Any one-gallon brewers here?

[Hogarth]

My main brewery is a five-gallon job but I'd also like to be able to do smaller batches, just enough to fill a mini-keg or a few bottles. Does anyone here brew in these quantities, and if so what are the ins and outs of it? I tried it once and found it a real faff, but that's probably because I was improvising equipment and technique. Now I'm tempted to try again but with a dedicated set-up, perhaps a mini, one-vessel, grainfather-style recirculating system that's quick and easy to use.

Before I start drilling saucepans, I'd love to hear people's experiences of doing mini-batches, whether good bad or ugly....

[Secla]

Never tried but I imagine a little biab setup would be easiest in a small stainless pot you could use on the hob

[brewbrew]

I have done quite a few.

It can seem like a lot of work for so little beer - but for trials and special small consumption stuff (eg strong tipples) it can be quite good. It is also good fro experimenting with left over grain and hops. Mashing in a 12 litre pan on the cooker/in warm oven works well.

The other good thing about 1 gal brews is that you can secondary ferment/hold in a glass demijohn - just make sure that you actually end up with about 5 litres of work to ferment and the trub can be left behind in primary to yield 1 gal of clean fermented beer to fill the demijohn.

i have also drunk un-carbonated beer from the demijohn - probably the way it was drunk in the old days.

The other plus is that you will be "drinking responsibly" if you make it last for a while!

BB

[chefgage]

I scaled down from 5 gallons to 5l BIAB So i could experiment with different hops. I used a 5l no chill cube which when cool i would then put the airlock in and ferment in the cube. By doing this i shortened my brew day by quite a bit.

The shortening was due to alot less to clean (only the mash tun/boiler.

I found by doing this I was actually brewing more iften so even though I would only get a few bottles each time they soon mounted up.

I have sunce moved up to 10l batches now but I am still using the BIAB with no chill combination.

[aamcle]

There is a massive 1 gallon thread on http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10 f you care to look for it.


aamcle

[jaroporter]

i have also drunk un-carbonated beer from the demijohn - probably the way it was drunk in the old days.

i do similar, brewing for a demijohns worth. but demijohns can actually contain the perfect amount of cask condition. nothing compares to old day gravity pour ale and it's a great feeling bringing one up out of the "cellar" on a friday evening to see in the weekend

to be fair i mainly do 11L batches now, i think getting consistancy is harder the smaller you go as you start dealing in ridiculously arbitrary weights of hop or speciality malt. it's got to be kept easy though, for me - it's too small amount of beer to be messing around for. maintaining consistant mash temp might be the biggest screw-around, i found, with such a small thermal mass, so the recirculating idea may be a good one, especially if you can hide it away all in one grainfather style..

[Hogarth]

Thanks for the replies. All very useful.

I have sunce moved up to 10l batches now but I am still using the BIAB with no chill combination.

Yeah, I'm wondering if 2-gallon batches would be the way to go. Then I could get some of those dinky little 9l cornies. Decisions, decisions.

i have also drunk un-carbonated beer from the demijohn - probably the way it was drunk in the old days.

i do similar, brewing for a demijohns worth. but demijohns can actually contain the perfect amount of cask condition. nothing compares to old day gravity pour ale and it's a great feeling bringing one up out of the "cellar" on a friday evening to see in the weekend

I like this idea too. I wonder if you could invent a rudimentary cap for a demijohn that keeps just 1-2psi on it with no danger of it exploding. Something to think about...

There is a massive 1 gallon thread on http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10 f you care to look for it.

aamcle

616 pages! Looks like I'm in for a long night. Thanks!

[IPA]

My main brewery is a five-gallon job but I'd also like to be able to do smaller batches, just enough to fill a mini-keg or a few bottles. Does anyone here brew in these quantities, and if so what are the ins and outs of it? I tried it once and found it a real faff, but that's probably because I was improvising equipment and technique. Now I'm tempted to try again but with a dedicated set-up, perhaps a mini, one-vessel, grainfather-style recirculating system that's quick and easy to use.

Before I start drilling saucepans, I'd love to hear people's experiences of doing mini-batches, whether good bad or ugly....

any one gallon brewers here?

No but I have no problem drinking one

[jaroporter]

i have also drunk un-carbonated beer from the demijohn - probably the way it was drunk in the old days.

i do similar, brewing for a demijohns worth. but demijohns can actually contain the perfect amount of cask condition. nothing compares to old day gravity pour ale and it's a great feeling bringing one up out of the "cellar" on a friday evening to see in the weekend

I like this idea too. I wonder if you could invent a rudimentary cap for a demijohn that keeps just 1-2psi on it with no danger of it exploding. Something to think about...

i've found an airlock works well. at lower cellar temperatures more of the condition is retained in the ale. it's lively and frothy when you first crack it, and settles down and the flavour matures (just like a real cask!!) over the course of the weekend. i just switch the airlock out for a solid bung after cracking it.

[Hogarth]

Passing Nisbets today I thought I'd pop in and have a look at their pots. There was a 10 litre, 2.6kw Buffalo boiler on sale for £60, perfect for a one-gallon set-up.

It seemed silly not to, really.

[duncans]

I used to do 1 gallon batches on the hob. Did 50 batches like this and still liked the idea of lots of ingredients to try and beers to drink, so went to a nice 10l system to get past the problems. If you are into building a small rig then I am sure it would help.

Originally I used 2 x 12l stock pots and the insert from a pasta pan.

Warm your mash water in 1 pan, add grain at right temp and wrap in sleeping bag and towels for mash. Might lose area degrees depending on insulation. Hitting the right mash temp at start was doable but a pain in the bum.
Pour the slurry the the pasta pan /colander thing to catch the train and sparge straight from the kettle. Grain did pass through but not that much. Pain to manhandle the pan full of hot slurried grains.
Boiling was fine with hops in bags and pour into a DJ at about 65C. Cool naturally overnight and pitch yeast in the morning. Small batch and no cooling makes for a lovely quick brew day.
Syphoned straight to bottles when ready. That is a pain doing bottling for so little. Did several batches together.
Beer turned out fine. Adding kit just gives marginal improvements to quality and clarity but makes brew day a lot nicer.

[Frothy]

I like the idea of 1kg malt for 1 demijohn (4L). I tried 1kg in my std 20L cool box mash tun, but the slotted bottom was really inefficient and the mash lost a huge amount of temperature.
So I just mashed 4kg and split it 4 ways for 4 demijohns worth with different hops. Worked really well.
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