How to scale down a batch size.

[schia]

hello fellow brewers,

There are just so many good recipes in this forum and its almost impossible to try everything in 1 lifetime. Despite that, I will endevour with your help of cause.

I wish to scale down recipes to a 5 liter/ 1.3 gallon batch. e.g. for this recipe (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=237879), it is a 5 gallon batch using all grain. Is there a good and reliable reference reading material to teach me how to do so? I’ve also started using Brew Target (http://www.brewtarget.org/) but it doesnt not seem to have a conversion feature with it and i need to do it manually. regardless, I want to know what is the correct method.

thanks in advance.

 

[Tippsy-Turvy]

I haven't tried Brew Target but I love Brewer's Friend (just use their free trial version).

Plug in the ingredients in their scaled-down sizes (about 1/4 the original recipe size for you) and you'll instantly see all the resulting parameters eg OG, FG, IBU, colour, SRM, likely attenuation etc. From there, you can fine tune to achieve exactly what you're after. Easy.

 

[schia]

Excellent and will give them a try. Its always good to get the software to do it for us.

also, i was hoping to achieve this through manual calculation just to understand the method.

 

[bob1852]

Original ingredients / original volume = ingredients per gallon

Ingredients per gallon * new desired volume = new ingredient levels

Example....

5 gallon batch with 12lbs grain and 1oz hops at 60 minutes and 2oz at 10 minutes

Equals 2.4lbs of grain, 0.2oz 60 min hops, and 0.4oz 10 minute hops

So, a 1.3 gallon batch would be: 2.4 * 1.3 = 3.12lbs of grain, etc...

 

[schia]

Thanks is some helpful infor. thank you.

 

[Owly055]

Scaling UP is more of a problem than scaling down.......... I recently scaled up a brew from a 2.5 gallon brew to 15 barrels!! The issue of course is having sane quantities..............Sacks and half sacks, pounds, etc. Scaling down is relatively easy. We don't mind measuring quarter ounces or grams.......... the other way is a royal *****. Try it sometime. Try telling your local micro brewer that the recipe calls for 41 pounds of Vienna............ They throw sacks in, not pounds and ounces.


H.W.

 

[schia]

Owly,

Its like baking on a commercial scale... we no longer talk on the same level as home made. its by the kilos but the same principal still applies in scaling up.

what is interesting to me is, how do you ensure quality and integrity of the beer regardless of the size.

 

[bob1852]

Scaling UP is more of a problem than scaling down.......... I recently scaled up a brew from a 2.5 gallon brew to 15 barrels!! The issue of course is having sane quantities..............Sacks and half sacks, pounds, etc. Scaling down is relatively easy. We don't mind measuring quarter ounces or grams.......... the other way is a royal *****. Try it sometime. Try telling your local micro brewer that the recipe calls for 41 pounds of Vienna............ They throw sacks in, not pounds and ounces.


H.W.

That's helpful for cloning beers at the home brew scale.

If I know a brewery'a batch size and ingredients, you can usually start with that: sacks of grain. ...