I've been thinking about making the move to all-grain for a while, but actually sorting out the equipment looks moderately difficult and expensive (at least while I'm a poor student) and I don't really have the room for it where I'm living now. Then an idea struck me, if I do tiny 1 gallon batches instead of 5 gallon batches, then I can just do it in a big pot on the stove top! I allready have some small 1 gallon carboys I have been useing for Meade.

Does anyone have any ideas on what techniques would suit production on such a micro scale? Lautering shouldn't be too hard, I can probably put all the crushed grains in a big grain bag. I would welcome any ideas or advice, I can't think of any new equipement I'll need to buy except a coffee thermometer to check the wort temp. Is there anything I'm probably forgetting?

There's a lot of info out there on "brew in a bag" methods of mashing in nylon grain bags on the stove top. I don't have a link offhand.

I think I found one that is easy enough to follow.

http://www.byo.com/component/resource/a ... al-mashing

I've even found a coffee bean grinder that seems to be a minature version of what I assume a lot of you fellows use to mill your grains, it can be adjusted so that it doesn't grind them into a fine powder but just smashes them up a bit. Though it is so small that putting 10 pounds of grain through it would be a real chore.

Interesting link!

Here's another good link http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

Cheers for that second link. It pretty much confirms the method of the first, there appear to be no rudimentary discrepencies. Will put this into practice fairly soon.

I am a hoby winemaker taking a little break waiting on fruit and other wines to finish bulk ageing.
I have been playing around with beer in mean while. Just went straight to all grain, I think the extract is a little pricy. Yesterday I put a bucket that I had drilled a bunch of 1/8 inch holes into and tried to sparg using my primary fermenter. (4.5 lb 2 row malt, 4.5 lb wheat malt, .75 lb honey malt, .25 lb caramel malt, 2.5 gal water for boil) The sparg started well it was almost as thick as hot honey. But when I put my first runs back in they just set on top. I think this would have worked if I had been making a lighter beer.

Has anyone tried the set -up on utube using the outer jacket of a braided water hose, I plan on using a bung that will fit in the backside the spiket of my primary fermenter, one with limited space could use this then clean bucket and set a 3 gal carboy in bucket and use it for a water bath to help keep it cool.

I used to use a stainless braided line in my mash tun. I think it would work good for a small setup.
I have never seen wort as thick as honey. And i have made some big beers. What temp did you have during mash?

yea discovered I had temp to high I kept it at 155- 160 I know now to let it fall and I think I can go as low as 145???? I made the contraction I saw and put it to use today it worked great. No way will I be trying them bags again this was to simple.

Oh forgot all material except bung which I pulled from my wine making equipment was $17.00

1/2 in x 18 in braided hose cut off ends and pull out rubber center
12 in long 3/8 copper tubeing cut down to 4"
1 hose clamp

that looks like it will work,but you might think about leaving the copper tubing the length of the braid. it will keep the braid down in the bottom of the bucket without collapsing, drill a bunch of small holes in the bottom of the tubing to collect the liquid.
gary

Thanks for the info. I used it yesterday with no probloms but if I see it having probloms I will have this in my head.

Looks good. A heads-up and no big secret. But quite a lot of what looks like braided stainless steel on the shelf nowadays is actually a kind of metal coated plastic. Just looking at the stuff, you could swear it's metal, but it ain't.