Back to Basics - Small batches to perfect your skills.

Ok, here's the deal.  I have preached and preached about common sense in home brewing.   I have shouted from the counter top.  I have ranted I have raved about not spending too much.  I have tried to show you all that you can make great beer with out spending thousands of dollars on a wort production machine.  So today.  I will be giving you some guidelines to follow and remember about home brewing.   Some hard and fast "rules" that can guide your home brewing career.

• Small batch home brewing is the best way to brew often, and improve your skills
• You can brew small batch in your kitchen. 
• 1 to 3 gallons can easily be brewed in a 5 gallon pot with a paint strainer bag as your brew bag.  
• You can easily "keg" These batches in "tap a draft" or in 5 liter kegs for a minimal investment.   
• You can also use 1 or 2 liter soda bottles.  
• There is nothing more important than cleaning and sanitation
• If you bought something that is hard to clean... you screwed up
• If you do not spend adequate time cleaning... you screwed up
• Wort production is less important than fermentation

• The best wort you can make will never be the very best beer if you can't control temperatures
• If you cant control fermentation temperature then focus on Belgian style beers and forgiving yeast.  Fermentis US05, is a great choice. Danstar Nottingham is also a great choice.  For Belgian Ales try Fermentis Abbaye (BE 256), for Saison try Danstar Belle Saison
• You can make a world class lager at 58-60 F.   But not at 72 F.  
• Don't believe me?  try Fermentis 34/70 at 58 F in a 1.050 wort for 3 weeks.  Freaking amazing.  
• You can make world class wort with a picnic cooler, a spoon, and a pitcher
• There is nothing magical about a pump, or insulated stainless steel.
• Heck you can make world class beer with brew in a bag on your stove top.  
• Learn to be a wort whisperer
• Taste your freaking wort.  Learn what it should taste like.   Learn how it should look.  
• Taste your freaking grains.   Make sure they aren't stale.  Learn what they should taste like.   Consider adjusting the amounts based on the taste.
• You can even make adjustments during the mash if you need to.
• That is why our beer is so good,  we taste it during production.
• Always remember your focus should be a delicious wort and healthy environment for your yeast.

• Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer.
• There is a reason certain hops are used with certain beers.

My hope is that we get back to excellence in beer making as a craft.  Now I say get back to because right now it seems like the focus is on finding a magical combination of ingredients.   As if what we do is potion making or alchemy.  The truth is the hobby we love is really more about learning. Learning proven processes and methods for producing excellent beer at home. Learning what quality ingredients should taste like.   My best advice is to focus on a couple of beer styles you love, and make them over and over until you can make them flawlessly and repeatedly.   You might consider smaller batches for this.   And brew a lot.  Every week, twice a week.  Yes you'll have more beer than you know what to do with.   Yes, bottling can be a pain.  But I'll let you in on a little secret.   I often "bottle" small batch in 1 liter bottles.   Why?  Why not?  They work fine and impart no flavor.  For my every day non competition beers.  It is so much faster and easier.  I also own loads of Mr. Beer plastic bottles.  They are also fantastic for home brew.

Another Couple of tips for fermentation.   Mini refrigerators are perfect for fermenting small batches. And the square tall frosting buckets from Walmart and Sam's club fit perfectly in a mini fridge.  All you need is a temperature controller and you are in great shape.  

So brew a lot, and brew small batch, work on your craft.  That is how you become great.   

You can go all grain: or.... How to rule the world from your stove top:

If you brew on your own, how should you brew?  What is the most fun?  What makes the best beer? and what can you do on your own to make the very best beer with the most affordable equipment? Well if you are like me, you have an enthusiasm for brewing, you would literally brew 3 or 4 times a week.  Brewing is not a chore that you enjoy occasionally, brewing is your relaxation.  Cleaning doesn't bother you.  Bottling doesn't bother you.  It is all an escape from other pressures in your life, and the end result is hand crafted delicious beer.  And I am here to tell you the most affordable way to brew, and the most efficient, is to do small batch all grain BIAB no sparge on your stove top.  If you've been brewing extract, you probably own everything you need.


When I brew on my own, I brew small batch.   I brew 2.5 gallon batches of beer.  Usually I brew 2.75 gallons and try to bring 2.25 gallons to package. So calling it 2.5 gallons is a misnomer.  It packages 2.25 gallons.  That is a case of beer.  I try to use minimal equipment, the less equipment, the less cleaning.  I brew in a bag utilizing the no sparge technique, When the grain bill is high OG, I generally partigyle my batch. That means I get 5 gallons of beer from a single brew day.   I use a small stainless wort chiller, in an ice bath. I bag my hops to reduce trub space. My fermenters are cake icing buckets I got from the bakery at Walmart. There is a bulb seal in the lid, so they are air tight. They are FDA approved and BPA free. To aerate I pour the batch back and forth between the kettle and the fermenter 3 or 4 times. To ferment I choose forgiving yeast, or I choose a yeast that benefits from higher temperatures. I do not generally control fermentation temperatures on small batches.  I probably should, but I have 1 small refrigerator/fermentation chamber and it is used for lagers.

Batch one boiling, Patigyle mashing away!
Two 2.5 batches from one grain bill!

Once I started brewing small batch, I found that I brewed a lot more than most people, usually 2x a week.  That is a huge reason my beer is so much better than most home brewers.  I brew more often.  I have more practice.  And I started producing more beer, with less stress,  Bottling became easier.  It is no big deal to bottle one case of beer.  Sanitation became no big deal,  I can easily lift and clean any of the things I use to brew small batch.  I can easily carry the fermenters around and place them on the counter.   I find that I can brew any style of beer easily at 2.5 gallons without any loss in quality.  One gallon batches of beer are not nearly so forgiving but I make them too sometimes for recipe development and to brew something fun or weird.

To keep costs down on small batch I look for style appropriate bittering hops that have high alpha acids.  (Example when I brew my English IPA I use Admiral or Target for bittering).  I think about the cost and expense of brewing a lot. I often brew batches that feature high alpha acid hops.  like my Two Hearted ale clone, or my Zombie Dust Clone.  These hops save you money by the very fact that they are higher in AA%.  My local home brew store sells hops by the 1/10th of an ounce.  So, I buy them there.   I adjust them up a bit because they are exposed to oxygen at the LHBS.  If it is a special hop centric beer, like my dIPA I order pre packaged hops in 1 ounce packages.  These are flushed with nitrogen and provide you the very best freshness.  I like BSG, they have been good to us, but I am also a fan of YCH Hop Union.  Both companies offer pre packaged hops.


I often re use my yeast cakes by planning several brews on one yeast cake, increasing the OG with each batch.  I do not truly wash yeast. I do a modified wash where I collect some of it in a mason jar, I let it settle. Alternatively, I pour off almost all of it into the new batch leaving behind only the chunky gross stuff in the bottom.  I get crazy fast and complete fermentation using this method.  An example, With Safale S04, I make a Centennial Blonde followed by an English IPA and finally by a Scottish Ale. With Safale US05 I make a Cream Ale, followed by a Bells Two Hearted Clone, finally a double IPA.   This saves you a lot of money. Specialty beers are made with yeast harvested from our larger batches of beer.  Learn to wash yeast, it will save you a lot of money.   There are so many videos on yeast washing.  Here is my favorite.  His approach is very similar to mine.

Crushing your own
malt saves you a lot.
And improves your
beer dramatically.

I get my grains in bulk,  We brew a lot. So grains don't last forever, and I brew a lot on my own, but if you search around at your local home brew stores, you will find that you can get a bag of two row for about $35.00 to $40.00. Even a bag of Munich or Vienna will only be about $50.00 with no shipping. I also have been known to toast my own grains and make my own crystal malt.  But for small batch there is really no need, it is so affordable to grab the specialty grains at the local home brew store.  I like Rahr, Weyermann, Cargill, and Muessdoerffer, oh and Dingeman and Warminster... and and and...

The process is straight forward.

• The day before brew day 
• I dechlorinate the water with 1/2 of a  Campden Tablet.
• That is all you need for de chlorinating your water
• I crush the grains
• On brew day
• All of the water goes in the pot
• Every recipe is different use your brewing calculator to determine your water needs.
• If you don't have a brewing calculator, Here is a simple water calculator.
• The water is treated to adjust the pH.  
• I am a fan of Five Star 5.2 stabilizer for small batch
• I am a fan of Acidulated malt for small batch pH adjustments
• The water is heated lid on to strike temperature
• My false bottom/cake rack is put in the kettle
• The grains are placed into the bag and lowered into the water
• After 5 minutes I check my pH, if it is too high, I add some acid malt to lower it.
• I don't even crush the acid malt.  I just add .1 to .2 lbs to get the pH corrected.
• The heat is turned off once the grains go in.
• I step mash a lot, but that will be handled in a later post.
• I also have a valve on my kettle, so I can recirculate with a pitcher if I want. 
• The grains are recirculated or stirred every 15 minutes, and the lid is left on during the mash.
• I don't care if I lose a couple of degrees, and you shouldn't either.  
• It really doesn't matter if your mash falls from 152 to 146 F. 
• If it falls too much, turn on the heat and stir, but undershoot your target temp. 
• At the end of the mash it is just like any other batch of beer. 
• Bring to a boil
• Add hops
• Add extras
• Chill (ultra fast on a small batch)
• Aerate 
• I aerate small batches by pouring them back and forth between the fermenter and the kettle (which I rinse out first)
• Pitch yeast
• You may not need an entire package of yeast. 
• You can seal up the rest and use another time. 
• Ferment -  if I need to keep a small bach cool, I ferment it in a laundry tub. 

Going Small - brewing more and brewing smaller.

Yup, that is happening right now!

Hello sports fans, I am going through some of that "life happens" stuff right now.   Then end result of which is that I will be moving to a much smaller space for a brief period of time.  So I will be changing how I brew at home and probably brewing more often.  I need the comfort, the distraction, and the beer that home brewing provides.  The purpose of sharing this with you is to remind you that you can brew even if you live in a small space.

I am fortunate to have a great team.   John's house is already set up for large scale brewing and the vast majority of my big gear is already at Johns.  At John's we can easily produce a half of a barrel of beer if we so desire.  There will also be 4 full sized fermentation chambers at John's in the very near future.  Yup, my big guys are moving over there.  Do you all now see why I advocate brewing with a team?  You never know when your life will change, when you brew with a team, your participation in this great hobby doesn't have to change.

But as for me, When I brew alone,  I will be brewing primarily small batches for the time being.  Really focusing in on sours, and Belgian inspired beers.  I doubt you will notice much of a change on the blog, other than the back ground of some of the photos. But I will be laser focused on 2 to 3.5 gallon batches of beer when I brew alone.  I'm actually pretty excited about brewing more often and digging into sours, saisons, and Belgians more deeply.  I plan to make beer a lot.  Some of which wont be ready for 6 months or even a year.  I think Mark Anthony is about to begin a series of 1 gallon SMASH beers to study various hop flavors.  So I'll probably have him guest blog about that as well. So here is what I plan to do.   And this is what you can do to if you live in a small space.


I have the following gear for small batch already. You don't need all of this to set up for small batch.

• Two 5 gallon kettles
• My trusty Cajun injector electric turkey fryer for 3.5 gallon batches
• Five 1 gallon glass jugs and air locks
• Five 2.25 gallon Mr. Beer Fermenters ( one is for Brett / sours only)
• I will be adding the following to improve fermentation.
• rubber gaskets (replacement rings for wide mouth canning jars)
• air locks
• Three 4 gallon plastic fermenters (rectangular cake frosting buckets from Sams club)
• A fermentation chamber - a mini fridge modified to use for fermentation 
• can hold two Mr. Beer fermenters, or one 4 gallon bucket and one 1 gallon bucket.
• A Saison / sour Box - A foam box that breaks down and fits under the bed for lacto fermentation, and Saison fermentation.  Can keep those temps nice and high!
• held together with tape so it is easy to cut the tape and break it down. 
• Two 2.25 gallon white plastic buckets.   One is for bottling and has a valve.  
• Various brew bags.  
• Scales, refractometers, hydrometers, pH meters, racking canes, bottling wands, etc...

I am purchasing a Tap-a-Draft system for "kegging" my beers. I may purchase two of them.   The apartment won't have room for loads of bottles.  I plan to switch to champagne bottles for the sours.  Again trying to take up less space.   Plus they look cool, and they impress the ladies. 

That's all I need. The rest of my bigger gear is getting labeled and taken to John's for use by the team. Tonight we are brewing, and I'm bringing about 250 lbs of grain.  Don't worry about John sports fans, he has already agreed to this brew gear invasion.  True story,  John just confirmed that this was OK as I was typing.  Beth, his lovely bride,  just wants to make sure everything stays organized in the basement, fair deal.   

I will primarily be brewing BIAB on the stove top.  Nothing fancy.  No fancy gear, No fancy valves.  Just good ol' fashioned BIAB. Me, my kettles and a spoon.  Direct contact with the beer, decoction, step mashing, Sounds awesome.   I'll be doing 1 to 3.5 gallon batches. I'll use the cajun injector for 3.5 gallon batches.   For beers I really enjoy, I'll make three and a half gallon batches and two gallon batches.. For beers I want to try, or for sours.  Ill make 2.25 gallon batches.   I'll be focusing on beers that don't need too much temperature control, saisons, Belgians, biere de garde.  I'll also be working with yeast that is tolerant of temperature swings, T-58, BE 256 US05, WLP001, Wyeast 1056, San Diego Super Yeast.  That's the plan. 

Some up coming beers small batch beers you can expect to see on the blog.

• Torrid Liaison - an American sour blond - two gallons with Mark Anthony.
• Desir et la Nuit - Belgian Tripel with orange blossom honey and orange peel - three and a half gallons - the best beer you'll ever try. 
• Allegement a la Frambroise - Belgian blond with raspberries - three and a half gallons
• August Hyppo - My favorite IPA three and a half  gallons
• Wimpole street Brown - two gallons
• Golden Brett - needs a name other than golden brett... amaze-balls - 2.25 gallons. 
• Carmen Carmine- a Red mixed culture sour beer -2 gallons cool process, sour, ferment, pitch dregs. Easy way to make a Flanders style.  With Mark Anthony
• Newd Bear - a mixed culture soured brown ale - 2 gallons 
• Torrid mash raspberry lambic - 2 gallons - yup, I'm that crazy.

As you can see, most of my beer will be 2 or 3.5 gallon batches. Good beer is a lot of work, I want more than 1 gallon when I make it.  You can also expect more wine and mead coming your way soon.  Wine and mead I generally make 1 gallon batches.  It is really not hard to make wine.  I enjoy the 1 gallon wine kits from Northern Brewer's Partner, Master Vintner  Wine is easy peasy, and quite delicious.  The small kits don't come with oak, but we're home brewers, we know how to fix that.  I have been known to mix Saison with wine, and to mix reds into dark Belgians. Yum!  Mead is one of my all time favorite things to make and drink.  Mead also drinks like wine. So that is a big bonus.  

Of course the team will still be making beer too.   So you can expect lots of big hoppy beers, saisons, and BSDA like always.   Soon well be making a couple of lagers. A fest bier, and a PIVO pils inspired beer.  With those we'll be showing you how to quickly ferment a lager.   So that is what is going on here at counterbrew.  Changes are coming.  All of them for the best.

Wishing you peace and good beer!

REAL LAGER AT ALE TEMPERATURE - FERMENTIS 34/70 The Method, and 2 additional methods.

Crazy Weekend.  But Sunday, I found time to brew a batch of beer.  Just good ol simple beer.  Shooting for 1.032 post mash... Got 1.030, I'll take it.  Shooting for 1.042 post boil and nailed it. Small batch has slightly higher boil off rate percentage.

This Batch is a light american lager.   And that is a key you have to understand with lagers.  There are hundreds of lager yeasts.   Some attenuate out great, posting impressive 83% to even 88% attenuation.   But many, if not most lager yeasts feature fairly low apparent attenuation, in the home brew realm. So unlike an ale yeast that can handle huge OG. Many lager yeasts can not, they would leave the beer too sweet.  And that is not what you want from most lagers.  Certainly not what you want from a Light American Lager. (of course you can adjust your pitch rate to accommodate higher OG, I find attenuation has way more to do with the brewer and the pitch rate than the yeast) (NOTE: I am aware that commercial lagers under, commercial brewing conditions can and will attenuate out at avery high rate.  But most lager yeast, Saccharomyces pastorianus (( S.Carlsbergenus)) can not break apart one of the carbon links in a Maltotriose trisaccharide. )

This batch is pretty straight forward
2.25 gallon batch.
Water adjustments to get to 5.2 pH
4# lager malt
.3# carapils
.7# flaked rice (or minute rice)
Mash at 152 for 75 Minutes, no mash out (got about 72.3%) not bad
Hallertauer at 60,15,0 ... .33 oz.  each addition
Hard boil to break up proteins.
No Whirlfloc
Will use Gelatin to fine this before packaging.

And now for the shocker... I'm fermenting with Fermentis Saflager 34/70.  And I'm doing the primary fermentation at 65F.   After about 10 days I will move the fermentation vessel into the garage fridge at about 36 F for 3 to 5 weeks.
Now before you get all up in arms, and start firing me comments about how this will never work.  Take a breath and ask yourself the following questions.

1. Why not? Why in the world won't Saccharomyces pastorianus ferment at 65F?  What could possibly prevent this yeast from converting sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide at this temperature?   What part of the metabolic transformation will be inhibited?  I think you know the answer is nothing.   It works fine I have been doing it for over 20 years.
2. Have you ever tried it? are you open to new techniques?  No this is not the classic, or even best way to make a lager.  But it works.  It works just fine.   
3. Have you confirmed your point of view with the yeast manufacturer?  I have.  I have had extensive conversations with Fermentis about this technique.  They say it should work fine. Fermentis is amazing to deal with, I encourage you to check out all of their yeasts.  
   

This is how lagering was invented.
Ferment as normal then store cold.

Now I know this isn't conventional,  But give it a shot.  All you need is a fermenter that can fit in your fridge, or even your keezer.   This is not at all what the Brulosopher did with his recent xbeeriment.  Where he displayed that you can ferment lagers at 66F and not even trained judges can tell the difference.   (And by the way if you're not reading and supporting Marshal's work, start now.  He is advancing home brewing.  So buy a dang Tshirt, we need his work to continue.)  Of course, you have to choose the right lager strain to pull this off.

This is a tried and true old school method for making a lager at home.  It is how we did it in the dark ages of home brewing.

Alternate method #1.  Choose a clean lager strain and just ferment the beer at ale temperatures.  It will be fine.   If you don't believe me read the Brulosophy post above.

Alternate method #2.   Ferment it at ale temperatures, and then lager it in the bottles or keg, cold for a month or two.  We used to call this bottle lagering.

It is Tuesday morning.  I brewed on Sunday.  There is a beautiful Krausen on the beer.   Cant wait to drink this one in 6 to 8 weeks. Wednesday morning nice 1/2" creamy lager krausen on the beer.

IMPORTANT NOTE.  AERATE YOUR LAGERS LIKE CRAZY

What to do with your old Mr. Beer stuff... YOU CAN GO ALL GRAIN!

Many of you got into brewing by means of Mr. Beer.   You probably even made some drinkable stuff with Mr. Beer.   Mr. Beer is a great way to get into this hobby.   A couple of years ago Coopers purchased Mr. Beer.   And from what I have heard the ingredients have improved dramatically.  That is great for the Mr. Beer fans.   You may have noticed I said... from what I have heard...  because I don't really know.  I have never used the ingredients,  but I do own 3 of the fermenters.

I own 3 of the LBKs (little brown kegs)  and a bunch of their bottles etc...whenever I can grab these at a garage sale or off of craigslist for cheap, I do.  They are nearly perfect for making small (2 gallon) batches of beer.  Consider:

• Large opening, easy to clean.
• Small size allows for stovetop BIAB (all grain) 
• IF you are a Mr. Beer fan, I am here to tell you all grain and partial mash really do taste better... they just do.
• Small size allows for easy lagering. 
• The LBK fits in your fridge easily.
• There are many, many lager strains where the primary fermentation is at ale temperatures.
• Secondary is at 38... sounds like a fridge to me.
• Durable construction and design.
• The equipment is good stuff.
• The provided bottles fit the amount of wort exactly.
• The carbonation tablets are easy to use.  

There are of course some limitations... without a blow off tube, I would be concerned about doing really high gravity beers, anything over 1.080 I'd be cautious of brewing in a Mr. Beer.   

But now that you are an experienced enough brewer to find your way to my little corner of the world wide web,  you probably aren't using your Mr. Beer stuff anymore.  And that is a shame.  I am here to change that.  This weekend I'm brewing a beer inspired by Bell's Two Hearted Ale.  I am also brewing a lawnmower lager (partial mash) with some of the Mr Beer ingredients... I'll post the recipes and the process.   I hope it will inspire many of you to start using your LBKs again. 

Recipe for 2 Gallon All Grain Bells 2 Hearted Clone for Mr. Beer LBK

We're brewing on the stove top.  You will need the following stuff... most of which you probably already have...

1. a large stock pot (4 gallons or more)
2. a brew bag, you can use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag (i do all the time) or you can go get a brew bag at your LHBS
3. a smaller bag for the hop additions, there are a lot of centennial hops in this recipe and we don't want to lose volume to hop trub...
4. a thermometer
5. a large spoon
6. cleaner, sanitizer, etc... 

The recipe

The mash (based on 65% efficiency) 

5 # of 2 row brewers malt, pale malt, or irish stout malt (it's not dark)

.4 # of Cara/Crystal 60 Lovibond (6.4 oz)

Place the grains into the bag and lower them into the 156.9F H2O... 

Strike grains with 3.25 gal of water at 156.9 °F.

Mash at 152 °F for 60 min.

You should have 2.6 gallons of wort after draining.  

The Boil

Boil wort for 60 minutes total

.3 oz of Centennial Hops before it even comes to the boil

.4 oz of Centennial Hops with 20 minutes remaining

1/2 tsp of Irish Moss with 10 Minutes remaining

if you have a wort chiller add it with 10 minutes to go

1/2 tsp of Yeast Nutrients with 8 Minutes remaining

.8 oz of Centennial Hops with 5 minutes remaining

WARNING WE ARE ENTERING THE SANITATION ZONE, NOTHING TOUCHES THE BEER NOW THAT ISN'T SANITARY.

Chill the wort down to pitching temperatures (i use my small stainless immersion chiller) you can put the pot in a sink of ICE water. Bring it down to 70F or just under.   Remember to sanitize a thermometer if you want to take the readings.

Aerate the wort.   I pour it into the LBK, leaving the trub behind.   Then I rinse the pot.   I then set the LBK on the counter and open the valve allowing the wort to drain into the pot, which I have put on the floor.   I then pour it again into the LBK... at this point it is pretty well aerated.  But if you don't think it is, and you have the ability hit it with O2, or stick your aquarium pump stone in there and give it more.   I'll probably hit it with more air from my aquarium pump (dedicated to brewing only and carefully sanitized)

Pitch the Yeast.  1 package of US05,  you don't need to rehydrate your dry yeast.   But it doesn't hurt.   So if you know how to rehydrate yeast you should do that while you are chilling and aerating.   

Ferment this beer for 3 weeks between 65 F and 70 F.   With 4 days to go sanitize a muslin hop bag and add .4 oz of Centennial.   After 3 weeks put the LBK in the fridge overnight.  The beer will clear to a crystal golden color.  If not, use gelatin and clear the beer again.   I bottle this beer in the Mr. Beer Bottles.   (Pale ales and IPAs need to be drunk while fresh, so there is no risk of putting them into PET bottles).   Wait a week to 10 days before you try your beer.   It should carb up completely by 14 days.  I will probably use carbonation tablets for the bottles, 1 gallon of this will go into two 2 liter bottles for immediate consumption.  

Bells 2 Hearted Ale is almost a SMASH.  Single Malt and Single Hop

Some other Hops that work really well are...

• Amarillo
• Mosaic
• Citra 
• Columbus
• Saaz for a pilsner lager SMASH

If you have a great SMASH or almost SMASH... let me know the hop and we can all give it a try.  

A couple of 1 gallon batches for your viewing pleasure

I think I'm in love... not the flighty here today gone tomorrow kind of love, not the passion burning so hot it has to burn out kind of love.   No, this is real, true love.  The kind that lasts.

I'm in love with small batch brewing.

This weekend I brewed two 1 gallon batches of beer.   It was awesome, low stress, and fast.   Cleaning kitchen to clean up under 4 hours for two batches.

Small batch fits perfectly into my ideals of counter top brewing.

• Affordable batches
• Low risk experimentation
• Low Risk Entry into All Grain Brewing
• More variety
• Low Entry Cost
• Easy Lagering with the right yeast strains ( a 1 gallon jug and air lock fit easily into my garage fridge )
• Super fast chilling (I went from boiling to 68 in 10 minutes with a wort chiller and a sink full of ice water )
• Easy forced Carbonation in 2 liter bottles... seriously? what could be easier?  faster grain to glass...

If you haven't tried it yet... come on what are you waiting for.   Small Batch Brewing will allow me to brew every weekend.  That is 6-8 gallons of beer every month... and yes... that is enough beer.   I'm not saying I wont still do partial mash batches... I will.   But as I look at my beer cellar (read under the dining room table I have over 200 bottles of beer, but only 5 styles of beer are represented)  The kid needs more variety than that.   Some web resources I have found so helpful in my quest to learn more about 1 gallon brewing.... brain sparging  this guy is an attorney who goes in depth in his explanation of home brewing in small batches, and bullcityhomebrew a homebrew shop that actually shares it's recipes for one gallon batches.  They also have equipment set ups, and a brew school.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention Homebrew Exchange Oregon's finest.   Just type in PICO on their search page.

The only things I don't have that I clearly need for small batch brewing right now are... a refractometer, hydrometers just take up too much wort for a 1 gallon batch, a really, I mean really good digital thermometer, and a really good digital scale.

The day started with dry hopping my Pliny the Toddler.  It should be ready for bottling this weekend.  If you've never had a Pliny the Elder by Russian River I suggest you find the recipe and brew one up. Mine is posted at Brewtoad. Pliny the Toddler
Next step, cleaning the brewery.   I always start by cleaning the kitchen and all of the brewing equipment.  

Next I organized my stuff for both batches.   I always lay out my stuff. I usually put sticky notes by it to remind me when to put in various ingredients.   And I clean, and put away ingredients as I brew.  Not only does it make the brew day a little shorter, it keeps down mistakes that can get made in a messy brewhouse.

Water adjustments?  Sure... I use 5.2 pH stabilizer. I find that I get better efficiency, and perhaps more importantly, my hoppy beers stay hoppy.   I know, I know... many of you will argue that you don't really need pH stabilizer.  The mash will stabilize on its' own.  I know that is a statement that is probably correct.   But, my experience says better efficiency, crystal clear wort, and longer term hop flavor and aroma.  For a small batch just a heaping 1/4 of a teaspoon.

Hops measured, organized and ready for service.   This is 1 ounce of Cascade divided into .25 ounces.  60,10,5,0.  Lots of late additions ensures that I will have lots of hop aroma and flavor.   Ill taste this beer after primary and see if it will need to be dry hopped.  Some Simcoe dry hop might get this beer to exactly where I want it to be, a hoppy, grapefruity, refreshing beer.

Honey brown mashing.   Cascade Ale boiling away.  You might note, if you have a stove like mine, that I set the kettle over two burners.  That tricks the stove into keeping both burners going with out over heating.  I can get a pretty vigorous boil.  You may also note, that my volume is too high on the cascade pale ale.  I tried a no sparge BIAB.  I wont be doing that again.  It is much easier to mash with 1.5 quarts of water, and then rinse sparge up to volume.

I use two, or three timers when doing double batches.  I have brewtimer on my phone.   I use my microwave timer, and I use the ol apple timer (not super accurate but hey, you use what you've got).  You might note the plastic plate in the bottom right of the photo.  It has been cleaned and sanitized, it is for setting things on.   Never set things on your counter, even if you have cleaned them.  It is just good practice to follow, even during the boil.

The chill went fine and fast.  Ridiculous cold break. and very clear wort.   One thing I love about small batch brewing is fast chilling.   I set the kettle into a sink of icewater, and turn my chiller on full blast. I usually go from boiling to pitch temp in 10-15 minutes, sometimes faster.

All in all a good brew day.  And I needed one after last weeks debacle.  Update on last week.  The beer from the mistake is bubbling like a fiend.   It's original gravity was... 1.081.   Well see if Nottingham can get it to a decent final gravity.  If not.  I may try adding a wine or champagne yeast just to see what happens.