Small (1 gal) batch issues

[Sturg78]

Hello all,

I have been attempting to produce some cheap experimental beers in 1 gallon batches for budget reasons. I am 3 batches in and having some issues locking in my technique.

My first 1 gallon was a BIAB:

2.29 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 67.7 %
0.38 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 2 11.3 %
0.38 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 3 11.3 %
0.33 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 9.7 %
0.22 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 28.8 IBUs
0.25 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 6 0.0 IBUs
0.3 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 ml]

I mashed ~152 with 2.31 gallons of water for an hour and then boiled. The wort prior to and post fermentation was astringent I believe (or else VERY bitter). I aged it in a bottle for 90 days and it was still pretty undrinkable.

My second 1 gallon was mashed in a 2 gallon igloo cooler:

1.80 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 92.9 %
0.14 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.1 %
0.13 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 33.5 IBUs
0.13 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 4 25.8 IBUs
0.13 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 12.2 IBUs
0.13 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 6 2.7 IBUs
0.2 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast 7 -
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 8 0.0 IBUs

I mashed ~154 with .6 gallons of water for an hour. I did not have a manifold set up on the cooler so I ended up just covering the top with a strainer bag and dumping the wort into my kettle. I then added 1.2 gallons of 170 degree water, stirred, settled for 10 min, and then covered with strainer bag and dumped around a gallon out to top up my 1.5 gallon pot. Boiled for an hour. This one was just put into a glass jug to ferment but the wort tastes very similar to my BIAB beer. Either astringent or super bitter.

My questions are:

I am using Beersmith to craft these beers, is there problems with the program scaling recipes down to 1 gal batches? I ended up using 1 oz of hop in the boil and according to Beersmith got an IBU of ~75 yet if it is just bitter (and not astringent) then this is waaaay over 75 ibus.

I have used the same water for 5 gallon all grain batches in a 12 gallon cooler and have not had any issues with tannin extraction. As such, I don't think my water is an issue unless such a small grain bill does not affect the water profile as much as a 12# grain bill would. Is my water volume causing tannin extraction?

I have also noticed my yielded SRMs are much lower then the estimate BS has been giving me. Is this a scale issue as well?

As always, thanks in advance for the time!

Cheers

 

[ron,ar]

I have never had much luck using beersmith to scale down a full 5 or six gallon recipe to a 1 or 2 gallon batch. For me to get it right I just used simple math. If its a 5 gallon batch and you want a 1 gallon batch just divide everything by 5. A good scale is a must for this. The biggest problem is in boil loss, you have to plan for it and compensate for it. I have made some good 1 gallon batch brews and some not so good. But it is easy and quicker and can be done inside easier.

 

[acidrain]

A couple of things jump out at me...
you don't need to mash out when batch sparging. The only way to get tannins is if you are both above 170F and your mash ph is above 6.0 or so.
Try sparging at a lower temperature.
It is very hard for for the human taste to detect bitterness above 100 IBU's, so when you say the bitterness is WAY over 75, I wonder if you really know what 75 IBU's taste like.
On the other hand, one thing that doesn't scale correctly when doing simple division is hops... beersmith is very good at scaling recipes... I do it all the time when converting a 5 or 10 gal. batch to my 6 gallon batches. But I have no experience converting to 1 gallon.

It seems like your bitterness is astringency... either from boiling grains, sparging at too high a temp, or running sparge too thin making the ph too high.
Maybe your water contributes? Do you have hard water? Do you know your water profile?

 

[youreanimpulse]

What are the OGs on the beers? I get 54ish IBUs on the second beer if 75% efficiency, which should be on the border of fine to slightly bitter at that gravity. But much lower efficiency and that specific beer would be very bitter in my experience. It seems a bit sessiony, which requires lowered IBU ratio. Maybe try moving all the late additions to flameout. If this is a beer that the worked in a full batch with the same OG I take that back. But I do quite a few 1 gal brews for tests and they seem to scale up quite nicely. Never tried scaling down.

 

[Rev2010]

you don't need to mash out when batch sparging. The only way to get tannins is if you are both above 170F and your mash ph is above 6.0 or so.
Try sparging at a lower temperature.

You don't need to mash out but you still want to sparge with water that brings the mash close to mash out temp to lower the wort viscosity, that provides a better rinse for the grains - just like hot water rinses soap off your hands or equipment better than cold water does.


Rev.

 

[acidrain]

You don't need to mash out but you still want to sparge with water that brings the mash close to mash out temp to lower the wort viscosity, that provides a better rinse for the grains - just like hot water rinses soap off your hands or equipment better than cold water does.


Rev.

Total myth... been talked about and disproven with experiments many times.
The sugar is not granulated... it's already dissolved into the wort and just needs to be rinsed.
The whole purpose of a mashout in fly sparging is to stop the enzymes and lock in the malt profile. Totally not needed in batch sparging.