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Comment by michael_h | Hacker News Reader

I was in the same boat and a friend recommended that I scale down the operation to a single gallon at a time. The equipment is a little less unwieldy, so sanitizing time is reduced. The water gets to the right temperature much faster. Less grain == less sparging time. The boil volume is a bit over a gallon, which is easily contained in a modest sized pot, so boil-overs are almost a non-concern. I let the grains steep and then start the bath routine and read books. After that, sparge and start the boil. I can get an all grain batch made on a Tuesday evening.

Plus, the smaller batch sizes let you experiment and you won't be saddled with the 5 gallons of terrible oktoberfest in my basement.

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I just made this switch myself. My new tiny SF apartment makes 5-gallon batches impractical, so I brewed my first 1-gallon batch yesterday. I'll see how the results are in a month, but right now I can say that the process is way easier:

- Equipment mostly fits in my dishwasher

- Moving/pouring 1 gallon of liquid is faster, easier, and results in less spillage than 5 gallons

- No need for a wort chiller, since an ice bath is more than effective enough for a 1-gallon batch

- Fermentation control will be a lot cheaper, since a small dorm fridge will fit the fermenter

- As you pointed out: more experimentation because the cost of failure is much lower

Do you do all-grain? Or extracts? If all-grain, how are you mashing?

How are you doing your mashes?

EDIT: Just for clarification, just before my first daughter was born I was doing 15 gallon boils with a converted cooler for a mash tun. It was so much fun! But the time to do all that and cleanup (as you know, cleaning is THE most important part of course and a significant slice of the time) was pretty much a whole Saturday morning and afternoon, prime kid time.

You steep the grains in your brew pot for an hour and then sparge by using an additional pot and a large colander. Brooklyn Brew Shop sells one gallon brew kits, but if you already have brewing supplies, the only thing you would need to add is a one gallon carboy (I buy the gallon jugs of wine at the supermarket, and then just re-use the jugs).

I brew both 5 gallon batches and 1 gallon batches (mostly for experimentation). TO keep the costs down on the gallon batches, I use washed yeast and hops leftover from other recipes. The cool thing about the gallon batches is you can squeeze in an all-grain brew in an evening on a weekday, but the obvious downside is it only yields ~9 beers, which I find to be too small a yield for the amount of effort. Also, if you already have a wort chiller, you won't save that much time compared to a 5 gallon extract brew.

If you are dead set on all grain, others on this thread have mentioned the brew-in-the-bag method. It looks like you just steep the grains (using a really big mesh bag). It looks like this method gets you about 3 gallons, but if you already have a bunch of equipment, you could probably adapt this method to 5 gallons.

I've steeped grains before, but that's pretty significantly different from a real mash. Usually steeping grains was used to enhance a base extract which formed the base of the boil. So you're saying you can just steep grains without using any extract? How do you keep your temps stable to have a good mash? Do you have any links to this method? Or book references? I appreciate your response!

You can get a good amount of conversion just from steeping. A lot of the extract brew kits use unmilled grain, which is good for shelf life but bad for conversion (but still adds flavor), which is probably where you got the impression that steeping doesn't work. I think the primary reason for needing a mash tun is to handle the volume of grain needed for 5+ gallons of brew. If you are brewing less than that, you can get away with steeping in the brew pot, and equipment permitting, sparge using a colander or grain bag. Just add a little extra grain to account for conversion losses.

From my experience, you only loose a few degrees of temp over the hour of steeping in the boil kettle. I usually put a towel or two on top of the lid to help retain heat, and if needed, will pour some hot water in from the tea kettle to keep the temp up, but that is rarely needed.

For a quick, hipstery, overview of the gallon batch method go here, I use this method for my gallon brews, and the results have been really good: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/instructions

I haven't tried this, but here is the brew-in-a-bag method: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/biab-brew-in-a-ba...

I have a buddy in a similar situation as yours (kids, no time to brew). He has a killer setup (15 gallon, all-grain), and his solution was to just cut back to brewing a few times a year, and invite some buddies over to help. I think one gallon brews are best left to people in small apartments or for experimentation. In your situation, I would keep in mind the yield-per-time metric. A 15 gallon brew might take a few hours longer than a gallon brew, but it yields 15x more beers. Gallon brews are a good way to keep your brewing instincts sharp, but it won't keep your fridge full.

Awesome, thanks for the information, I think I'm going to have to try that! :)

Before I sold off my brew equipment (that was a very hard thing to do!) I tried to set something up with my friends where they would store the equipment and I'd come over and brew with them. Amazingly no one wanted to at the time, but to this day they are kicking themselves for not taking advantage of it. I had nice quick-release hoses, a Therminator chiller (that is the one piece of equipment I almost kept, prior to that chilling times were killing me!), an nice 15 gallon polar ware brew pot and I was working on getting either a nice gravity setup or getting a stainless steel fermentor. The latter was in consideration because I'd once bounced a 6 gallon glass carboy off my floor accidentally and split my hands open. Not fun! Man, I miss brewing thinking about all that! :)

EDIT: I think once my kids are just a bit older I might be able to get back to a bigger brew. My kids are 6 and 3 so they still need a lot of attention. But I think once the 3 yo is maybe 6 I could probably do a big brew day again.

Steeping your grains is all there is to it. You still have your specialty roasted grains, but instead of base extract you use a 'base grain'.

I got the basic process from http://www.amazon.com/True-Brews-Craft-Fermented-Kombucha/dp.... As a bonus, it also has instructions for mead, sake, kombucha, soda, fruit wines, and kefir. Each section includes a 'master' recipe and then 4 or 5 specific recipes. After a couple of batches, you will start making your own recipes without even thinking about it. I usually get 10 or 11 bottles from a batch, which is perfect for me. I'm not a daily drinker. The watermelon/mint soda combined with a good gin is dangerously good though, watch out for it.

The book uses the two-pot method that pyoung talks about. With such a small volume of water, the temperature is pretty stable, especially if you use gas. I found that the efficiency was a little lower than what I was used to, so I just used a little bit more grain, which increased my batch costs by about 25 cents. I ended up using a small sports cooler that I already had around - I wrap it in a towel and it stays remarkably stable, plus it has a spout on the bottom that makes sparging easier.

IKEA has 3 gallon pots for $12.

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