I decided to play around a bit and made a 1 gallon MT with a little cooler and some leftover parts. So tonight I just mashed in 1.25 lbs of 2-row to try and make up a gallon of starter wort.

It is also my first attempt at batch sparging. Thanks Denny. I had a little trouble with the math but your page helped a lot.

My thinking is two fold for this project. First I have always been less than happy using dry malt extract for my starters and thought that maybe my yeast would appreciate a fresh, homemade wort to grow on. Let's hope so.

Secondly I thought this might be a fun way to try out a few recipes without burning through the grain stores.

As an added bonus, I realized I'll be getting a refresher on my math skills (see above) scaling everything down to gallon size.

I do hope this works. 45 more minutes left in the mash. God I love new brew toys!

I've done 2.5 Gallon batches before; the problem I had was that it was almost as much work (clean up, sanitizing, boiling etc) as 5 Gallons. It IS good if you're doing something really funky and strange, but for my money, 5 gallons is about the minimum.

And now I am starting to feel like simpledad except going from 5 to 10 gallons. 10 gallons stretches my current system, but it is doable. A little extra time heating and cooling, but everything else is the same. The work for 5 gallons is the same as for 10. Now I just need another propane tank and a better wort chiller and 10 will be as easy as 5

I have been brewing 3 to 3.5 gal. batches since 94'-95' and they take as long to brew as 5 gal. batches, 8 hours on a good day. If I could I would be brewing 5 and 10 gal. batches but I do get more variaty/styles from a sack of grain to look at the bright side.

it is VERY worthwhile when trying out something new. There's nothing more depressing then experimenting with an ingredient only to get 5 gallons worth of bad results. Plus, if you've got carbonator caps, all you need are two 2-liter bottles and you've got the whole batch bottled up.

As a guideline (not a rule), I do smaller batches as experiments, and when a brew is proven, I'll double it up for a full 5-gallon batch.

My little test last night came out pretty good, though I didn't get the water levels right for the first runnings. I guess the grain absorbed more than I calculated so it was a little short.

Overall I got what I was looking for. The wort came out at 1.037, though only about 3 liters worth. Still I was able to pitch some WLP004 and it's happily eating away on the stir plate. As I mentioned, one of the goals was to give them a nice basic meal to grow on.

I'm in agreement with you guys on the time. It really takes about the same amount of time as it does with my 10 gallon brews. Of course heating 1.5 gallons to temp is certainly much quicker than 13 gallons on my rig. Plus I didn't boil for very long as I had no hop additions. But the time wasn't really the issue. I've never really liked using DME for starters. It costs way more than the $0.60 or so worth of grain I used last night and it never seems to be completely dissolved.

Mainly though I was just playing around and seeing if I could do it. It was funny trying to open or close the 1/2" valve with one hand and no real weight to the 1 gallon MT. I was trying to direct the hose into a pitcher to recirculate with one hand and turn the valve with the other. End result was the MT simply spinning on the counter. Still it was fun.

I might just pull this little MT out with every brew and do a separate 1 gallon batch. I've got gallon jugs to use as fermentors so why not. I can boost my brewery's production level by 10%.

Cheers.

If I had the kettle for 10, I'd do 10!

Mr. Berg, as far as time goes- if you got the time,YOU will have the beer and it will be real beer

Matthew's got it dead on, if you've got the time.

My malt's cheap, so my experiments are 5 gallon batches. Since I have had large periods of time where I couldn't find time to do a batch, I try to make the most of it each time I get a chance to brew.

I do completely agree with using DME for starters though, it's horribly expensive by comparison. But my time is important too. If I get a chance this summer I'll probably do a 10+ gallon batch of starter wort and can it (since there's pressure canning gear in the house) and spend maybe $10 to make it, and more time efficient too.

I like to make a starter beer in my 2 gallon beverage cooler. Using Chris Colby's stovetop partial mash procedures (BYO, Oct. 2006) I can get 3 gallons of low gravity wort. I just skip the addition of extract and have a small batch all grain brew to play around with on the way to the yeast cake planned for the main event.

BoonieBrew - I have thought of doing the same thing, canning a quantity of wort for starters. The more I think about it, I think it will be easier for me to just freeze the wort in plastic containers, like those cheap semi-disposable type. This may be something for you to consider, depending on how big your canner is, how big your freezer is, and how much starter wort you would actually use over a reasonable period of time.

Personally, I could only do about 6 or 8 quarts in my pressure canner, but my freezer has plenty of extra space. I could probably make and freeze several gallons for future starters. I haven't done this yet, but probably will this week, as I need to make starter wort for an upcoming brew anyway.

When my sparge starts to slow way down, I collect the remaining wort in a 2 liter PET bottle and freeze it. When I'm ready for a starter, I take it out, soak it in a water bath to thaw it out and boil it for about 15 minutes.