one gallon batch?

[rhodian]

ok, helped my mate mash and sparge an all-grain brew on sat and i think i've caught the bug.

BUT haven't got a big 6G kettle (have to wait till xmas) so it has rather occurred to me that i could still manage to prepare small quantities of wort, like this:

mash 500-750g grain in oven and sparge (probably with sparge bag/colander set-up). boil in 6l preserving pan. cool and ferment in 1G demijohn.

has anyone else tried such a small quantity? did it work? any reason i shouldn't?

any tips appreciated!!

cheers

ian

[Whorst]

That's called nano-brewing. I had an insane friend years ago that perfected it. Personally I wouldn't waste my time, as you'll be brewing roughly six pints, which isn't enough for for a wholesome breakfast. I'd buy a beer kit and a bucket. Surely that can't cost much.

[pantsmachine]

I guess as a brain training exercise it would be useful and fun to do. The smallest i brewed was 2 gallon batches and i only did a few of those before realising it was time to scale up. Still its fun, and you could even look at doing extract/AG combination and buy the cheapest 25 ltr fermentation tub out there. That way you get a decent amount of pints for your trouble.

[BarryNL]

Small batches have their uses - you can use them to try out recipes without having to make gallons of something you might not like; and you can brew subtle variations to compare (think different hop types, etc.).

I've brewed a few nano batches - sometimes as little as 3-4 litres - the biggest disadvantage, of course, is that it takes just as long to brew a mini-batch as a full batch - six hours of your life for ten bottles of beer is a true sign of madness

The main problem is maintaining mash temperature for such a small batch, the best technique I've found is to have the oven set to the mash temperature and mash in a tin in the oven.

[rhodian]

oh, i've got a 25l fermenter and am happily guzzling a friendly brew of tom caxton at this very minute. what i haven't got is 5 gallons of my own wort. but i do also have a demi-john of cider bubbling in the corner - and frankly, while it takes just as long to brew as a bigger amount, it's not exactly a lot of effort, is it? i mean, it just sort of sits there and bubbles away - and i should get about 8 half litre bottles out of it. i just want to get into the all-grain thing without having to wait to get a 25l boiler. of course mashing and boiling are just as time consuming for a small quantity, but most of that is just sitting drinking beer while time passes, surely, isn't it?

i think i'm going to go for it. i'll let youse know how it goes.

cheers

ian

[Andy]

I've done a couple of 1 gallon batches using the kit/method in the following link :-

http://www.18000feet.com/minimash/page1.htm

[pantsmachine]

Go for it mate, its great fun and THE hobby as far i can see,

[rhodian]

nice one, andy. mini-mash. absolute genius. can't wait to try it!

cheers

ian

[HantsGaz]

I'd second the mini-mash link that Andy posted. I've just done one and I'm hooked now. I made a Guinness clone and it really is fantastic (if I say so myself ). Far superior than the results of kit brewing. I'm now definitely going to purchase & build the equipment I need for longer brew lengths.

[BarnsleyBrewer]

ok, helped my mate mash and sparge an all-grain brew on sat and i think i've caught the bug.

BUT haven't got a big 6G kettle (have to wait till xmas) so it has rather occurred to me that i could still manage to prepare small quantities of wort, like this:

mash 500-750g grain in oven and sparge (probably with sparge bag/colander set-up). boil in 6l preserving pan. cool and ferment in 1G demijohn.

has anyone else tried such a small quantity? did it work? any reason i shouldn't?

any tips appreciated!!

cheers


ian

I always thought one gallon is to much farting about for a few bottles of beer, I'm upgrading to ten, never thought I would, but there you are. once you get the bug.
It doesn't need to be expensive, you could buy a 5 or 10 gallon bucket from "Hop and Grape" and a cheap kettle from Tesco for the element.... Hey presto, a boiler for less than £20.00.

John

John

[rhodian]

ohhhh.... boiler for £20. less, in fact, cos i already have a spare 5G vessel, so i just need to buy a kettle. i like the sound of that. have to confess i'm a bit scared of fiddling about with electrical bits and pieces, but i guess it's no harder than wiring a light switch. very exciting.

thanks for that

ian

[confused]

ohhhh.... i guess it's no harder than wiring a light switch.

it's a bit more taxing but it's not rocket science. light switches are not normally attached to 25l if boiling wort, so before you switch on make sure that everything is watertight, and that all the live connections are adequately covered and insulated in case of boil overs.

[BarnsleyBrewer]

ohhhh.... boiler for £20. less, in fact, cos i already have a spare 5G vessel, so i just need to buy a kettle. i like the sound of that. have to confess i'm a bit scared of fiddling about with electrical bits and pieces, but i guess it's no harder than wiring a light switch. very exciting.

thanks for that

ian

Hi Ian,
Regarding the 5 gallon bucket...
Are you sure it's able to withstand 90 Min's of boiling?? Some buckets may not be the correct type of material for boiling wort, I've read stories of buckets spitting during the boil, the tap needs to be tolerant of high temperatures too!!
The kettle you need from Tesco is the £4.90 (value brand) as you said it's not rocket science, but messing with 240v and fluids could contribute to DEATH ...... Be careful..

Regards

John

[rhodian]

hmmm... good comments gentlemen. on reflection, while i think i can probably manage the handiwork with enough care to keep myself safe, i can't really vouch for the quality of my buckets - just grade 2 (or whatever) food quality plastic: what they sell as part of beginner's homebrew kits. i know they can hold boiling water, but am't sure they can keep it together for 60-90 mins. hmmm...

say i got a 10l stockpot (i know where i can get one for just over £20) - that's nearly half of a full 5G brew. what say i mash and sparge about 5kg of grain and rather than making up the rest of the volume of wort with water before boiling (as i understand is the thing to do) maybe i can do the boil with the smaller volume of more concentrated wort and then add water as part of the cooling process before fermenting?? or have i totally misunderstood some of the process (or the amount of liquid involved)?

sorry for being such a novice - i feel there must be some way to make this work for me though: people have been brewing from grain for centuries; surely i can manage it too!!

cheers guys

ian

[Reg]

If it's of any help, this thread details Chris and my original experiments with small mashes... (I've posted this one recently under the extract forum as well).

viewtopic.php?t=886

There's a few odd characters in some of the posts as it involves data drawn across from our very first forum on a free forum hosting service.

Reg