My 1st brew was also the NB 1 gal Caribou Slobber kit. Active fermentation finishes quickly. My experiences with this recipe (or equivalent Moose Drool clone recipes) is that it's better when I let it set in the "primary' fermenter for three weeks. I also bottle directly from the primary fermenter.
The topic
1-Gallon Brewers UNITE! could be an interesting read over the next couple of weeks.
Observations on 1 gal carboy volumes:
- If you filled to the “ONE GALLON” raised lettering in the carboy, that is about 120 oz of wort and trub. Trub will displace around 8 oz of wort.
- Hydrometer samples will take up about 5 oz of wort per sample.
- Losses during bottling (including either starting the auto-siphon or left in the the auto-siphon) will also take up about 5 oz of wort.
When I occasionally ferment in 1 gal carboys, I always get a six pack (and typically 8 bottles).
For most of my small batches, I brew to a end result (12 pack) using a two gallon food grade bucket. I will scale the recipe to account for the losses I mentioned above.
If the goal is to maximize the number of bottles from a one gallon carboy, there should be a lot of information in "1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!" topic.