Scaling Ingredients for 1Gal Batches

For you 1-gallon brewers out there, how do you go about getting ingredients, considering most places scale their ingredients for 5-gallon+ batches (selling grains mostly by the pound, yeast good for 3-5 gal, hops sold by the ounce)?

I'd like to do some one-gallon brewing for experiments, etc, and because I don't drink beer fast enough to justify all the different styles I'd like to try, but I just can't wrap my head around using 20% of the ingredients I bought.

Go to an LHBS that sells grain in bulk and extracts by the pound. Hops keep in the freezer and yeast... well, over pitch your yeast and you can save dry yeast in the freezer. I don't see why why you can't use half a vial of liquid yeast and screw the top back on the vial and put it back in the fridge but I've never tried that nor read that you could. In any event, yeast is the most wasteful aspect.

Enoch52 said:

For you 1-gallon brewers out there, how do you go about getting ingredients, considering most places scale their ingredients for 5-gallon+ batches (selling grains mostly by the pound, yeast good for 3-5 gal, hops sold by the ounce)?

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Take a look at this thread for small-batch brewing. It should answer a lot of your questions about scaling recipes.

My LHBS sells down to .001LBS so not a problem throwing a recipe together for any size batch.

Does DME store well if I vacuum-seal it?

If you have a grain mill, there really is no issues when it comes to grains. I tend to formulate recipes with the lowest amounts 2 or 4 ounces of any grain. I do hops in grams and tend to buy 4 ounces of any hop (1-2 ounces in a brew and save the others for experimenting or to do it again.) I'll buy a few hops in pounds just because I use them so much.

Enoch52 said:

Does DME store well if I vacuum-seal it?

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Just spitballing here but I'd think if you vacuum sealed them they'd store as good as they do in the shelf in the LHBS.

What if I'm an extract brewer?

Enoch52 said:

What if I'm an extract brewer?

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Extract keeps for a long time. I imagine it must have limits but I always figured it's like brown sugar or honey; Keep it sealed, dry (*very* important to keep it dry) and out of the sun and you can keep it darn near indefinately. Someone fussier than I am will probably know the actual limits but can get a good several batches before you have to worry about tossing it out.

My LHBS sells DME in 1, 3, 6 lb and larger packages and LME in bulk. I really like LME in bulk but most brew shops sell them in vacuum sealed bags of set amounts.

I'm still trying to figure out how long open packages of hops last in the freezer but I've been told that although the alpha acid levels fade eventually (which is okay; you just use more of them for bittering) they can last up to a year.

Un-milled grains last forever but milled grains, depending on how stored, only last a few weeks (longer if properly stored).

So you're pretty good.