Brown Ale Recipe Scaled Down

[parks1031]

I am new to brewing, only brewed three batches of mead and want to branch out and try beer. I found a recipe for a brown ale that I am really interested in trying out.

The recipe is:

5.5 G batch, mash @ 152* for 60 min
Grains
6.5# 2 row
3# rye malt
2# biscuit
.75# chocolate malt 350L
.5# C60
Hops
.75 oz Columbus @60
.25 oz Columbus @ 20
1 oz Willamette @ 5
Yeast
Wlp007 dry English ale
Ferment @ 67*

I want to scale this down to a 1G batch and want to make sure it is as simple as dividing measurements by 5.5 or is there more to consider. If anyone has a 1G batched recipe that is tried and true I would love to try it. Any recs or help would be appreciated!

 

[BongoYodeler]

Dividing by 5.5 will get you in the ballpark. Most any brewing software will get you closer once you've given it good numbers to work with such as your boil off rate and other losses along the way.

Have a look here for lots of information on 1 gallon brewing..
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/1-gallon-brewers-unite.311884/

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

With tiny all-grain batches, it can be challenging to maintain a stable mash temperature. One idea that comes from "1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!" is to use a preheated oven: preheat the oven to around 160F, turn the oven off; then move the mashing grains to the oven.

 

[SCoutdoors]

If you have a Brewfather account (if you don’t then go get one) load this recipe in there then at the top click the scale button and put in 1 gallon and it will do everything for you.

 

[hotbeer]

As long as you aren't changing up the ABV you can just divide it all up linearly to achieve the quantity you wish. But a beer recipe software can be a big help if you understand all the stuff that is done to correct for your various efficiencies, particularly water losses from absorption, boil off and other places were we wonder why x amount of water in didn't yield the same x amount out. There is a link at the top of the page to some brewing software and recipe tools that I think has a trial or free option. Might have to widen the browser page to see it.

I use to do just 1 gallon all-grain BIAB. I found that just wrapping the stockpot I used for mashing with big fluffy bat towels that it'd hold temp and maybe need one or two warm ups. If you have a induction burner, you might can leave the towels on. If you use a electric stove or gas burner be sure to remove the towels.

I didn't find the oven that useful. My oven won't even start till I set at least 200°F on the thermostat. Maybe others can. Another option is just get a insulated water cooler or small ice chest and first fill it with hot water to get it's thermal mass warmed up. Don't use boiling water. Mash temp water or strike temp water is fine. Then pour it out and add your mash. Or if you are confident about your strike temp, then add your malts and other grist directly to the water in the cooler.

If you are new to brewing, you might get some of the 1 gallon recipe kits that can be found. Brooklyn Brewshop is what I started with. Very simple instructions that if followed will give you good beer. If you start try to do the more higher skilled things we talk about on this forum, you might ruin it.

mixes...
https://brooklynbrewshop.com/collections/beer-making-mixes
kit for fermenting...
https://brooklynbrewshop.com/collections/beer-making-kits
IMO, toss the thermometer they give you. Use a instant read thermometer you might already have for your kitchen. And buy a 10 dollar hydrometer from Amazon or one of the other online homebrew supply vendors.

You can even divide up the 5 gallon all grain kits from these other online vendors and save quite a bit.

 

[amber-ale]

I do 2.5 gallon/10L batches all the time.
Bring your mash to correct temperature (stir so nothing burns), put pot lid on, turn off burner, wrap /cover in 4-6 bath towels and go shopping or watch a movie for an hour or two

Easy
. I only lose half to 1 degree of temperature

But if you are a new beer maker, try brewing with dry extracts first.

What is your set up and method for mashing and fermenting?

 

[parks1031]

I do 2.5 gallon/10L batches all the time.
Bring your mash to correct temperature (stir so nothing burns), put pot lid on, turn off burner, wrap /cover in 4-6 bath towels and go shopping or watch a movie for an hour or two

Easy
. I only lose half to 1 degree of temperature

But if you are a new beer maker, try brewing with dry extracts first.

What is your set up and method for mashing and fermenting?

I have a mead set up at the moment. Have never used grain and don’t have anything really set up for beer yet. Any recommendations for a first time brewer’s set up?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

@amber-ale : with 2.5 gal batches, the grains provide a lot of additional thermal mass. I did a couple of 1 gal barley-wines (5# malt) and the mash temperature lost about 1° over 60 minutes. For my normal strength 1 gal batches, I tended to start the mash little high, accept that it would end a little low, and generally the result came out good. I've since moved (mostly) to 2.5 gal all-grain batches.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Any recommendations for a first time brewer’s set up?

An idea for a 1 gal starter kit was mentioned earlier. Most home brew supply shops will have similar kits. Some will likely have 2.5 gal starter kits as well.

If you want to DYI (or if the price of the starter kit is more than you want to pay), most kitchens have most of the equipment for making small (2.5 gal or less) batches (either extract or all grain). Also, there are a couple of books ("speed brewing" for 2 gal BIAB batches, "how to brew" for 5 gal batches) that have equipment lists. Web search (or using an LLM/Chat service) would also be a way to get the equipment list.

Or let us know the equipment you have and the size (1.0 gal, 2.5 gal) and type (extract, BIAB) you want to brew and we can help identify some of the missing pieces.

 

[amber-ale]

What is your mead set up?
What equipment do you already have?
I use the same equipment/ set up for all my wine/beer meads, but have separate equipment for sour /lactobacillus fermentation.

 

[IslandLizard]

Just get the ingredients from your local homebrew store (LHBS).
Pre-assembled kits tend to be overpriced, especially smaller (1 gallon) ones (unless they're on a very, very good sale).

Brewer's Friend has a free Recipe Builder. There are others. No need to pay for a subscription, at least as this point.

Your (wort) boil-off (evaporation) is about the only variable that doesn't scale linearly with batch size. With a small batch you may still evaporate (boil off) 1/2 - 3/4 gallon (compared to the "typical" 1 gallon boil-off in 5-gallon batches) in the hour-long wort boil. Of course it depends on your heat source, how high it's cranked up, the pot/kettle size/width, etc.
During the boil, a mere simmer (surface-rippling) is plenty, especially with smaller batches.

+1 on the warmed up, but turned-off oven, to keep your mash in the pot warm for the hour.
Check the temp half-way through, and correct if needed. 1 degree is quite insignificant.

 

[parks1031]

Just get the ingredients from your local homebrew store (LHBS).
Pre-assembled kits tend to be overpriced, especially smaller (1 gallon) ones (unless they're on a very, very good sale).

Brewer's Friend has a free Recipe Builder. There are others. No need to pay for a subscription, at least as this point.

Your (wort) boil-off (evaporation) is about the only variable that doesn't scale linearly with batch size. With a small batch you may still evaporate (boil off) 1/2 - 3/4 gallon (compared to the "typical" 1 gallon boil-off in 5-gallon batches) in the hour-long wort boil. Of course it depends on your heat source, how high it's cranked up, the pot/kettle size/width, etc.
During the boil, a mere simmer (surface-rippling) is plenty, especially with smaller batches.

+1 on the warmed up, but turned-off oven, to keep your mash in the pot warm for the hour.
Check the temp half-way through, and correct if needed. 1 degree is quite insignificant.

Thanks for this! I am finishing up a mead that will go into secondary here soon. In the next two weeks i'll start with this. How would you recommend not evaporating off 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon? Or are you saying to start with much more liquid anticipating that evaporation?

 

[IslandLizard]

How would you recommend not evaporating off 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon?

As I said, a mere simmer (rippling on the surface) is enough. Even when keeping the boil that low, you're still be boiling off 1/2 gallon, easily, during the hour. More so when the stove hood fan is on, and I recommend turning it on, you don't want all that vapor on your walls and ceilings!

You can always add some top-up water at the very end, or much, much better, add some boiling water (teakettle!) when the level drops too much. Many of us use a dipstick with volume markings.

You want to end up with a little over 1 gallon when the boil is finished. Say 10% extra, because there will be some trub on the bottom of the kettle, you want to leave behind.

What kind of fermenter are you going to use? Volume?
The fermenter should be large enough so you can leave some headspace, ~20% of your batch volume extra, for krausen. A 1 gallon jug would be too small for a gallon batch. But you can split it over two 1-gallon jugs, and brew a gallon and half!

The good thing about buying loose ingredients, over kits, is that you could brew any batch size you want (such as 1.25 or 1.5 gallon) that fits into your fermenter, while allowing for enough headspace.

Do you have an LHBS nearby?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

How would you recommend not evaporating off 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon? Or are you saying to start with much more liquid anticipating that evaporation?

When I was brewing "true" one gallon batches, I would start with 1.25 gal water for a 45 min very soft boil. The end result was roughly 1 gal of wort.

A shorter boil (30 min vs 60 min) would reduce the amount that is boiled off. FWIW, with my hop forward (APA/IPA/Amber) recipes, I often use a 30 min boil; with malt forward (Amber/Brown/...) recipes, I find benefit in boiling 45 or 60 min.

For different boil intensities, take a look at Boiling Wort Visual Reference.

 

[parks1031]

As I said, a mere simmer (rippling on the surface) is enough. Even when keeping the boil that low, you're still be boiling off 1/2 gallon, easily, during the hour. More so when the stove hood fan is on, and I recommend turning it on, you don't want all that vapor on your walls and ceilings!

You can always add some top-up water at the very end, or much, much better, add some boiling water (teakettle!) when the level drops too much. Many of us use a dipstick with volume markings.

You want to end up with a little over 1 gallon when the boil is finished. Say 10% extra, because there will be some trub on the bottom of the kettle, you want to leave behind.

What kind of fermenter are you going to use? Volume?
The fermenter should be large enough so you can leave some headspace, ~20% of your batch volume extra, for krausen. A 1 gallon jug would be too small for a gallon batch. But you can split it over two 1-gallon jugs, and brew a gallon and half!

The good thing about buying loose ingredients, over kits, is that you could brew any batch size you want (such as 1.25 or 1.5 gallon) that fits into your fermenter, while allowing for enough headspace.

Do you have an LHBS nearby?

I have a LHBS and ferment in a 2 gallon food safe plastic bucket. Might try and do a 1.5 gallon batch given the size of my ferment vessel. Is there anything wrong with adding boiling water?

 

[IslandLizard]

Is there anything wrong with adding boiling water?

Added to what, when?

 

[parks1031]

Added to what, when?

"Top up water" at the end or when levels dip too low?

 

[IslandLizard]

"Top up water" at the end or when levels dip too low?

When you're coming up a bit short on volume at the end of the boil, indeed, you could add some cold (top-up) water. It helps chill your wort to the same time. But... before you do, make sure the gravity is proportionally higher than the recipe's design, otherwise you'll end up with thinner beer.

It's always best to aim at (estimate) having the correct volume (and gravity) of wort at flame-out.
But it may take a few brews to hone in on those magic numbers (original gravity (OG), volume, and IBUs) on your brew system.

Coming up a tad short on volume is often better than having too much. You can either leave it as is (possibly at a few extra points of gravity), or add some water. Correct the starting (pre-boil) volume next time.
However, it's much more difficult to remove excess volume (limited by fermenter space) without changing the wort balance. For example, boiling longer to reduce volume could alter the hop aroma/flavor/bitterness balance, increases bitterness (IBUs), while reducing the others.

Look up online brew instructions for (commercial) recipe kits (at MoreBeer and such), you can download them for free. Just... ignore anything that mentions secondaries. You don't need or even want them.
If you're serious about brewing, I can recommend reading John Palmer's How to Brew, 4th Ed.