Scaling a clone Recipe for my efficiency

[lyonshead]

I want to brew Jamil's evil twin from the article he has on his site, so here is the question. I'm pretty sure he uses something around 65% brew house efficiency when publishing his recipes. I consistently get 88% efficiency. So when I'm attempting to recreate this recipe, should I keep the amount of specialty grains from his original recipe consistent and only adjust my base grain to achieve 1.066 OG, or adjust all of the grains according to my efficiency. I ask because as i plug it into beersmith, everything is scaled to 88% and it doesn't seem like this beer will have the same color/flavor as the original with such a small amount of certain grains. Also I remember during the Jamil Show episode on his Scottich 60/- he noted that when scaling that recipe for 70/- and 80/- all you do is adjust base grain and leave the specialty grains alone. Any insight?
Jamils Recipe:
12 lb british 2-row
1 lb crystal 40
1 lb Munich 8L
8 oz crystal 120
8 oz Victory
4 oz pale chocolate

My version with 88% efficiency:
8 lbs 11oz British 2-row
11.6 oz Crystal 40
11.6 oz Munich 8L
5.8 oz Crystal 120
5.8 oz Victory
2.9 oz Pale Chocolate

 

[lyonshead]

Bump

 

[Oginme]

I get similar efficiency (86.5%), and have not tried to brew any recipes other than the ones I design for my system. However having looked at other recipes as a guideline, I would approach this by reducing only the base malt to get the OG and FG from the recipe numbers. Then adjust the specialty malts to bring the color in line (should be minimal adjustment). Lastly, look at the hops an adjust to bring the IBUs in line with the recipe. Just my $.02 and my approach.

 

[glugglug]

I get similar efficiency (86.5%), and have not tried to brew any recipes other than the ones I design for my system. However having looked at other recipes as a guideline, I would approach this by reducing only the base malt to get the OG and FG from the recipe numbers. Then adjust the specialty malts to bring the color in line (should be minimal adjustment). Lastly, look at the hops an adjust to bring the IBUs in line with the recipe. Just my $.02 and my approach.

I agree with this.

 

[MichaelBrock]

I find arguments on both sides of this issue convincing. I currently scale everything to maintain a common % makeup in the grist (something Beersmith doesn't do...pain). Take a look at the threads listed at the bottom of the page for the discussions.

 

[chickypad]

I've always just gone by percentages for the grainbill, especially since I tend to do some odd size batches like 3 or 11.5 gallons. I'm not sure you can extrapolate Jamil's advice about the Scotch ales as that involves switching to a slightly different style, not trying to brew the same beer with different efficiency. Maybe because you have such high efficiency you need to do a little more tinkering with the roasted and crystal malts, but it doesn't make sense to me to change the percentages of something like Munich or victory. Wouldn't efficiency affect the contribution of those to the same degree it affects base malt?
At any rate, it probably doesn't make that big of a difference for most efficiency adjustments of about 10% of so, given that most specialty malts are maybe 3-10% of the total bill. BTW, just looking briefly at a couple recipes in BCS it looks like Jamil is using about 75% mash efficiency converting extract to grain.

 

[traviswalken]

I agree with most of the posts here. It makes sense to adjust the fermentable grains to achieve the correct OG and leave the roast/crystal alone.

Most recipes I read assume 70% efficiency. If I've done my math right, you need to drop you grain bill by about 25% to get the right OG. I can't believe it makes sense for you to drop the specialty grains by 25%. I don't think you get 25% more color/roast/flavor from your specialty grains that someone who only gets 70% efficiency. After all, when people put together extract/steeping grain recipes, they just replace the base malt with malt extract and use the same amount of roast/crystal malts. The roast/crystal malts only spend about 15 minutes in the pot while the kettle heats. You still get just as much roast/flavor from a short steep.

My 2 cents.