Rrrrrrreally Small Batches...

[Fierce Beard]

Hey guys,

2011 was a rough year on ol' Fierce Beard. Without going into too much detail, I'm about to move into a shithole with:

1: No yard
2: A communal kitchen

This will virtually halt my all-grain brewing, and I can't see myself occupying the stove for several hours while somebody wants to make a pizza. While I will be able to break out the old mashtun at friends houses from time to time, I want to brew with more regularity than that. I'm thinking about making 1 gallon batches on a camp stove in my room and fermenting them in growlers. I can handle scaling down the recipes, but I'm concerned about the yeast - Do I need to worry about over-pitching with such small batches? Would, for instance, a single WL vial or Wyeast smackpack over-saturate my beer with yeast? Should I get back to dry yeast and measure it out in a teaspoon?

Any help here would be hot....

[anday6]

I would probably suggest buying a graduated cylinder if you're splitting up a vial into fractions. If you're off by half a teaspoon when you're only adding a few, that's a pretty big percentage. Also, the solution in the vial may become a larger portion of the overall volume.

You are gonna need a really small stir plate...

[Fierce Beard]

Oh, I forgot to mention priming....

I'm going to be fermenting in a 64 oz growler, then transferring to 2 32 oz swing-top bottles. Can I accurately measure the amount of corn sugar I'll need for that small of a batch without a triple-beam scale? I've heard about pellets that contain the proper amount for a single bottle, but never seen any...

[spiderwrangler]

I'd recommend using the carbonation tabs, there are a couple on the market, one from Coopers that look like cough drops, and one that's packaged by Brewer's Best.

[Fierce Beard]

I'd recommend using the carbonation tabs, there are a couple on the market, one from Coopers that look like cough drops, and one that's packaged by Brewer's Best.

Thanks for the specific product names, spiderwrangler. I've described this product to my local homebrew shop without pinging the (largely non-brewing) staffers' radar. I'll ask for these products, and if my local can't oblige, I guess I'll order them from B3 or NB.

Is there one that you prefer over the other?

[Jbug]

If you're just brewing standard English or American ales, you may look in to dry yeast... us-05 is a great yeast that I use all the time... I bet you could get at least 6 batches out of an 11g package. Watch the handling though. Flame a butter knife and scoop the needed amount or better yet use measuring spoons. The spoons are prob the better way so you can pitch the same everytime. I hope your situation get better soon!


Josh

[Fierce Beard]

If you're just brewing standard English or American ales, you may look in to dry yeast... us-05 is a great yeast that I use all the time... I bet you could get at least 6 batches out of an 11g package. Watch the handling though. Flame a butter knife and scoop the needed amount or better yet use measuring spoons. The spoons are prob the better way so you can pitch the same everytime. I hope your situation get better soon!


Josh

This sounds like the avenue I'm going to follow. Quick question - Do I have to worry about scorching the dry yeast with a hot spoon, or am I just being paranoid? When I've used dry yeast in the past, I've just dumped a packet. If I'm scooping with a spoon, and it's hot enough to kill bad bugs, am I going to damage my yeast?

[anday6]

Flaming anything is just a method of sterilization, you would allow the spoon to cool before rehydrating your yeast. If you are dumping the yeast out of the packet into the spoon, you could also sanitize with starsan.