Scaling a recipe

[FooFghtrs33]

Hey guys, first time posting on the forum. I had a question on the best way to make a recipe I have with the equipment i currently have. I am looking to do a DFH 90 minute clone and the recipe is for a 5 gallon batch. I am an all grain brewer, and my brew pot can handle enough of the wort. However, my mash tun is 5 gallons. The recipe I put into beer smith calls for 6.73 gallons of mash volume, but I have 5. I would like to make a 5 gallon batch still though.

What i can do on Beersmith 2 is scale the recipe to 3.5 gallons to fit the mash tun. This adjusts the recipe though for this batch size. I was wondering if I should then just add water to the fermentation bucket to get it to 5 gallons based on the 3.5 gallon recipe or what the best way to do this would be. Thanks!!

 

[Golddiggie]

Simple, use the "Scale Recipe" button (right below the 'Tools' tab)...

Scale the batch to match your hardware. If you're looking to mash enough for a full size batch (5 gallons) then get a larger mash tun... IMO, a 5 gallon cooler based mash tun is pretty useless for brews of any decent strength, in 5 gallon finish volumes. The bare minimum mash tun size I would ever think of using is 10 gallons. IF you want to make a 1/2 batch (2.5 gallons) then the 5 gallon mush tun is ok. Otherwise, man-size it and be done with it.

 

[Varmintman]

I guess I do not understand really what you are asking. Most times I use a quart and a half of water per pound of grain. six and a half gallons comes out to a bung load of grain. I mean a bung load

I just use a quart and a half per pound and then about the same for the sparge. I then top off any boil off that I need to

 

[kvess]

I wold leave the recipie as is and mash thick and flyspare with the extra water at 170 degrees. This will get you a little over your gravity mark but should work fine. If you do it the way you want it will be waterd down.

 

[FooFghtrs33]

This is what i was kind of thinking, I didnt just want to water it down at the end. So just fly sparging with more water to bring it to that pre-boil volume should do the trick then.

 

[kvess]

Yes. just add the water missing to the end of the fly sparge. Let us know what your preboil gravity comes out to and if you were over or under. Usually fly sparging is more efficient. Also fly sparge really slow. Keep the water about 1 inch above the grain bed. The sparge should take at least 30 minuets.

 

[kvess]

I guess I do not understand really what you are asking. Most times I use a quart and a half of water per pound of grain. six and a half gallons comes out to a bung load of grain. I mean a bung load

I just use a quart and a half per pound and then about the same for the sparge. I then top off any boil off that I need to

With the grain and water it comes out to 6.5 volume in the mash tun. Its not 6.5 gallons of water.

 

[Yooper]

About the most you can mash in a 5 gallon cooler is about 14 pounds of grain, and that's really with a thick mash (1 quart per pound) and filling it right to the tippy top. If you've got a false bottom, you may need to go with less.

I'd simply use DME to make up the grainbill difference if the grainbill was more than 14 pounds of grain. Oversparging won't fix a grainbill that is too big for the MLT.

If you've got, say, 19 pounds of grain, use 14 pounds of grain in the MLT and use 3 pounds of DME for 5 pounds of grain.

 

[Varmintman]

With the grain and water it comes out to 6.5 volume in the mash tun. Its not 6.5 gallons of water.

Yup I misread that. He did say volume not gallons.

LOL Is not home brew great

 

[kvess]

There is not a difference in the grain bill. He just does not have enough room for the mash. The extra slow sparge should extract the extra sugars left in the grain from the thick mash. He will not be modifying his recipie to 3.5 gallons but instead leave it at the regular 5 gallon recpie that he started with.

 

[Yooper]

There is not a difference in the grain bill. He just does not have enough room for the mash. The extra slow sparge should extract the extra sugars left in the grain from the thick mash. He will not be modifying his recipie to 3.5 gallons but instead leave it at the regular 5 gallon recpie that he started with.

It depends on the amount of grain and how thick this "thick mash" is. There could be conversion problems that oversparging will exacerbate, not fix.

 

[kvess]

I see what you are saying. But if he goes for 1 quart per lbs of grain it should put him in his volume. 1 qt to 1.25 qts per lbs of grain is a good window. Anything thicker will cause issues. The only thing he can do is try. Seems like the best option he has for the 5 gallon mash tun.