Green Flash Help

[Brew_Man_Group]

I'm relatively new to brewing and would like to try a Green Flash West Coast IPA. I notice that many of the recipes call for a 7.25 gallon pre boil and 6 gallon post boil. I'm used to boiling around 2.5 gallons and topping off the fermentor to 5 gallons with water. Would someone be able to help me convert the recipe below to a five gallon batch?

I just ordered 55 pounds of DME so I'll be using extract. Midwest's suggests a ratio of about 3.2 lbs DME to 5 lbs base malt (i.e. 10 lbs. of base malt = 6.4 lbs. of DME or 64%). The 6 gallon Green Flash recipe calls for 14 lbs of base malt or 8.96 lbs of DME. I need to scale 8.96 down to a five gallon batch. I need to use less specialty grains or it will be too sweet. Should I bring down the hops a little too? If so, how much? Also, how long should I steep the Crystal and Carapils before the boil? I usually do 30 minutes.

Out of curiosity, what's the difference between having 6 gallons of boiled wort verses 2.5 gallons of boiled wort with 3.5 gallons of fresh water to top off the fermentor?

Thanks for any advice.


Green Flash West Coast IPA (6 Gallons Post Boil)

14 lbs 2 row (8.96 extra light DME)
1.31 lbs Crystal 40 (GF uses Carastan 30-37)
1.31 lbs Carapils

.5 oz each of Columbus and Simcoe at 90 min
.25 oz each of Columbus and Simoce at 60 mins
.25 oz each of Columbus and Simoce at 30 mins
.75 oz each of Columbus and Simcoe at 15 mins
1 oz Cascade at 10 mins
.5 oz each of Columbus and Simoce at 1 min or flame out

Dry Hops-
.5 oz each of Amarillo, Centennial, Columbus Simcoe, Cascade

 

[Pie_Man]

I just ordered 55 pounds of DME so I'll be using extract. Midwest's suggests a ratio of about 3.2 lbs DME to 5 lbs base malt (i.e. 10 lbs. of base malt = 6.4 lbs. of DME or 64%). The 6 gallon Green Flash recipe calls for 14 lbs of base malt or 8.96 lbs of DME. I need to scale 8.96 down to a five gallon batch. I need to use less specialty grains or it will be too sweet. Should I bring down the hops a little too? If so, how much? Also, how long should I steep the Crystal and Carapils before the boil? I usually do 30 minutes.

Do you know the original gravity (OG) of the clone recipe? At 8.96lbs., let's call it 9 lbs. of DME, you're looking at an OG of 1.072 in 5 gallons. This seems right for the West Coast IPA based on the posted ABV of the beer, although the crystal and carapils will likely increase the gravity a little bit, I think you're pretty close.

Pounds X PPG = GP
9 X 40 = 360 DME

Total GP 360
Volume 5
OG 1.072 (Total GP / Vol.)
Attenuation 75% (% of sugars consumed by yeast during fermentation)
Est FG 1.018
ABV 7.1%

I would scale the specialty malts to your batch size.

Out of curiosity, what's the difference between having 6 gallons of boiled wort verses 2.5 gallons of boiled wort with 3.5 gallons of fresh water to top off the fermentor?

What you are doing is called a partial boil, or partial batch boil. Partial batch boils are said to have a decreased hop utilization than a full batch boil, meaning less hop bitterness extraction. With that said, you may just want to keep the hops the same as in the six gallon batch to counteract the decreased utilization. See Palmer's How To Brew for more details: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-5.html