making small batches

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bagpiperjosh

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I apologize in advance if this question has been asked a lot, but I didn't find it elsewhere yet.

Say I found a 5 gallon all grain recipe (or partial mash) online and I wanted to make a sample batch of say 1 gal. just to make sure i'll like it before I make a whole 5 gal batch... Is there a way (or calculation) to amounts and brew time, etc, so it will be the same tasting when I make a 5 gal batch?

or for that matter make double the amount?

thanks
 
You can pretty much just divide by 5 for a 1 gallon batch. Double for 10 gallons. There are various brewing programs you can get that will scale a recipe for you. Boil/mash times, etc. are the same no matter what the scale of the recipe is.
 
You can pretty much just divide by 5 for a 1 gallon batch. Double for 10 gallons. There are various brewing programs you can get that will scale a recipe for you. Boil/mash times, etc. are the same no matter what the scale of the recipe is.

even the hops?
 
Absolutely. If you use 5oz of hops for 5gal, use 1 for 1. I generally look at hops in terms of grams when small batch brewing since 1/5oz is kind of a tough concept (and even harder to measure). One of the best beers I ever made was 1 gallon of IPA. I had it all in mind that I would do a bunch of 1 gallon single hop batches to get a feel for different hops. It was so good that I decided to just make them all 5 gallons instead :D
 
Yeah, even the hops. If you were scaling the recipe up to say a 30 barrel system you would reduce the hops because at higher volumes you get better hop utilization. But at this level just divide by 5 and you're good to go.

I actually just kegged a 2 gallon batch of cascadian dark ale. It's fun brewing the small batches whether you're planning on stepping it up or not. Have fun and take the advice of the other brewers...get some software. Dragging a slider or punching in a percentage to step up or step down a recipe is quite a bit easier than doing it all by hand.
 
ok so what does everyone recommend as a good beginners software program? I need something simple and straightforward.
 
I've only used Beersmith, and it was fairly daunting at first, but very worth while. It's not free, but there is a trial version. I think the trial version does pretty much everything that the full version does, but you can only use it for a certain period of time. I remember using it for a very short amount of time before I was willing to spend the $25 or whatever it is for the full license.
 
I've only used Beersmith, and it was fairly daunting at first, but very worth while. It's not free, but there is a trial version. I think the trial version does pretty much everything that the full version does, but you can only use it for a certain period of time. I remember using it for a very short amount of time before I was willing to spend the $25 or whatever it is for the full license.

+1 for BeerSmith and there are now Windows, Mac, and Linux versions
 
ok, i'm trying the beer smith trial now. it definitely seems a bit overwhelming at first. ill play around with it for a while to see if i get the hang of it.
 
bagpiperjosh said:
ok, i'm trying the beer smith trial now. it definitely seems a bit overwhelming at first. ill play around with it for a while to see if i get the hang of it.

I really like Beersmith it's a great tool. You'll figure it out.
 
Watch the videos on the beersmith website. Brad, the creator walks through setup and the basic uses of the software. I found them very helpful. I'm a visual learner so it helped that way too. I eventually settled on beer alchemy for Mac and iPhone. I really like that program.
 
ok, i'm trying the beer smith trial now. it definitely seems a bit overwhelming at first. ill play around with it for a while to see if i get the hang of it.

Use the help feature to set it to your equipment. Helped me a lot. Make your one equipment profile and mash profile.
 
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