I’m slowly getting into all-grain brewing 1 gallon at a time. I brewed an all-grain pale ale using a 5 quart pot as a mash tun. I’m trying to learn a few flavor profiles before making the leap into all-grain.
I used Briess Pale Malt and Caracrystal for this batch. I’m hoping the Caracrystal adds maltiness and an awesome orange color. I mashed these grains for 75 minutes and only lost 1 degree in an stainless pot. I thought I would need to heat the pot a few times and stir. On Briess’ website it says that Caracrystal only adds 55 lovibond. The grains looked much darker to me than that, we will see how this turns out.
After the mash was complete I transferred the grains to my strainer above my 5 gallon kettle. I heated another gallon of water to 170 degrees and rinsed the grains until they ran fairly clear. I now have 2 gallons of wort in my kettle. I did a 60 minute boil using only Cascade hops. I used 1 ounce total for bittering, flavor, and flame out. I was left with about 1.25 gallons of wort after the boil. After the wort was cooled to 69 degrees I strained it into my 1 gallon jug.
I pitched 3 grams of re-hydrated Muntons Ale Yeast in 1/3 cup of water that cooled from 90 degrees down to room temperature. I next inserted an airlock and a few feet of 1/2″ ID hose for the blow off tube. There is no head space and this setup will be needed for sure.
Exactly 6 hours later the Krausening formed and it rose in a matter of minutes. The pitcher sitting next to the fermenter went from silent to bubbling in seconds. Seems like 5 gallon batches don’t wake up this fast for me. This is another fun experiment that I have to wait 8 weeks to taste. I’m planning a 2-3 week fermentation then 1 week cold crashing. I may get 7 or 8 bottles and then three weeks sitting on top of my kitchen cabinets. It’s funny that this is the perfect place to bottle condition. The temperature stays around 73 degrees up there.
Does anyone else make 1 gallon batches? It’s the same amount of work but it’s the only way I can make all-grain homebrew at the moment.