[dmtaylor]

BIAB is the only way to go!  That's what I use for all my small batches of 1.7 to 2.5 gallons.  Easy peasy.

I use dry yeast most of the time.  You can use half a pack and store the rest in the fridge for later.

I chill in a tub sink with cold water.  After 20 minutes, drain and replace with more cold water.  Another 20 minutes and you're at pitching temperature.  No ice is needed, although if there is snow on the ground I will throw that into the sink -- it's free and ice cold!

With BIAB, you can crush hard to jack up efficiency.

Aim a little high on the mash temp (like 156-158 F) and allow it to fall 6-8 degrees over the course of the mash.  It's all good on the average.  Anyway, you only really need to mash for 40 minutes in my experience, no need for a full 60 or more.

You don't need any LME.

I'm winning awards with these super ultra mega ghetto cheap 'n' easy methods.

[reverseapachemaster]

I ferment my one gallon batches in five liter jugs which means in order to have headspace I need to have minimal trub. Otherwise I lose beer to both ends (trub and blow off). I've been using a BIAB set up and even trying to leave behind some of the wort in the kettle I am still getting too much trub. I use a two gallon cooler with a bag and I am thinking of trying to attach a fine screen to the spout and use it more like the traditional cooler mash tun.

[reverseapachemaster]

My comments are interlined:

- BIAB comes to mind, obviously, but maybe there's other ways of efficient mashing?

See my post above about BIAB. It works alright as long as you can manage volumes with either more trub than a normal mash set up or you are going to leave behind a bit of wort to avoid transferring much of what will become trub.

- A smackpack is relatively expensive for a small batch, so maybe only dry yeast? Or reuse yeast from a previous brew, obviously. Anything else?

Either way you will have too much yeast on your hands. I usually use dry yeast or slurry from a prior batch. I use part of a dry yeast pack and save the rest for a future batch. You can do the same with liquid yeast just add the rest of the yeast to a sanitized jar of water or make a starter and after the starter ferments dump everything into a sanitized jar. (Store the jar in the fridge.)

- Chilling tips  (e.g. pot in tub filled with ice water)

I just chill in the sink with water and use cold packs from the freezer to drop the temperature.

- Tips for increasing efficiency, minimizing trub loss, etc.

Use a good grain mill to deliver on efficiency.

- Tips for maintaining stable mash temperature

This was the biggest problem for me in my small batch set up. I used to do BIAB in a pot on the stove but switched to a two gallon cooler and stick that cooler in the oven with just the oven light on. It's hard to keep mash temperatures stable at this small of a volume unless you are directly applying heat but it's also easy to overshoot temperatures on a small volume.

- Best possible ways to make beer with LME?

Very carefully?

- Reduced boil times?

I wouldn't but you could if you don't mind using more hops as you will get less isomerization.

- General high quality tips? Does small-scale brewing automatically lead to inferior beer?

Not at all. Many of my best batches have been small batches. It's 90% or more of the brewing I do. There is a guy down in Austin, Texas who brews mostly for competition and mostly out of small batches. He was the 2012 Ninkasi winner.

[Slowbrew]

I ferment my one gallon batches in five liter jugs which means in order to have headspace I need to have minimal trub. Otherwise I lose beer to both ends (trub and blow off). I've been using a BIAB set up and even trying to leave behind some of the wort in the kettle I am still getting too much trub. I use a two gallon cooler with a bag and I am thinking of trying to attach a fine screen to the spout and use it more like the traditional cooler mash tun.

Have you tried using a funnel with a filter in it? 

The few times I have tried to use a filter on 5 gallon batches the screen plugs up but it might work on 1 gallon batches to minimize the amount of crud you transfer over with the wort.

Paul

[beersk]

Aim a little high on the mash temp (like 156-158 F) and allow it to fall 6-8 degrees over the course of the mash.  It's all good on the average.  Anyway, you only really need to mash for 40 minutes in my experience, no need for a full 60 or more.

Is that really true, that it's okay if it falls that much over the course of the mash? If that's the case, why do people go to such lengths to maintain their mash temps?

[erockrph]

As for the volumes, exactly my point. I skip the finings because the break material tends to be fluffy and hard to avoid.

+1.  I don't kettle fine for 1 gallon batches, either.

Same here. See pic below. Jug on left had no whirlfloc and ended up with a compact trub. The jug on the right got whirlfloc and had a big fluffy trub. It's about 1 beer's worth of difference, which is significant in a 6-pack sized batch.


As far as shortened boil times go, that's my main reason for using DME nowadays. I usually do a 15-minute boil on extract batches. You can easily knock out a 1-gallon batch of beer and pitched and cleaned up in under an hour.

[dmtaylor]

Aim a little high on the mash temp (like 156-158 F) and allow it to fall 6-8 degrees over the course of the mash.  It's all good on the average.  Anyway, you only really need to mash for 40 minutes in my experience, no need for a full 60 or more.

Is that really true, that it's okay if it falls that much over the course of the mash? If that's the case, why do people go to such lengths to maintain their mash temps?

Why indeed?!  All I know is that it works for me, and I don't see why others don't try it.  As long as you're not screaming up above 160 F to kill all your beta amylase, everything should work out well.  People just like to make things difficult.

[beersk]

Aim a little high on the mash temp (like 156-158 F) and allow it to fall 6-8 degrees over the course of the mash.  It's all good on the average.  Anyway, you only really need to mash for 40 minutes in my experience, no need for a full 60 or more.

Is that really true, that it's okay if it falls that much over the course of the mash? If that's the case, why do people go to such lengths to maintain their mash temps?

Why indeed?!  All I know is that it works for me, and I don't see why others don't try it.  As long as you're not screaming up above 160 F to kill all your beta amylase, everything should work out well.  People just like to make things difficult.

Makes me curious to do a side by side of a batch where you let the mash fall 6-8 degrees on one and on the other, hold it at a steady mash temp. Wonder what differences there would be...

[a10t2]

Makes me curious to do a side by side of a batch where you let the mash fall 6-8 degrees on one and on the other, hold it at a steady mash temp. Wonder what differences there would be...

Depending on the strike temperature and how fast/far it falls, you might see a small increase in attenuation and/or efficiency. 6-8°F may not be enough to make any difference, especially with modern base malts.

http://seanterrill.com/2011/10/15/reverse-mashing-2/

[beersk]

Thanks, Sean. It looks, though, that the controlled mash is still the best. I usually lose 4-5 degrees over the course of 60-90 minutes and it annoys me. Perhaps I should fahgettaboutit, eh?

[erockrph]

Thanks, Sean. It looks, though, that the controlled mash is still the best. I usually lose 4-5 degrees over the course of 60-90 minutes and it annoys me. Perhaps I should fahgettaboutit, eh?

As long as your process is consistent, then there's really no issue. When you're dialing in a recipe you will just end up making adjustments that take your own system into consideration. I.e., if you see lower attenuation than you'd like on a recipe, then simply adjust mash temp and/or duration next time around.

[a10t2]

Consistency is always the key. As a practical matter, using an insulated mash tun (cooler) or warm oven to maintain mash temperature is probably simpler than controlling ambient temperature/humidity, grist volume/thickness, etc. to get a consistent temperature drop for such small batches.

Anecdotally, mash temperature just doesn't seem to be all that important with well-modified modern base malts. Even with something like a HERMS setup, you might not see a significant variation between two mashes 4°F apart.

[homoeccentricus]

In 20 years, home brewers will laugh at the good old times, when people still believed that mashing made a difference

[homoeccentricus]

Oh, one more thing: any tips on how to bottle these one gallon batches efficiently? I have four or five one gallon meads that I need to bottle this weekend...

[dmtaylor]

I sanitize extra bottles of different sizes so that I am not left with an extra 10 oz unbottled beverage at the end.  There are bottles of 11, 12, 16, 22 oz.  Use them in different combinations so that nothing goes to "waste".  If only 2 oz is left after filling the last bottle I will drink it but if there is more than that then I always feel like I should have bottled it.