle was free (a gift from my mother a few years back) and I thought I'd put it to use rather than it sitting in the corner as "decoration".

 

[voltron6]

Great fermentations is actually where I get my supplies!

 

[ericbw]

Totally agree with Smokey. the Mr Beer fermenter is fine. Save your money and just get better ingredients.

Agree. Try finding recipes with DME and some specialty grains (steeping). Scale them down to 2.5 (or 2.13 I think is the exact amount). In other words, cut a normal recipe in half.

Mediocre results are not from the equipment. It's the ingredients and process.

I don't even think you need to spend that much more money on ingredients. Mr. Beer refills have gotten to be about $20 I think, and you can do a small extract batch for the same or less.

1. Get a good extract recipe with steeping grains. Make sure to add most of the extract at the last 10 minutes of the boil.

2. Control the temperature (low to mid 60s generally).

3. Keep it in the fermenter longer than the Mr. Beer directions. At least 3 weeks.

4. Use a different yeast. Dry yeast is good, even though there are fewer options. Coopers is decent super cheap, but avoid Munton's. US-05 and S-04 are a little more, but still cheap.

 

[voltron6]

Agree. Try finding recipes with DME and some specialty grains (steeping). Scale them down to 2.5 (or 2.13 I think is the exact amount). In other words, cut a normal recipe in half.

Mediocre results are not from the equipment. It's the ingredients and process.

I don't even think you need to spend that much more money on ingredients. Mr. Beer refills have gotten to be about $20 I think, and you can do a small extract batch for the same or less.

1. Get a good extract recipe with steeping grains. Make sure to add most of the extract at the last 10 minutes of the boil.

2. Control the temperature (low to mid 60s generally).

3. Keep it in the fermenter longer than the Mr. Beer directions. At least 3 weeks.

4. Use a different yeast. Dry yeast is good, even though there are fewer options. Coopers is decent super cheap, but avoid Munton's. US-05 and S-04 are a little more, but still cheap.

I just used s-04 for the first time. And 1 gallon really appeals to me because I can justify brewing more often to the spousal unit.

 

[ericbw]

For me upgrading isnt about increasing size. I'd rather have 1 gallon of great beer than 2 gallons good beer. I also believe that my LBK is slightly warped around the lid and not sealing. I just had a massive overflow on my double black diamond stout yesterday and it was leaking from more than the vent holes. The wine bottle was free (a gift from my mother a few years back) and I thought I'd put it to use rather than it sitting in the corner as "decoration".

It shouldn't seal completely. Otherwise, it might explode. Even with a different fermenter, you have to prepare for blowoff.

Use both!

 

[voltron6]

This is the bottle

 

[freisste]

The bottle looks cool. Personally I wouldn't use it because buckets are so easy (wide mouth is easy to clean, handle makes it easy to carry, etc.), but if you like it there is nothing wrong with it.

 

[voltron6]

Cool! I'll probably use it for a while at least. Just till I can convince the wife that its worth extra expense.

 

[prpromin]

For me upgrading isnt about increasing size. I'd rather have 1 gallon of great beer than 2 gallons good beer. I also believe that my LBK is slightly warped around the lid and not sealing. I just had a massive overflow on my double black diamond stout yesterday and it was leaking from more than the vent holes. The wine bottle was free (a gift from my mother a few years back) and I thought I'd put it to use rather than it sitting in the corner as "decoration".

Yeah, I understand. I agree with what you're saying. Plus, you wouldn't want to make 2 gallons of beer in a 2 gallon bucket - unless you liked to clean things up. I use mine for 1 - 1.5 gallon test batches. Sometimes I scale them up to 5 gallons, sometimes I don't. My overall point was that you could improve quality with another 5.00 of equipment that's super easy to deal with.

I never say that homebrewing saves me money - it doesn't. I spend waaaaay more on beer and brewing stuff now than I ever did when I was just drinking beer. Still - from where you are now (assuming you have a 5 gallon kettle), you can do BIAB for the cost of a paint strainer bag (2.00). With that, an all grain batch will cost you (on average) 8.00-12.00, depending on recipe and what you already have on hand.

Whatever you decide, I love the idea of re-purposing stuff I have sitting around, so I agree with your instincts.

 

[voltron6]

A good brew kettle is on my list of stuff to get. Regarding your comment on brewing costs, I'm reminded of something my friend said on my first brew day. "You can brew beer cheaper than you can buy it... you just can't brew GOOD beer cheaper! "

 

[voltron6]

Does anyone have a tried and true stout or porter recipe for 1 gallon?

 

[Foosier]

Volt. You can take a look at the recipe pages and scale most of those recipes down by dividing all ingredients by the gallon batch size. I've done this regularly and it works pretty well.

If you are looking for a nice cheap 1 gallon batch fermenter you can get 2 gallon clean Cambro buckets with lids from Zesco down on Capitol ave. I use one for small test batches and it works like a champ. Cost about 15 total for the bucket and lid. It also doesn't seal tight enough that you would need an airlock. (Sounds weird but trust me, the pressure of the co2 produced during fermentation will keep the nasties out.)

 

[voltron6]

Here is a recipe im going to scale down to 1.25 gallons... how would I scale yeast and what would be the most effective?
Malts Used:
American 2-Row Pale Malt
60L Crystal Malt
Debitterized Black Malt
Chocolate Malt

Hops Used:
Cluster

Yeast Suggestion:
Wyeast 1098 Brittish Ale
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale
Wyeast 1007 German Ale
Nottingham Dry


Not Included: Irish moss, priming sugar and yeast.

OG: 1.054 FG: 1.014 HBU's: 7.1