OK, so let me start by saying I have not yet invested in brewing software. So this question comes with a handicap up front.
But ... I have been shying away from making some of my favorites (barley wines and Imperial Stouts) because my 10 gallon cooler simply will not handle the volume of grain needed. I have been pushing the limit of my cooler with 16 or 17 pounds of grain. A beer like the ones I am envisioning will easily cross the 20 pound mark for 5 gallons.
So my homebrew addled mind finally hit on what should have been the simplest of ideas. How about cutting the size of the batch to either 2.5 or 3 gallons? DUH!
So now it gets me to thinking about how to properly scale down a batch. I use an online calculator that predicts gravities and IBUs based on batch size, boil volume and amount of grain used. So I can scale down the base ingredients with no problem to ensure I hit the same gravities and bitterness. And quarts per pound is quarts per pound no matter how much grist I have. So my mash water volume is no problem.
The main thing that's puzzling me is pre boil volume. I usually batch sparge to collect 7 gal of pre-boil wort to get to a final volume of 5 to 5.5 gal. But how do I calculate what to collect for a 3 gal or even a 2.5 gal batch? My boil rate is not consistent because I am usually cleaning during the boil. Sometimes I wind up at 5 gal. Sometimes 5.5, Sometimes somewhere in between.
So I have 3 questions:
1. Am I right in thinking that I can use a calculator to scale a batch down from 5 gallons and if everything else remains the same, I can still create the same beer, just less of it?
2. What's the best way to predict what changes I would need for the smaller volume? I am particularly concerned about how much to collect pre-boil.
3. Is there anything else I should be considering when looking to scale down a recipe?
But ... I have been shying away from making some of my favorites (barley wines and Imperial Stouts) because my 10 gallon cooler simply will not handle the volume of grain needed. I have been pushing the limit of my cooler with 16 or 17 pounds of grain. A beer like the ones I am envisioning will easily cross the 20 pound mark for 5 gallons.
So my homebrew addled mind finally hit on what should have been the simplest of ideas. How about cutting the size of the batch to either 2.5 or 3 gallons? DUH!
So now it gets me to thinking about how to properly scale down a batch. I use an online calculator that predicts gravities and IBUs based on batch size, boil volume and amount of grain used. So I can scale down the base ingredients with no problem to ensure I hit the same gravities and bitterness. And quarts per pound is quarts per pound no matter how much grist I have. So my mash water volume is no problem.
The main thing that's puzzling me is pre boil volume. I usually batch sparge to collect 7 gal of pre-boil wort to get to a final volume of 5 to 5.5 gal. But how do I calculate what to collect for a 3 gal or even a 2.5 gal batch? My boil rate is not consistent because I am usually cleaning during the boil. Sometimes I wind up at 5 gal. Sometimes 5.5, Sometimes somewhere in between.
So I have 3 questions:
1. Am I right in thinking that I can use a calculator to scale a batch down from 5 gallons and if everything else remains the same, I can still create the same beer, just less of it?
2. What's the best way to predict what changes I would need for the smaller volume? I am particularly concerned about how much to collect pre-boil.
3. Is there anything else I should be considering when looking to scale down a recipe?