I recently found two one gallon jugs at a thrift shop… immediatly thought of brewing
If i open a pack of dry yeast to do a one gallon batch can i put the unused portion in the freezer or refrigerator for later use?
I have a digital scale so im assuming i can just divide the weight of a dry yeast pack by 5 i might divide by four just to pitch a but more per batch. WOuld this be ok?
Also anything special about a 1 gallon batch thats different than a 5 gallon batch that im not thinking of?
When apple cider season starts, you can get gallon jugs at the grocery store, so you don’t need to go back to the thrift store!
Yeast is cheap… use the whole package.
You don’t need a full pack of yeast for 1 gal. I’ve brewed 1 gal beers and found that 2-3 gals gives me more beer for the same time. 1 gals. beer in a 1 gal. jug will make a mess.
I’d pitch half of a pack for simplicity but just know that one gallons are tough because just a small error can lead to a big difference. Too much boil off and you’ve got a 1.075 wort while too little and you got 1.040. A bit too many hops and you got too many IBUs and you didn’t boil off enough and now your balance is off. You think you hit your one gallon volume but you got a quarter gallon of trub. Stuff like that you don’t really think about.
Not to say you shouldn’t do it because you might as well with the gallon jug. Just have fun with it, don’t be to anal about hitting your numbers up front and attach a blowoff tube every time while fermenting really cool. Also, you might as well mess around with the recipes, do something huge and stupid you wouldn’t commit five gallons too. Use a crap ton of smoked malt for fun, or maybe a new type of hop. That’s what I do with small batches.
[quote=“Rico Suave”]1. When apple cider season starts, you can get gallon jugs at the grocery store, so you don’t need to go back to the thrift store!
It was more of a random find but i like apple cider anyway so thats an awesome idea.
[quote=“inhousebrew”]I’d pitch half of a pack for simplicity but just know that one gallons are tough because just a small error can lead to a big difference. Too much boil off and you’ve got a 1.075 wort while too little and you got 1.040. A bit too many hops and you got too many IBUs and you didn’t boil off enough and now your balance is off. You think you hit your one gallon volume but you got a quarter gallon of trub. Stuff like that you don’t really think about.
Not to say you shouldn’t do it because you might as well with the gallon jug. Just have fun with it, don’t be to anal about hitting your numbers up front and attach a blowoff tube every time while fermenting really cool. Also, you might as well mess around with the recipes, do something huge and stupid you wouldn’t commit five gallons too. Use a crap ton of smoked malt for fun, or maybe a new type of hop. That’s what I do with small batches.[/quote]
Good points man. and 100% my reason for wanting to do it. I’m also in the process or learning to use beer smith. So i figure one gallon batchs will be a great way to do both. Guess ill get some water boiling and figure out my boil off rate.
Im not sure how to account for trub. Is a quarter gallon realistic for a one gallon batch? As far as hops will scaling a hop combination from a similar 5 gallon recipe work. I would assume utilization wouldnt be much different?
Figure out your boil off rate would be step one. Normally I don’t care about this kind of stuff but for a one gallon batch I would try to filter out as much trub as possible. Maybe even boiling extra wort so you can dump it in trub free. As for the hops, I only mention that because my scale only goes down one decimal point so it’s tough to measure .25 and ounce of hops. But yeah, utilization should be the same I would think. Just plug those numbers into beersmith and see how it turns out.
Are you doing small extract batches or BIAB all grain? Just curious, I do the BIAB for my small batches and if you are not that could be a cool way of getting into all grain.
[quote=“inhousebrew”]As for the hops, I only mention that because my scale only goes down one decimal point so it’s tough to measure .25 and ounce of hops.[/quote]The trick here is to make the scale read “0.2” and then keep adding a little at a time until it switches to “0.3”, then remove a cone or a pellet and if it goes back to “0.2” you know you’re right around 0.25 (the scale is rounding up and down).
[quote=“inhousebrew”]Figure out your boil off rate would be step one. Normally I don’t care about this kind of stuff but for a one gallon batch I would try to filter out as much trub as possible. Maybe even boiling extra wort so you can dump it in trub free. As for the hops, I only mention that because my scale only goes down one decimal point so it’s tough to measure .25 and ounce of hops. But yeah, utilization should be the same I would think. Just plug those numbers into beersmith and see how it turns out.
Are you doing small extract batches or BIAB all grain? Just curious, I do the BIAB for my small batches and if you are not that could be a cool way of getting into all grain.[/quote]
Thats exactly waht i was thinking. Funny you’d say that. Ive been researching doing mini/partial mashes and after i got the gallon jugs and started thinking about doing small batchs it occured to me that if i did a small enough batch the partial mash could be a full mash.
Brooklyn Brew Shop sells 1 gallon kits. They send 1 pack of dry yeast with instructions to use 1/2 of it. I have saved 1/2 of packs for later use with no problems. Sanitize package before opening, then tape it closed and refrigerate.
just noticed that Northern Brewing is selling one batches now too.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brew ... r-kit.html[quote=“inhousebrew”]just noticed that Northern Brewing is selling one batches now too.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brew ... r-kit.html[/quote]Weird it doesnt come with a blow off tube. I already placed my order i knew i had forgot somethign and that was it. I hoped my blow tube from my 6.5 gallon would work but no go. so i gotta hold off on my one gallon batches cos i assume that would get messy…
Try grams (one gram is about .3 ounces). I’d also try to use low AA% hops to minimize the importance of precise hop weights.
