Scaling a recipe

[Ckrasen]

Hey guys, I'm a newb as you would have probably assumed here in a moment anyway. I am about to brew my second 1 gallon batch here soon and rather than using a recipe kit this time, I was planning on scaling down a 5 gallon recipe with a few modifications. I'll post the link to the recipe I'm using, just need some help on how I should scale the water for the mash, sparge, and basically any other suggestions you may have for me. I plan on scaling all the ingredients simply by dividing by 5.

Thanks!

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/mikes-belgian-saison/

 

[m00ps]

Yeah direct % scaling works for grains, water, etc. Hops are a bit different since their utilization also depends on water volume, but at a homebrewing level it wouldnt make a difference. If you scaled like a 5gal recipe to commercial volume, thats where you'd run into issues

So yeah, just divide by 5 and round everything to the nearest oz or something

 

[Biscuits]

I made an excel spreadsheet using the info provided in John Palmer's How to Brew, which allows me to scale hops for my 2 gallon recipes. I would post it here for you use but it is not very user friendly at the moment since I skipped passed all of the design and got straight to functionality...but if you're handy with excel, you could make your own in a few minutes. Use Table 7 from this link: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-5.html

 

[IslandLizard]

+1^ Basically everything scales proportionally.

One thing you should keep an eye on are your volumes. Are you mashing in a large pot in a prewarmed oven? Then lautering through a sieve? You would have zero deadspace.

Now if you used a small cooler with a braid, there could be a relatively sizable amount of wort left behind, for a 1 gallon batch, since the amount in the deadspace is the same regardless of volume mashed.

Your boiloff doesn't scale proportionally either, so keep some notes and make corrections the next time. Small pots tend to have higher boil off than large ones.

Now for the same amount of work (prep, cleanup), waiting time investment (fermentation takes weeks), you could easily brew 2-3 gallon batches or for a couple hours more on brew day three 1-gallon batches, brewed back to back.
Those things don't scale proportionally either.

 

[madk]

Your best bet would be to use some software to help calculate your water volumes. brew365.com has a good one that I've used quite a bit.