Lager Recipe Alteration

[JamesHoffman]

First off, I've brewed a few extract batches and (with your help) I've even made a couple recipes of my own. I've got experience but I still consider myself new to all this especially since I've never brewed a lager before.

I just acquired a new fridge for lager brewing and it unfortunately has glass shelving in it. I'm afraid that setting a full 5 gallon carboy in there would break the shelf, so I'm trying to find a small batch lager recipe...and I can't find one.

I'm wondering: can I just take 1/5 of the ingredients amounts of a 5 gallon recipe and call it good, or would that ruin something? Does anyone have any other ideas that could help?

 

[sfgoat]

This is where a tool like beersmith comes in handy because it will scale down the recipe for you. But essentially yes you could just take a fifth of everything and try that as well .

 

[McKnuckle]

It's almost that simple, but not entirely, because there are some amounts that are constant. For example, if you boil off 1 gallon per hour from your pot, you'll do that whether the pot has 6 gallons in it to start with or 2. So the water volumes are not proportional.

As far as grains go, though, yes, it's just simple fractional math. Hops are a little different; utilization of 1 oz in 6 gallons will give lower IBU than 0.33 oz in 2 gallons. Just use software to scale your recipe. You can do it on brewersfriend.com, which is a popular online alternative to BeerSmith.