[jaftak22]

So I had been thinking about brewing 1 gallon batches for a while. Two reasons; One is cheaper on the pocketbook and two I want to experiment with stuff I have never used. So on Monday I got the latest BYO magazine in the mail and low and behold they had a really good article on brewing small batches. That's all it took, so I ran to the LHBS and bought enough grain for the recipe for a 1 gallon Old Ale.

 I have to admit I am pretty excited about this.  Last week I had secured a 3 gallon Rubbermaid cooler that I intend on using as a MLT. Just haven't got the parts to make a valve or false bottom. I plan on using a braid for the false bottom.

Well tonight is the big night and in all my excitement I bought a mesh bag to do a brew in the bag. So my question is for some of you that have done this, have you either done a no sparge or simply just poured your sparge water over the bag in a collander? Pretty sure that the no sparge method would work fairly well but I think my efficiency will take a blow. But all in all we are only talking about $5 dollars in ingredients, any advice is appreciated

[Stevie]

When I BIAB small batches I can't fit the full volume with the grains so I have a second pot with hot water to add. To me it just seemed silly to not pour the "sparge" water over the grains.

Edit - one thing to be careful of is mineral additions if you use RO or distilled. Don't want to end up with a minerally beer. To make it simple I only add minerals to the mash since the later water is nearly all boiled off.

[erockrph]

I do no sparge BIAB batches in a cooler just like you are planning. I use a 5 gallon cooler for 3 gallon batches, so you should have plenty of room. My efficiency is generally 80% into the kettle for beers above 1.040. As long as you have a fine meshed bag, then squeeze out as much as you can. I'd you're using something with a wide mesh like muslin then I wouldn't  squeeze so much so you don't get husk material in the boil.

[jaftak22]

So I didn't do a no batch sparge. But everything else went of as planned. It was actually really weird not doing a full 10 gallon or five gallon batch. Ended up with one full gallon, went to bed around midnight and when I got up there was a lot of activity going on. Hope it turns out well.  Missed my gravity I was shooting for but it can only get better as I develop a system with these test batches.

[dmtaylor]

I make 1.7-gallon batches most of the time.  Just brewed one today.  Always BIAB.  I debated whether to steep the bag in the sparge water, or to just pour the water over the top.  Given the amount of particulate matter, I decided to pour everything through the bag to help filter that stuff out.  I've made good beers both ways but in this case I wanted to ensure perfection and the best clarity possible, so... basically fly sparge in a colander, works really fast for small batches like 1 or 1.7 gallons.  Not so easy for 5 gallons as you'll often get a stuck sparge, and thus be stuck holding that huge kettle of 3-3.5 gallons sparge water or whatever for a really really long time, ouch.  Only takes 5-10 minutes with small batches.  Love the small batches.

[reverseapachemaster]

The majority of my brewing for the past 2-3 years has been small batches either 1 or 3 gallons. I sparge and treat it identically to a larger batch. I have a digital gram scale to measure out to 0.1g for water additions. Like larger batches, there are many ways to brew and many systems will produce excellent beer.