Decreasing a recipe

[JVAL21]

I have a question. I found a good recipe for an Octoberfest beer, but its 10 gallons. If i wanted to make a 5 gallon instead would i just cut the recipe in half or is there more to it? (I know its a little late to be brewing an Octoberfest beer right now but why not).

 

[petemoss]

The simple answer is that yes you can scale your ingredient list in a linear fashion (just cut them in half). The long answer is beyond my pay grade.

 

[Robert65]

I'm with @petemoss on the simple answer. Not sure there really is a hard answer. And it's never the wrong time to make something you like!

 

[RM-MN]

The ingredients scale directly but the amount of water needed does not necessarily as some is boiled off and that is a constant not a percentage. If you boil off a gallon for a 10 gallon batch you probably boil off a gallon for a 5 gallon or 3 gallon batch.

 

[petemoss]

I knew there was something process wise that didn't scale quite right, but I couldn't remember what it was. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Yup. The grains will absorb water half the water but the boil off will be the same whether you do a 5 gallon batch or a 10 gallon batch. I have a 15 gallon kettle that allows me to do 5 or 10 gallon batches. I record all my recipes as 5 gallon batches and just double the ingredients for a 10 gallon batch.