Converting from Home Brewer to Commercial Brewer

It is probably a dream for everyone on this forum to take their hobby and create a business out of it; that one day one of our recipes will be featured as a clone in someone's post.
How difficult is it to take the average 5-gallon recipe and convert it into a nano-brewery or brew-pub quantities? Is this something that you can just multiple the amount of ingredients to match the final quantity - to make 25 gallons of IPA I just need to increase the amount of ingredients by 5 times?
Please note, this post is to discuss the formula changes for replicating a beer recipe on a larger scale, not the business plan or financial & personnel commitment needed to start a successful nano brewery or brew-pub.

For malt, generally yes. For hops, no. You're utlization will increase as you scale up. Also, commercial breweries typically whirlpool after the boil for about 25-30 minutes, and since the temp is generally above 200*, you'll get more bitterness out of the hops as well (i.e. your 60 minute boil hops are isomerizing for 75-80 mins).

..and a quick update question: Does fermentation times differ when you increase the quantity as well? Theoretically, if you keep the ratio of pounds of sugar to quantity of yeast the same, shouldn't the fermentation times be similar?

I toured the micro brew around the corner from me, Orlando Brewing, and they said that fermentation for most of their beer typcially takes between three and four days. So I'd say they are pitching a tremendous amount of yeast.

They gave me a pint of 1056 yeast slurry that I'm going to pitch in an IPA I'm brewing tonight so I'll be curious to see how fast fermentation goes. That's a butt load of yeast so my huntch is it is going to go fast.

They are a great bunch of people there by the way and they brew great beer.

Dave

FensterBos said:

..and a quick update question: Does fermentation times differ when you increase the quantity as well? Theoretically, if you keep the ratio of pounds of sugar to quantity of yeast the same, shouldn't the fermentation times be similar?

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Going by what I have read on here and listening to some commercial brewers talk on the BN, it really depends on the size & dimensions of the Fermenters. Because the big dogs have such huge fermenters they can ferment at higher temps and get the batch to finish out faster. I'm not really sure what the science is behind it, but that's what I hear. It also bring Autolysis into play because of the weight of the beer pushing down on the yeast cake. It's one reason they use Conicals. Again, so I've heard.

It'll be close. As said above: Your grain bills will probably be nearly identical aside from the fact that commercial breweries usually get 90% efficiency or so. Grain bills needs to be adjusted accordingly, and your SRM may differ slightly.

Hop utilization will definitely be different. Commercial breweries whirlpool at high temperatures, many commercial brewers use Hop-backs, etc etc. Again, it's not a huge adjustment, but still one that needs to be made.

Lastly, fermentation: talk to the folks on this board about conicals. They are slightly different.

But to answer your original question: If you have an awesome 5 gallon recipe, and your a competent enough brewer to be opening a small brewery, you won't have any problem scaling it up to nano batch(1-10bbl) sizes.

I think I have heard/read somewhere that the force of all beer puts more pressure on the yeast which prohibits them from throwing off flavors, which allows them to ferment warmer (faster) without the off flavors

coypoo said:

I think I have heard/read somewhere that the force of all beer puts more pressure on the yeast which prohibits them from throwing off flavors, which allows them to ferment warmer (faster) without the off flavors

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I've heard that as well

Surface_Tension said:

I toured the micro brew around the corner from me, Orlando Brewing, and they said that fermentation for most of their beer typcially takes between three and four days. So I'd say they are pitching a tremendous amount of yeast.

They gave me a pint of 1056 yeast slurry that I'm going to pitch in an IPA I'm brewing tonight so I'll be curious to see how fast fermentation goes. That's a butt load of yeast so my huntch is it is going to go fast.

They are a great bunch of people there by the way and they brew great beer.

Dave

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there's a thread around here on over-pitching. I'd check it out before adding your butt load of yeast.

I'll do a search. Thanks.

The pressure on the grain gets crazy when you start to get above a hundred pounds. False bottoms tend to clog. Sparge goes down to a trickle. Proper equipment on full grain usually comes in around 90-92% efficiency so no sugar needed unless your doing something really creative with brown sugar, molassess, Honey or dumping a number 10 can of peaches in. The shear weight of the water shouldn't be over an inch above the grain to prevent compacting of the mash bed. If your mash does set, the only way I know is to stir it (not a good choice) or back flush it from under the bed to break it loose. This could also reduce the gravity of your wort. Without the proper equipment, it really is hard to make the transition from Ten gallons to 55 gallons.

IIRC when you go up to commercial scale the yeast cakes get much much bigger and they can do weird stuff that doesn't happen on the homebrew scale so it's much more important to use a secondary.