1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Im making my first small smal on Saturday.
2.5 liters.
Can we get a 0.66 gallon section too!? :D

I have enought beer to last me 4 months.
So desided to do some experiments wth new recipes. Just doing one small fermenter to see how much diffrent the process will be and to test the small glass jug as a fermenter. Future I can do 2 or 3 wth split dry hops or yeast etc. Will all still fit into my small fermenter chamber.
 
3 liter jar.Thats about 0.8 gallons.They were very cheap so didnt think to much about it. Not yet been able to get 1gallon container. Wth 2.5 in 3 i may get spill over. Why im only doing one and will be using a blow off tube and bt a air lock. Will also ferment a bit colder to slow yeast down a bit.

All in the name of beer and experiments!
 
A little trick to avoid excessive blow off is to extend your blow off tube about an inch below the stopper. It seems minor, but is the difference between 24 oz. or 4 oz. of blow off loss.
 
AZCoolerBrewer, you mean the blow off tube should be deeper inside the fermenter? I was thinking you want as little tube inside the fermenter.
 
GrimBrewer said:
AZCoolerBrewer, you mean the blow off tube should be deeper inside the fermenter? I was thinking you want as little tube inside the fermenter.
Click to expand...

Yes, the tube is deeper inside the fermentor. Here's what I think is happening. If the tube is flush with the stopper all the foam from the krausen is pushed into the blow off tube, but if you have an inch or so hanging into your fermentor, only the foam that happens to be pushed up into that discreet 5mm blow off tube gets into tube and escapes the fermentor. Here you can see the orginal level of the beer in my fermentor based on the hop residue on the glass. The current liquid level shows the loss due to blow off from an extremely active US-05 ferment. I would expect double the loss i.e. 8 oz. if I used a big front end yeast like S-04.

IMG_0519.jpg
 
Yea that logic make some sense. I've actually gone and reduce the length of my airlocks. I may just swap one out for with a unmodified airlock that would stick deeper into the fermenter. Or I should just add a blow of tube now.

How active is the krausen of saflager w34/70?
 
The only lager yeast I have used is WLP810 San Fransico Lager. When active and at lower lager temps, blow off was not as active as US-05. I used that yeast twice and didn't have any real loss to blow off like I do with ale yeast. I use a blow off tube for the first week on all my brews. A minority of my beers have not needed a blow off setup.
 
Krausen started to fall yesterday, Thursday, after starting to form at some point early Monday morning. I am using safale w-34/70 with fermentation temp set to 11.8 and 11.9.

With 2.5 Liter wort in the 3 Liter jar, OG 1.047, only about a 1/4 to 1/3 of the headroom was filled with Krausen. So at least with w-34/70 I don't have to worry about blow offs.

Using the method I read on Brulosophy.com with "fast lager", I've started to slowly ramp up the temp now, since large part of fermentation looks done. Going to take gravity tonight.
 
I regularly brew 5 gallons but have just recently bought a few 1 gallon jugs to run a few experiment brews in. I'd rather waste 1 gallon of ingredients verse 5 gallons.

Brew on! Cheers! 🍻🍻
 
I had my first go at a braggot this past weekend, will be the first time I am making a high AVB beer. Considering the cost of honey and the duration of conditioning a high alcohol beer I didn't want to go for big volume. I would rather have multiple smaller containers aging than fewer big ones.

Currently fermenting 3.3L (0.9gal) wort/must in a 5L (1.3gal) bucket.
Plan is to rack to 3Liter secondary glass jar.

Fermenting at 65f with US-05 for 2 days now and krausen still very low. I must still add another 8.5oz honey tomorrow, so will see how krausen gets affected.
 
I have a few packs of wheat beer yeast to use up. I'm gonna do a few 1 gal biab brews tomorrow. Two row, wheat and munich with cascade hops.
 
Does anyone have any suggestions for a better/efficient method to move the wort from fermenter into bottles? Right now I use a racking cane to move from fermenter into a bottling pot (with sugar) and then from there into bottles.

Is there a better/more automated method? Or a cheaper alternative to a 128 ukeg?

Thanks
 
Yep. I can bottle a 1 gallon batch in under 20 minutes with this method, assuming bottles are clean to start with.

You could also use carbonation drops and go straight from primary to bottle, but personally I like to set the exact carbonation level to match the style of beer. I think it's worth the extra few minutes.
 
MrG said:
Sadu: How are you setting carbonation levels? By measuring sugar into each bottle?
Click to expand...
No, I rack the batch into a pot (basically a bottling bucket with no spigot) then bulk prime with a measured amount of sugar (which has been boiled in a small amount of water). You'll want to be accurate with the measurements here as a few grams makes all the difference. Then stir gently but thoroughly and siphon into each bottle. Believe it or not, siphoning into the bottles with a hose is actually easier and faster than a spigot and bottling wand once you get the hang of it. If you use a soft silicone hose you just pinch the hose to control or stop the flow.

I'll use carbonation drops occasionally, but I'm of the belief that carbonation is one of the important elements to making great beer. Stouts just taste better with low carbonation, Pilsners and lawnmower beers I like a bit more fizz.
 
This is maybe an odd thing to ask in a one gallon thread but here goes anyway.

I have been brewing one gallon batches for six months now and will definitely be continuing to do so. Two of the things that attracted me to this approach to brewing were the very small amount of special equipment needed and the fact that I could try lost of different recipes.

However, I have found a couple of beers that I would like to brew in larger batches - 1 gallon just doesn't last long enough! So I am wondering how I might scale up without having to buy loads of kit that won't be used very often. At the moment I mash in a stockpot in my oven and use the same pot for my boil. My pot is just big enough for a one gallon batch but no more. I am wondering whether I could mash and boil a larger grain and hop bill in my current pot to produce a wort with a higher SG and then add cooled boiled water to dilute it down to a larger batch with the target OG?

Any thoughts?
 
Two ideas:

1. You could brew extract and steep grains, then top off before fermentation
2. You could try BIAB - just need a kettle (I have a 21 quart that I use for 3 gallon batches - $49) and a bag.

If it were me, I'd probably go with #2. As a matter of fact, that's exactly what I did. After about a dozen 1g brews (3 AG, the rest extract), I bought the 21-quart pot and a bag and I love it. You can still use all your other equipment - thermometer, hydrometer, sanitation, fermenter (maybe have to get a bigger one of these - another $30-40 or so). I was lucky and got a big mouth bubbler with spigot as a Christmas gift.

I'm thinking about making a couple of 1g test brews shortly. FWIW, I'll post my Dunkelweizen recipe here if anyone wants to have a go.
 
This is the scaled version of my 3g recipe. I haven't brewed it yet, so I'm going to do a 1g first. I currently don't have 3g fermenter space available anyways right now - a nice problem to have.;)

Der Rosenkavalier Dunkelweizen 1G

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: Dunkles Weissbier
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 1 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 2 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.020
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.006 (based on Safale 06 - would be 1.012-ish with Wyeast)
ABV (standard): 5.68%
IBU (rager): 16.5
SRM (morey): 19.84

FERMENTABLES:
1 lb - German - Dark Wheat (53.3%)
0.5 lb - German - Pilsner (26.7%)
2 oz - American - Aromatic Malt (6.7%)
1 oz - German - Dark Munich (3.3%)
2 oz - United Kingdom - Pale Chocolate (6.7%)
1 oz - Belgian - Special B (3.3%)

HOPS:
0.15 oz - Hallertau Mittelfruh, 60 min, IBU: 12.98
0.25 oz - Hallertau Mittelfruh, 5 min, IBU: 3.51

YEAST:
Wyeast 3638 - Westphailian (sp) Wheat
or, Safale WB-06 - Wheat Beer Yeast - not sure about pitching half a bag of liquid yeast....:confused:
 
OK, let's scratch that. I'm re-working the recipe to be a little more simple, and I think I'm going to go with Danstar Munich for the yeast. It ferments at a cooler temp than the others, but it's easier to control that with one gallon.
 
Sadu: Which calculator are you using to determine how much sugar?

I'm still using the BBS method of about 3tbsp/1 cup of boiled water which gets added to the one gallon of wort, in a similar method you're using.
 
MrG said:
Sadu: Which calculator are you using to determine how much sugar?

I'm still using the BBS method of about 3tbsp/1 cup of boiled water which gets added to the one gallon of wort, in a similar method you're using.
Click to expand...

Does that work pretty well? I'm getting ready to bottle my 1 gal wheat beer and I was only going to use 2 tbsp to a cup or so. I need a new scale so I can't measure out weight. Am just using regular table sugar.
 
@treacheroustexan: I find that it works well, but after looking at the BBS page, they say "Dissolve 3 tablespoons honey with 1/2 cup water"

I have had good results with that in the past with no bottle bombs.
 
Uncruliar said:
This is maybe an odd thing to ask in a one gallon thread but here goes anyway.

I have been brewing one gallon batches for six months now and will definitely be continuing to do so. Two of the things that attracted me to this approach to brewing were the very small amount of special equipment needed and the fact that I could try lost of different recipes.

However, I have found a couple of beers that I would like to brew in larger batches - 1 gallon just doesn't last long enough! So I am wondering how I might scale up without having to buy loads of kit that won't be used very often. At the moment I mash in a stockpot in my oven and use the same pot for my boil. My pot is just big enough for a one gallon batch but no more. I am wondering whether I could mash and boil a larger grain and hop bill in my current pot to produce a wort with a higher SG and then add cooled boiled water to dilute it down to a larger batch with the target OG?

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I ferment in 2 one gallon carboys and have done a couple big beers by scaling up my grain bill in a 3 gallon pot. I think you could do the same, but without the room in your pot you can't get enough water in to mash efficiently. After having done it, it makes more sense to me to buy a bigger pot. It does depend on what ABV you are looking for though. I routinely do 6% ABV in my 3 gallon pot.
 
TL;DR: I'm thinking I'm missing something, scaling a recipe down.

I'm new to brewing, with a couple of batches of 5gal under my belt, and am starting to play with small batches, going with 5/6 gal (because the recipes seem to divide by 6 easier than 5 :) ). I messed up somewhat on my first try, because when I scaled things down, I scaled down the water for the boil, and practically ended up with syrup until I was done. But after I stopped the boil (a few minutes early), I added enough water to hit 5/6 gal, and was half-surprised (and half-not) to find that my OG was 1.030, rather than the 1.040 that the recipe said to expect. Fermented, bottled, and it was quite tasty.

But I decided to try again anyway, this time with the right amount of water in the boil. Started w/1 gal, and only needed to top off with 2 cups to hit 5/6 gal in the fermenter. But, once again, OG was 1.028. So I grabbed a copy of Brewtarget, plugged in the recipe, scaled it down, and sure enough, it gave me the same scaled down recipe that I was using, but told me to expect 1.040! What gives?!

My recipe is the Palace Bitter from Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing. My scaled down recipe, for the fermentables anyway, is 12oz English light DME and 2oz Crystal 10L. (The original is 4.5lbs DME and 12oz Crystal.) Am I missing something obvious? I'm using Briess Golden Light DME, but that's what I picked in Brewtarget...

Thanks,
Dave
 
Thanks, AZ, that's about what I've come down to as well. I've ordered a refractometer, to be able to take measurements at various points along in the process, see if I can tell anything better. (Well, that and because I just need more toys :) ).

Brewing up a 5/6 gallon batch of Belgian Wit at the moment, first time I've ever tried that. Nicely surprised at the white wort (well, that *is* what wit means, right?)

Dave
 
Hi Guys, finally found a 1 gallon thread just about what fits me at the moment.
i am playing around with beertarget at the moment (Just starting out and might try beersmith in the future)

my problem is when i start scaling down the recipes, they end up with lower number of ag,bg,og,abv. I found out that when I start rising the grain bill, or reducing the water in the program will get me to target numbers.

Is that correct??
 
I use brewers friend, which has a feature to downscale a recipe.

If the efficiency of the recipe is not the same as the tool then your values will be out.

Are you doing all grain ?
The amount of water that you need to mash and sparge you can downscale, but water loss to mash-tun and boil off cant be downscaled. You need to learn this from your equipment and technique.

If you "Create from scratch", start with your new grain volumes :
1.Enter the final volume of wort, you want in your fermenter, into the tool: 1 Gallon etc
2.Set the Efficiency the same as the recipe you using.
3.Enter the same grains with ratio. 1 gallon from 5gallon is 20% grain.
You actually want the ratio of base malt and specialty ratio to be the same.
4.You should now have the same OG. It may be one or two point out if the grains stats of the tool is not the same as the one from the recipe.
5.You then change the efficiency to what you normally get and if you dont know, reduce it.
6.Now you increase only the base malt to correct OG, if you reduced the efficiency.
7.Dont worry about FG prediction as it differ from tool to tool with yeast and fermenting temperature you are using.
8.You grain bill volume will give you your staring boil volume. This can be downscaled from original recipe, but you will most likely lose more water during boiling, depending or you pot size, boil rate etc. So you can start with a higher boil volume for a smaller batch. Or you can keep topping it up. But dont go overboard. From experience you will learn what you loss rate is. Better to end with a lower volume that can be fixed. You will just have a bit lower IBUs from you hop.

Have top up water ready...you will most likely not hit your target volume.
Have DME as backup....if you dont hit your final OG.
 
Chugging along brewing small batches. I've been shooting for 1.25 gallons in the fermentor so I get a solid 12pack. But now that I am feeling confident in my brewing skills, at least enough to justify an increased equipment spend, I am considering the SS Brewtech 2.5g kit.

Anybody have any thoughts/ or experience with SS Brewtech? Either with their small batch kit or just in general? The kit is a chunk of cash, but I think it would be worth it.
 
AZBeer said:
Chugging along brewing small batches. I've been shooting for 1.25 gallons in the fermentor so I get a solid 12pack. But now that I am feeling confident in my brewing skills, at least enough to justify an increased equipment spend, I am considering the SS Brewtech 2.5g kit.

Anybody have any thoughts/ or experience with SS Brewtech? Either with their small batch kit or just in general? The kit is a chunk of cash, but I think it would be worth it.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I did after about 15 one gallon batches. Bought a couple 3 gallon carboys and a 4 gallon brew pot and off I went. Plus, I buy 5 gallon recipe kits and split it up into 2 batches. Brew the 2nd batch about a month later so I know what changes I may want to do.

Btw, you'll save lots of $$$ buying 5 gallon recipe kits vs 1 gallon kits.
 
Thanks Mikie. I pretty much just buy bulk ingredients and use my own recipes these days, but it might be nice to have some kit options.
 
Super rookie question. Stove top 1 gallon brew. During the mash do you keep a lid on the pot? I have done 3 all grains and everytime I have used the proper amount of liquid for the mash and the sparge and by the time I bottle I'm getting 6-7 beers. I assume I'm losing too much liquid to evaporation during the boil. Thoughts?
 
blaggard said:
Super rookie question. Stove top 1 gallon brew. During the mash do you keep a lid on the pot? I have done 3 all grains and everytime I have used the proper amount of liquid for the mash and the sparge and by the time I bottle I'm getting 6-7 beers. I assume I'm losing too much liquid to evaporation during the boil. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

What's your starting volume?
 

Similar threads

D
Small batch (1 Gallon) ingredients
Replies
8
Views
520
hotbeer
hotbeer
C
Best brewing system for 5-15 gallon batches
Replies
25
Views
2K
Ninoid
Ninoid
D
Looking for a Kettle
Replies
28
Views
1K
DuhokBrewer
D
D
First Recipe: 1 Gallon Maris Otter / Goldings SMaSH (Comments, suggestions?)
Replies
6
Views
523
Northern_Brewer
Northern_Brewer
spacey
First Time All Grain Brewing Mistake
Replies
13
Views
592
Bobby_M
Bobby_M
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top