Brewing a 1 gallon (All Grain) batch

You're essentially describing the BIAB (Brew in a Bag) method. It's a relatively easy way to all grain brew. I one gallon BIAB quite often and am happy with the results.

 

I brew BIAB exclusively and love it.

 

I do 2-2.5 gallon BIAB batches and some smaller batches (1-2 gallons) as experimental batches. I like the small batches. I can mash/boil on the stove and do a batch after work while fixing dinner for the fam/getting the kids in bed.

I use 5 gallon paint strainer bags, which are cheap.

 

How long do these small batches take you? Still a 60 min mash and boil and then cooling in an ice bath?

 

Yes its still all the same procedure which is why most people go bigger, but I personally love the 2-3 gallon batch range.

 

Why not make a 5 gallon batch and siphon off 1-2 gallons to smaller carboys for experimentation? I have done this many times experimenting with open fermentation/bottle dregs/fruit.

 

A lot of people (me included) cannot brew outside, we have to do it indoors in a kitchen. Good luck doing 5 gallon all grain full boil on a kitchen stove.

 

I did a couple of 5 gallon partial boils before switching to 2.5 gallon BIAB full boils. The beers tasted just fine, but I had a hard time hitting the planned original gravity with both beers. I ended up roughly 10 gravity points lower than intended. I'm sure I would have eventually adjusted had I kept doing them, though.

 

Been doing BIAB 1 gallon batches myself, don't have the hardware for bigger batches right now, it's really easy and doing all grain I feel more like a brewer. I've been mashing in my oven for 75 min with the oven set as low as it will go and it holds the mash temp nicely.

 

I've been doing it for years, and I'm definitely not the only one.

 

Until I got a burner a few months ago, I brewed my first 14ish batches on stove top. All 5 gallons, 1 six gallon. The only difference I noticed is how long it takes to boil/heat the water.

 

Y'all have some mighty good kitchen stoves then. I can barely get 4 gallons of wort to a (not so vigorous) boil on mine.

 

For single headin bathes, what do you do for pitching yeast? I love the smack packs for full 5 gallon batches but I'd imagine that would be a little overkill for a 1gal batch.

 

I still use the wyeast smack packs for 1 gal batches, I just don't dump the whole pack in.

 

Any idea on how much initial water to use for a one gallon BIAB? With 2 lbs of grains I would figure maybe 2 gallons? With grain absorption and boil off I would think I would be right around the one gallon mark. I thought there was a calculator somewhere but I can't seem to find it.

 

I think I would feel bad wasting all that yeast. I guess it's boy the end of the world, but should I set some wort aside and make a "starter" for another beer? Would there be something else productive to do with it?

 

There are quite a few one gallon recipes out there. I also have had good luck converting a five gallon recipe to grams and dividing by five.

 

Here's what I use:

1 Gallon (Desired Batch Size) + Grain Absorption (Total Grain * 0.10) + Boil Off Rate (Varies) + Trub Loss (Roughly Total Hops * 0.15)

So for a 1.065 IPA (2.8 LBS of Grain and 1 total oz of hops)
1 Gallon + 0.30 Gallons Grain Absorption + 0.5 Gallon Boil Off + 0.15 Trub Loss = 1.95 Gallons

 

Thanks, I just did a batch today and got lucky. I used 2 gallons and it worked out alright but I like your formula and I will save it. Thanks again.

 

0.15 Gallons per ounce of hops is really a lot, even for leaf hops. I suspect your Trub loss parameter is compensating for some missing parameter and/or perhaps for understatement of another parameter. But if it's dialed and works out for the types of batches you typically brew, that's the important thing.

 

Yeah you're probably right. It's kind've been my average over 50+ batches. Not sure how it came about really but it's developed in a spreadsheet formula and become more consistent over time. For the record, in the example given I start the boil with 1.65 gallons, end with 1.15 and roughly 1 gallon of that sans trub goes into the fermentor.

 

Not to derail the thread, but the basic question seems to be adequately answered, so a follow-up question...

Fermenters for 1 gallon batches - a one gallon glass jug seems to be cutting it way too close, so what do people use? I'm interested in the small batch approach as a means to experiment and work on technique.

 

The glass jugs I use for my one gallon brewing have a line on them which states one gallon and if you fill to that line there is plenty of room left in the jug. I do use a blow off tube until the bubbling stops, then switch to the three part bubbler.

 

Yep, they hold proly 1.25 gallons. Blowoff tube and fermcap will be your friends.

 

Five liter wine jugs work fine if you don't have too crazy of a krausen and you only fill up to a gallon.

 

I use the Mr Beer fermenters and they work great for 1 - 2.5 gal batches. They are inexpensive and easy to work with.

 

I do one gallon and ya I have to make sure not to fill the jug up to high. I did an FBS clone recently and filled it a tad too high and the airlock blew off twice. Hardest mess ever to clean up, I had to use a utility knife to scrap chocolate wort off the white walls.