Cloning a Beer

When cloning a beer...

My system can only handle 12# of grain, maybe 13# max, the recipe I am attempting to clone calls for 13# of base grain plus the specialty grains. Even if my system could handle all the grain bill, my efficiency at 10# would equal the same OG as their 13#.

I have to scale down the recipe to fit the grain in my system and to match the OG, but when it comes to the specialty grains, do I scale those as well? Is specialty grain based off the base grain proportions or based of the OG?

1.070 is 1.070 whether I get it from 10# or 13# of grain. It would seem to me that the specialty grain would remain unchanged as long as I hit the correct OG. Right? but I can see that some of the OG is effected by the specialty grain as well. I have never attempted a clone before, so what to do?

Thanks

keep the % of total grain bill the same for each grain

80% base
10% crystal/caramel
10% flaked whatever

would be the same no matter the batch size

don't worry if you're off by a fraction of an oz. 1 lb vs 15.9 oz is insignificant

So your saying if I scale down the base, I should scale down the specialty?

what about cacoa nibs and coffee? there is not an extraction per volume, so I would leave those the same, yes?

what about lactose and melanoids? don't they work on volume in whole not grain percentage?

Yes, everything would need to be scaled if you really want to try and match the clone your after.

MollyHatchet said:

Yes, everything would need to be scaled if you really want to try and match the clone your after.

Click to expand...

something in the math, I don't buy it.

I can see scaling the grain for efficiency, if I am getting more efficiency with my grain bill and I have to scale the bill percentage to percentage, base malt and specialty grains to match, 1.070 is 1.070. But nibs and coffee and vanilla bean, peppers...

if I have 5 gallons of water and use 2 cups of coffee for example, this coffee will impart so much flavor in the 5 gallons, if I use only 1.5 cups of coffee in this same 5 gallons, surely it will impart less coffee flavor. Same for nibs and other adjuncts that are not based on efficiency but OG. 2 cups of coffee for an OG of 1.070, 1.5 cups of coffee for an OG of 1.060 for example, (not calculated or accurate)

so if I have an OG of 1.070 from 13# of grain, or if I have an OG of 1.070 from 10# of grain, I still have the same OG same amount of fermentable and unfermentable sugars, same flavor profile so the adjuncts would not change to balance the same 5 gallon volume and the same OG flavor profile.