1 gallon batches

[Chris_1984]

I'm going to be making a 40 pinter later on this week but i have 2x1 gallon carboys lying around which I haven't used since the Great Turbo-Perry Explosion of February. Has anyone tried doing 1 gallon batches of beer? If so, can you give me any tips?
I presume the method will be more AG than anything else... not fussed what i make; would just like to experiment.

 

[Vossy1]

Has anyone tried doing 1 gallon batches of beer? If so, can you give me any tips?

Do a search on the internet for mini mash. They're very popular for trying ingredients you're unsure of, saves making a lot of beer you wont like

 

[Chris_1984]

Thanks for pointing me towards mini-mashing but i'm struggling to find specific guidelines for 1/2 gallon batches...

 

[Pinck]

At that size, a brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) technique is going to be your best bet. There are various calculators our there on the web for BIAB that would let you adjust your batch size, etc.

 

[dennisdk2000]

I am getting ready to brew my first beer, I'm making it AG and a 1 gallon batch. I have limited space and fancy experimenting, but wasn't sure about brewing small batches. Then during a trip to NYC I came across Brooklyn BrewShop's Beer Making Shop, and it's based on making 1 gallon batches. So that was me sorted! My first brew will be a Chocolate & Maple Porter, but when I started ordering grains, I decided to pick my most favourite recipes and get it all in one go to save on postage - so I ended up with a list of five! I could have picked more, but restrained myself! As the book is American, you will have to convert to Imperial gallons, but that's not a problem. As disgussed in another thread on this forum, scaling down means that you'd have to be pretty accurate to recreate a 5 gallon recipe as a 1 gallon brew, but it sounds like you're about experimenting, and scaling up poses much less of a problem! I'm going to be a bit more fancy when I do my 1 gallon brews than the method described in the Beer Making Book, just because I can!
Once my set-up is done I'll share some pics!

Good luck, let me know how you get on!

Dennis

 

[Swift Pint]

I'd not heard of the Brooklyn BrewShop until just now. Thats quite a neat idea is that.

 

[Chris_1984]

Will do, Dennis. I got pointed towards hopville.com - it has a beer calculator so you can test & see what happens before you brew.
Right, this is what I'm going to try as a 1 gallon batch:

1kg Youngs Beer Enhancer
500g Muntons MME

8-9oz Golden Promise
Either Aramis or Cascade hops - i might try both
Muntons Premium Yeast

...and see what i get!

 

[storm in a teacup]

I do loads of small batches using a 5L bucket and some of the bits I had left over from making my larger mashtun. The only problem I have found is that if you make something you really like then it's gone in one session. I haven't scaled any of my small batches up yet as I mostly use it to experiment with. :drink:

 

[Chris_1984]

I know I have to buy the grain (ebay is the cheapest i've seen for the amount i'll be making) but i think i'll require some sort of grain bag - anyone seen anything cheaper than £7.50 + free p&p on ebay?

 

[Vossy1]

All grain batches are only limited in size by your imagination :lol: We did a forum brew a long time ago where we only used items readily available in your kitchen, I kept my grain warm in the oven :whistle: ...I'll try and find the link

 

[Chris_1984]

Vossy (or anyone else) - can I use these instead of buying from ebay?

H&B Rye Flakes
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/ ... =433&sid=0

or

H&B Barley Flakes
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/ ... =433&sid=0


Use this as my grain?

 

[dennisdk2000]

Vossy (or anyone else) - can I use these instead of buying from ebay?

H&B Rye Flakes
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/ ... =433&sid=0

or

H&B Barley Flakes
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/ ... =433&sid=0


Use this as my grain?

If you are asking if you can use this for your malt, then the answer is no, and the explanation is simply because the grain isn't malted! If your recipe calls for rye flakes or barley flakes, then I'd say 'Why not?!' You can even malt your own grain, but I think that's fairly involved and complicated!

Dennis

 

[Chris_1984]

Cheers there, Dennis, for saving me from making a schoolboy error.
I've been taking a look at the malt grains on ebay - there's whole/crushed/lager - i assume the crushed malt requires no extra grinding on my behalf?

 

[dennisdk2000]

That's right. I wouldn't bother with whole grain, unless you want to use a speciality grain that only comes unmilled. Besides, most shops have the option to mill your grain for you if they sell unmilled grains.

As for reasonably priced grain, have to checked out The Homebrew Company, who sponsors this forum? I'm fortunate to have a local HB store with very reasonable prices, a great selection of porducts, and who are helpful getting in stuff specially, but none-the-less I bought a load of grain and bits from them. They do a flat-rate delivery, which is why I decided to buy the ingredients for five(!) different brews I fancy doing! I was even tempted to get myself some MiniKegs, but some bits were sold out and I didn't in the end.

But I digress! The point is, buy crushed/milled grain and save yourself some work!

Dennis

 

[Laurin]

The home brew shop is definitely a good choice and they offer most grains as 500g bags.

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... rains.html

 

[Chris_1984]

Thanks Dennis - ordered 1kg of crushed pale malt. That should be enough for my 2 gallon experiment!
I have to say some of the other options in the links you've given me look awesome; hopefully, i'll try them depending on how successful my experiment goes!
My Aramis hops came today - 8.5%AA; looks like it'll be a bitter!

 

[dennisdk2000]

Mine's going to be a Chocolate & Maple Porter! :drink:
I plan to re-seal my grains in between brews - my partner bought a home vacuum packing machine, so I'll be borrowing that It's not the best, but should make my grain last longer!

Dennis

 

[Chris_1984]

I finally have all the necessary equipment (though i must confess i picked up some Tettnang hops off of eBay after my last post)
I have my grains - Maris Otter, a good selection of spraymalts, hops & other fermentables (i was thinking of using maybe a teeny tiny amount of sugar/honey/syrup in one demijohn)

Can't wait until tomorrow!

 

[RobWalker]

I often do 2 gallon batches - 1) easy to bottle, 2) experiments and 3) full mashing using a 10 litre pot! be careful with hops though - high alpha acid types can go from light to powerfully bitter in a few grams with small batches!

 

[orlando]

I often do 2 gallon batches - 1) easy to bottle, 2) experiments and 3) full mashing using a 10 litre pot! be careful with hops though - high alpha acid types can go from light to powerfully bitter in a few grams with small batches!

Good advice this. With the scale being so small it makes it all the more important to use brewing software to help you tweak things and be given an early heads up on what the tweak will do. A good free one is Brewmate and the best paid for one is BeerSmith2. I have used both and can recommend them.