Simple new small batch suggestions

[Hoppah]

Hey everyone, just looking for a good, very simple recipe someone could supply me to try for my first small batch of beer. I'd try any recipe...the simpler the better, since it's my first. Also only have an 8 liter pot (haha). Any suggestions???

 

[Immocles]

All grain?

I recently made a really taste 1G pale ale.

2.5lbs of golden promise ( could easily use 2-row)
1oz caramel/crystal 40L

.15oz Mosaic at 30
.15oz mosaic at 15
.10oz mosaic at 5
.10oz mosaic at 1

1/3 of a packet of us 05

Dry hopped .25oz of mosaic 3 days prior to bottling

Mashed at 149-150 for an hour. 30 min boil

1.054 OG, 1.009 FG.

or Extract?
One of my favorites when I was beginning:
I started by steeping about an oz of crystal 60L for about 20mins
20minute boil
1/2 pound of Dry extract at 20
.25oz falconers flight at 20
.125oz falconers flight at 5
1/2 pound of dry extract sometime in between here.
.125oz falconers flight at 1

1/3 Packet of us 05

Dry hopped .25 FF for 3 days prior to bottling.

OG 1.044 FG 1.010

Pretty basic, simple pale ales. But also tasty. You could substitute hops as you wanted. Those are just two of my favorites that I have pretty memorized. Cascade is always good. Azacca was a hit too.


https://beerandwinejournal.com/15-minute-pale-ale/

Also check out some of the easier looking recipes in the recipe section. Most of them scale down really well.

 

[Hoppah]

I have equipment from doing pre-made worts (23L), could I just use that for the fermentation or would the empty space be an issue?

 

[madscientist451]

I highly recommend this book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005U3UZ7U/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Its got 1 gallon recipes you can scale up if you'd like, with lots of instructions.
Get a BIAB bag from a home brew shop and start brewing!
Hint: use the strike water calculator from the Green Bay Rackers website:
https://www.rackers.org/calcs.
Once you get your mash going, skip the stirring and temperature checking, just wrap the pot up in an old sweatshirt and forget about it for a few hours or overnight. I use a smooth top stove and it holds the heat for a long time. When I started, I fussed getting the exact temperature and then I got temperature swings that caused problems with the beer. These days I just get the mash temp close, wrap it up and forget about it. If its too high, add cold water a cup at a time and stir it in.
Also, for a 1 gallon batch, you need something bigger than a 1 gallon jug for fermenting.
You really need to shoot for 1.5 galloons to get 1 gallon of beer.
Get a small plastic bucket and drill a hole in the top for your airlock or Walmart sometimes has 2 gallon glass jars that would be great for 1 gallon batches.


Here's a recipe as simple as it gets (not in the book):

2 lbs 2 row malt
(Advanced version: take another 1/2 lb of malt or oatmeal and toast it in your oven until it starts to smell like cookies or bread)

You can change up the hops if you want to:
.1 oz Amarillo Hops @ 60 min
.25 oz Amarillo @30
.15 oz Amarillo at Flameout
Optional:
.1 oz Amarillo Dry hop ( toss it in after about 5 days of fermenting)

Variations: Add minute rice or quick grits to the mash to make a lighter beer, add honey, corn syrup or sugar for more alcohol, add quick oats or shredded wheat (crushed) for different flavors....

 

[Immocles]

That might be a bit excessively. I’ve done 2.5g in a 6.5g, but a single gallon might be a bit much. Definitely wouldn’t dry hop in it haha. Use a gallon water/juice jug?

 

[madscientist451]

I have equipment from doing pre-made worts (23L), could I just use that for the fermentation or would the empty space be an issue?

Exactly what equipment do you have? Your 8 liter pot limits what you can do unless you run multiple batches.

 

[Hoppah]

Exactly what equipment do you have? Your 8 liter pot limits what you can do unless you run multiple batches.

I have a 23L carboy and pail with the tubing, stoppers, airlock, etc.

I'm assuming that I'd run in to problems with such a small batch in such a huge carboy?

 

[madscientist451]

Yeah, but if you can afford even a cheap pot you would be better off. At Walmart around here, you can get a cheap 16 qt pot for about $20. You can do 2.5 gallon batches in your fermenter with that.

 

[Leezer]

I also recommend Brooklyn Brew Shops book.
Little Big Mouth Bubblers are great 1G batch fermenters, they are about 1.3 gal size. I’ve put 1.25 gal in them to end up with 1gal, no problems.

 

[Hoppah]

Ok, thanks for help everyone. I got myself a 20qt pot and am going to do the 15-minute pale ale suggested earlier only I'm going to halve the recipe and do a 2.5 gallon batch. (https://beerandwinejournal.com/15-minute-pale-ale/).

Just curious about a couple things:

1) Chilling: I could stick in a snow bank outside with a cover on it or in my sink and put as much ice in as I can scrounge up. What would everyone suggest? What temp does it need to reach before pitching yeast and pouring into my carboy?

2) Yeast: Since I'm only doing a 2.5 gallon batch should I only add half the packet of yeast or will the amount not matter due to the finite amount of extract?

3) How long should it stay in carboy before I rack to be bottled?

**Sorry for all the newb questions but I haven't done an extract batch before and it has been years since I've even done a pre-made wort kit, haha.

 

[Immocles]

1) I would do a cold water/ice bath. My method was to cover the pot, and put it into a sink of cold water and change it out every few minutes (the pot will heat up the sink water rather quickly). After the second or third cold water bath, I put some bottles of ice around the pot in the cold water, changing them and the water out as well. It can take awhile to cool it down. If you're using us-05 yeast, I would pitch around 65-70F.

Another option is to start with say, 2.5gallons of water and going about the normal brew instructions and boil. I generally boil off about a gallon of wort during the boil. You could then cool your wort in the sink bath, and transfer it to the fermenter and then add enough cold water to the wort to get your volume. I usually preferred full volume boils though.

2) I'm cheap, so I would use half. I fold the bag and clip it shut, put it inside of a ziplock bag and stick it in the fridge for the next brew.

3) I'd say 2 weeks. It'll finish when it finishes. I've never done the "take hydrometer measurements 2-3 days apart and when it matches, you're good" but thats also a rule of thumb. Due to my work schedule, I end up leaving my beers to ferment for 3 weeks, but thats not common practice.

 

[Hoppah]

So, a bit of a disaster of a brew day for my simple pale ale. Realized as I was trying to get to a boil that my stove wouldn't be able to boil in that big of a pot so I had to split it, had a boil over during, needed a place to put first pot and only had carboy so I put it there but it is plastic and being the idiot I am it warped it like crazy and then I poured both pots back to the big pot for chilling prior to pouring into my large fermentation pail...wow, what a process for first brew .

It will be a miracle if this turns out to be anything resembling beer...

Should I rack to carboy after a few days to leave behind some sediment or just leave in pail for a couple weeks?

 

[Immocles]

Oof. Stuff like that always tends to happen the first few brews. You'll be ready for those issues next time and either have a plan for them, or a better process figured out. Process comes with repetition. Sometimes brew days get really, really creative in a hurry haha. I wouldn't sweat it, though. If it doesn't turn out exactly the way you want it to, roll with the punches and give it another shot.

I would not rack to a carboy. I'd leave it in the pail until bottling.

 

[Hoppah]

Oof. Stuff like that always tends to happen the first few brews. You'll be ready for those issues next time and either have a plan for them, or a better process figured out. Process comes with repetition. Sometimes brew days get really, really creative in a hurry haha. I wouldn't sweat it, though. If it doesn't turn out exactly the way you want it to, roll with the punches and give it another shot.

I would not rack to a carboy. I'd leave it in the pail until bottling.

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks and things seemed to have slowed down (nothing on surface of beer). How do I know for sure if bottling is ready as I didnt take a hydro reading?

 

[Immocles]

Lots of folks take 2-3 hydrometer readings over a few days to verify fermentation has been completed. I honestly never have, and I don’t want to give out bad advice but if my reading matches where I estimate the FG to be, I bottle it. I’ve never bottled prior to 2 weeks or longer than 3-3.5 weeks

 

[Hoppah]

Lots of folks take 2-3 hydrometer readings over a few days to verify fermentation has been completed. I honestly never have, and I don’t want to give out bad advice but if my reading matches where I estimate the FG to be, I bottle it. I’ve never bottled prior to 2 weeks or longer than 3-3.5 weeks

How do I know what FG should be. It was a 15 minute Pale Ale batch and I halved the recipe to do a 2.5 gallon batch (https://beerandwinejournal.com/15-minute-pale-ale/)

 

[Immocles]

My extract batches nearly always finished at about 1.013. Your OG according to that recipe would have been ~1.053. My math is always sketchy at best, but figuring around 75% attenuation should put it in that 1.013 ballpark

 

[Hoppah]

My extract batches nearly always finished at about 1.013. Your OG according to that recipe would have been ~1.053. My math is always sketchy at best, but figuring around 75% attenuation should put it in that 1.013 ballpark

Awesome, thanks so much man. Very much appreciated

 

[Hoppah]

My extract batches nearly always finished at about 1.013. Your OG according to that recipe would have been ~1.053. My math is always sketchy at best, but figuring around 75% attenuation should put it in that 1.013 ballpark

Last question, (I hope, haha). In terms of bottle conditioning what type of sugar should I use? I still have some leftover DME but I read that maybe it's not best to use that. Table sugar, honey, maple syrup? What would your guys suggestions be?

 

[Immocles]

I've personally never bottled with DME, but its among the many things you can prime with. Table sugar and corn sugar are the most common. Depending on how large of a batch I brewed, I'll either batch prime or bottle prime.
Bottling priming, funnel 1/2 tsp of table sugar to each bottle, rack the beer on top of it.
Batch priming, use a priming calculator and dissolve the sugar into boiled water. Add that solution to a sanitized bottling bucket, rack beer on top of that, and then bottle.

Priming calculator that I use: https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[Hoppah]

Ok, finally have it bottled and despite the disaster of brew day it seems to taste pretty good so I'm hoping it'll be good after conditioning .

Will 2 weeks be long enough or should I be aiming for longer?

 

[McKnuckle]

A patient and "best" approach is 2 weeks carbonating, followed by 2 weeks cold conditioning. I realize you won't likely last that long, so you can try the first one after only 24 hours in the fridge. But do understand that 2-3 weeks in the cold works wonders on most finished beer.