1 Gallon All Grain - Have a go!

[isitbeeroclock]

I thought I'd post this to encourage anyone else with little brewing experience to give all grain a go. Ability to brew beer is an essential life-skill, or so I tell my wife. I was inspired to try this after spending a day at Derventio brewery (Derbyshire) making some pale ale, try their beers if you see any, especially Cleopatra. I've made some can of wort style beer kits in the past, but the beer was dull. So I've based this on what I learnt on my day at the brewery. I've gone for a small batch size as I don't need to spend much money on equipment, it is safer (5gl boiling hot sticky liquid on the hob, no thanks) and fairly quick to do (took 3.5hrs in total). I looked at a 5 gallon recipe to get an idea of the amounts I needed to use for 1 gallon. I got some grains and hops from Ballihoo (quick delivery) and a 12L stock pot from Aldi for £20.
1 Kg Maris Otter Pale Malt
100g of Crystal Malt
10g Golding hops
3g dry brewers yeast
4.5L mash water + 4.5L sparge water
I mashed in the stock pot at 67C. I decided to put the oven on low and put the pot in there for 60min, stirring and checking the temp every 15mins. This worked really well.
I then poured the liquid into another container catching the grains in a colander. I then sparged this by slowly pouring another gallon of hot water evenly over the contents of the colander.
I took a gravity reading after the sparge, 1.030 (the first lot of mash liquid was 1.050)
I then boiled the wort (7L at start of boil) for 60mins in the stock pot. I added 5g hops at the start and another 10mins from the end.
Once boiled I filled the sink with cold water and ice packs out the freezer. This got the temp down to 27C in about 30 mins.
I took another gravity reading, 1.042. I then poured into a 1 gallon fermenting PET plastic bottle using a sieve (to catch the hops) and large funnel. I poured in 3g (half a small packet) of beer yeast and fitted the airlock. Job done.
I'm puzzled about where all my water went. I thought I've used 9L in total, but 7L made it to the boil. 1.1Kg of grain can't absorb 2L of water, so I probably miscounted somewhere. I was doing this while looking after two small children!
The yeast was working hard with a foam on the surface of the fermenter when I looked earlier. So far so good. Looking forward bottling it and tasting it. Next step, drink Grolsh so I can reuse the bottles.
I'll post again when I have some results. It may not work out, but only one way to find out.

 

[Pjam]

Brilliant.

Your grain soaks up water, as does the hops and then the evaporation. ..........

 

[jkp]

I've been making small batches like this so far, it's a great way to get started, easy to handle, low on initial cost and if you make a mess then 1 gallon isn't so much. The best thing is that if it turns out nice SWMBO starts asking "why don't you make bigger batches?" all on her own :thumb:

Just wondering, was your 4.5L mash water actually the total volume of the mash, i.e. including the volume of the grain? That might explain where the other litre comes from.

 

[isitbeeroclock]

4.5L water plus grain in the mash, must be the angel's share!

Fermentation appears to have slowed right down after 48 hrs, but was very active to start with, I assume this is fairly normal. I think I'll leave it a full week then check the gravity. Sitting at a constant 20C.

 

[isitbeeroclock]

Fermenting bottle appears very inactive, no more bubbles, time to bottle soon I reckon. (just need to buy some sterilising powder first)

 

[isitbeeroclock]

bottled it tonight, got 11 grolsh bottles full, gravity said 1.010
I also got a good mouthful from the syphon and it tasted better than the kits I used to make in the past. Looking forward to trying it once it has conditioned in the bottle.
I also put some in a small clear bottle so I could see its colour (will try to post a picture)

 

[Cactus Jack]

Sure it'll be great, congrats. Easy to do on kitchen hobs and a top way to get the basics and try recipes, looking forward to seeing your pics of the finished brew. Thinking about your lost water, do you use any software? I started brewing 1 gallon batches then moved onto to 2 gallon batches as the brewing bug takes hold. Since purchased a Buffalo boiler from Nisbets for 23l brews sometime in the future. I'll keep my collection of demijohns so I can experiment with dry hopping and the impact of fermenting at different temperatures.

 

[isitbeeroclock]

My stock pot has a measuring scale inside, after testing with a jug litre by litre, I now realise is 0.5L out from reality.
0.5L soaked into grain
0.5L inaccurate scale
1.0L evaporation on the 60min boil

I've not used any software, I'm trying to keep things simple, but if there is a simple recipe calculator I'd be happy to give it a go.

I've already started to look at the 5 gallon boilers that I could do BiaB with...........very tempting, but my first brew isn't ready to drink yet, so I'll try and curb my enthusiasm for now.

 

[Cactus Jack]

LOL, yep had to curb my enthusiasm for shiny things also. My first 5 gallon brew will be in 3 brews time, which will be 10 small brews in total. By then I should have the equipment. I have a stock pot with a scale, saw the ones in Aldi and think mine is the 10l version. Hmm... have to check mine. As for software I found http://www.brewmate.net/ free and very easy to use. However there seem to be a few available all doing pretty much the same job, I find it really useful. In fact all my recipes start and get tweaked within the software. :

 

[isitbeeroclock]

I've spent the rest of my evening fiddling with brewmate (and drinking Thwaites Wainwright), thanks for the link. I've added my first two brews in there and tinkered with ideas for the next one. A really simple tool and free too!

 

[Cactus Jack]

Yeah its pretty good. Enjoy :), handy for producing print puts for brew day as well. Doesn't account for step mashing though, which could be useful for me now.

 

[Andysbrew]

May have a go at this in the future. Sounds easy enough.

 

[isitbeeroclock]

The result, a success!
Slightly hazy, but a nice easy drinking beer.

 

[Cactus Jack]

Top stuff. If cold it could be chill haze. My beers suffered from this, no biggy as it doesn't affect the taste. However, I found just leaving them in a cold garage for a number of weeks cleared the chill haze nicely. Enjoy your brew.:

 

[isitbeeroclock]

and here are a few pics of the simple brewing process for beginners like me......
Mash

In the oven for an hour

sparge

boil

cool

ferment

bottle