mini spur of the moment brewday

[markm1878]

I was in Wilko yesterday and noticed they had one pack of yeast left. I had some malt in the shed and some hops in the freezer so put decided to make a 1 gallon all grain beer. I'm moving house soon so it's a bit manic and I've not had chance to brew this year. I missed having something bubbling away so although I knew it wouldn't be too economical time wise per pint, I wasn't that bothered, I just wanted to brew and I thought it was a good idea.

It was a bit ghetto, but a good exercise of improvisation. Here's the recipe;

900g maris otter
150g amber
50g carahell
40g torrified wheat
7g challenger @ 60
5g Amarillo @ 10
5g Cascade @ 5
5g Amarillo @ 0

I mashed with 4L water (added 1/4 tsp gypsum) with about a 76c strike temp. I laced the pot with a square of voil I had spare from my biab bag and doughed in. With such small volumes, I was concerned that it would lose temp really quickly, so I put it in the oven set at 60-70c to hold it there.

I sparged by sitting a pizza tray on the pot, then put the malt bag in a colander and slowly poured 2l water over the top. It trickled through the grain bag and drained into the pot. I collected 5L in total and put the heat on.

I boiled for an hour, topping up with a little boiled water and adding the hops as above and a pinch of irish moss @ 15 mins. Then put in an ice bath and cooled to pitching temps.

I used 5L of shop bought water to add starsan in earlier and used the bottle to ferment in. I made a hole in the lid for an airlock with a couple of rubber seals either side of the cap to make it air tight.

It's now sitting in my cupboard at about 18c.

No idea how it will turn out, but it was quite fun and less intense than a normal brewday. Took about 2 and a half hours all told. I didn't get as much wort as I'd hoped. I spilt a little while syphoning and lost more than expected to evapouration. Maybe 3.5L fermenting now, a litre short of what I hoped for. Next time, I'll adapt the recipe to liquor back in the fermenter.

Here's some pics;

 

[pintofmild]

Hi Mark, just wondering, what OG and FG did you end up with ?

Regards

 

[markm1878]

OG was about 1.056 FG still to be determined. I'll let you know.

 

[clibit]

You could add water if you don't mind dropping the OG a bit, to make up for the evaporation.

That looks like a great recipe, good hop combo, though there's a lot of amber for that amount of beer. Amber malt is strongly flavoured, though there are two types and one is more intense than the other. Let us know how it works out. Great pics.

 

[markm1878]

You could add water if you don't mind dropping the OG a bit, to make up for the evaporation.

That looks like a great recipe, good hop combo, though there's a lot of amber for that amount of beer. Amber malt is strongly flavoured, though there are two types and one is more intense than the other. Let us know how it works out. Great pics.

Thanks, I had thought about that. But it was all tucked away in the cupboard by the time I remembered to check the gravity and it was late. It was higher than I expected, probably due to the amount that evaporated. I wonder if a higher % boils off at lower volumes?

Yeah it's knocking on 15% amber isn't it? To tell the truth, I was half thinking of making an amber ale this weekend at the time and must have had that on my mind. Also, i'd been out watching the match earlier that day and had a few beers so maybe that contributed to the brain fart. Any how, I'm looking forward to trying it.

I think it's a good alternative to making starters for high OG batches or lagers. I may make a 1.040 beer soon, syphon to another bottle after a week and rinse the yeast on brewday to pitch into a 5 gallon batch. Not only should you have plenty of healthy yeast, but also a few bottles of beer too.

 

[clibit]

You can still add water, at the bottling stage even, if you wish. Taste it then and see what you think.

I'm sure the beer will be good, it may just improve with age, 3 months or so, possibly, time to mellow.

Small batches are a very good way to make a yeast starter and test a recipe or ingredient.

 

[markm1878]

You can still add water, at the bottling stage even, if you wish. Taste it then and see what you think.

I'm sure the beer will be good, it may just improve with age, 3 months or so, possibly, time to mellow.

Small batches are a very good way to make a yeast starter and test a recipe or ingredient.

Yeah, a few months in the bottle will do it the world of good. I'll not open the first one until it's had about 6-8 weeks. I'm normally quite keen to try a few young, but as there'll only be 6-7 bottles, I'll be more patient this time :)

 

[markm1878]

I made another one yesterday. A stout this time. I did a sort of batch sparge and started with 8l in total (4l in 2 pots each) and ended up with a pretty full bottle. I put the grain bag in the second pot after the mash and took it out after 15 mins or so, brought both pans to a boil and topped up the main one when some was lost to evapouration. This was a much better way of doing it, but a little less efficient in terms of sugar extraction.

It was bubbling away within 12 hours and in less that 24, it was going through the airlock. I had to install a blow off tube which was really easy as tube when heated, fitted snugly inside the bottle cap hole. I'm assuming that as I used about half a pack of yeast to 4.5l and getting plenty of oxygen in there with a big shake after racking helped kick things off quickly.

Quite enjoyable these small brewdays!

 

[markm1878]

Hi Mark, just wondering, what OG and FG did you end up with ?

Regards

I finished at 1.014...

Sip from the sample jar is very promising. Got 7 bottles from it.

 

[pintofmild]

Nice one, 5.3 (ish) ,,, worth drinking ! An update on taste ?

Regards

 

[markm1878]

Tasted great from the sample tube. Very much like a local breweries beer called Tawny (Cheshire brew bro's). I asked what was in it and turns out i pretty much cloned their malt bill. I'll keep you posted.

 

[markm1878]

And about 5.6% (1.056-1.014)

 

[Shipstone]

As a total novice would I be able to do this in a 12Ltr stock pot?

 

[clibit]

Yes you could, no problem.

 

[markm1878]

As a total novice would I be able to do this in a 12Ltr stock pot?

Yes absolutely. If i had a 12l pot, i'd aim to finish with 9l and split it between 2 "fermenters". Probably mash with 9l and rinse slowly with another 3 or so. That should more or less fill the pot, less the water you loose to the grain absorbsion.

A little note by the way. I've done this a few times now and having a small (1 gallon) autosyphon makes it so much easier. Both transfering to the fv and bottling. For bottling, I just warm the end of the tube with boiled water from the kettle and force a bottling wand through. It gives a very snug fit so no need to secure with anything. Prime bottles individually and fill straight from primary. I got the autosyphon from a lhbs for £8.

 

[reincarnationfish]

As a total novice would I be able to do this in a 12Ltr stock pot?

Yeah, I brew this way with a 6L stock pot, no problem.

There's a few good ideas in this piece I'm going to apply though - in particular, putting the mash tun in the oven. I can't believe I didn't think of that before.

 

[markm1878]

Yeah the oven works well. Before doing it, I set the temp I wanted (more or less, analogue dial) and put a pot of water in there, taking a reading every 15 mins for an hour. It went up by 0.4c overall. Worth testing the accuracy of your oven. Oh dont forget the oven gloves before you take it out!

 

[Shipstone]

Great thread! taken on board the auto syphon and oven idea.I suppose I could use a coolbox mash tun but maybe in these quantities the oven sounds much simpler.:drink:

 

[clibit]

I just wrap the pot up well with towels or a fleece or something, lose about one degree. I need convincing that the oven is necessary.

 

[Shipstone]

I just wrap the pot up well with towels or a fleece or something, lose about one degree. I need convincing that the oven is necessary.

Can get a single duvet from local market for £3 suppose this would be ok ?