Scaling Brewer's Friend Recipes

[Jhedrick83]

I did my first non kit brew yesterday and it was a scaled version of a recipe I found on Brewer's Friend. For some reason, the OG on my scaled version recipe is higher than on the original. All I did was use the "Scale" recipe tool on Brewer's Friend.

Original: Permission Error | Brewer's Friend OG 1.049

Scaled: 2 Gallon Cow | Cream Ale Partial Mash Beer Recipe at Brewer's Friend OG 1.057

My OG when I was done was 1.048. So, basically what the original recipe had. My question is why the difference in the scaled version projection? I just want to make sure I understand it so when I scale more I have a good understanding of the target OG. Seeing as how I basically hit the Original recipe OG, I'm not worried about this batch, just trying to gather knowledge.

 

[Jhedrick83]

Anyone have any thoughts why the OG projection changed on the recipe when I scaled it using the Brewer's Friend tool?

 

[Leezer]

I use Brewers Friend to scale recipes too but I’m far from an expert. I’m not sure why it happens but I sometimes find an OG difference and so tweak the base malt to get it where I want it to be.
Another factor is your efficiency. BF defaults to 70% I believe, but if you keep track of your efficiency as you go, you can adjust that setting too as needed.

 

[Jhedrick83]

That’s part of what I’m not sure of. I basically got the original projected OG when I brewed it. So, was that chance or did something get funky with the scaling even though it was done automatically.

 

[Sammy86]

I did my first non kit brew yesterday and it was a scaled version of a recipe I found on Brewer's Friend. For some reason, the OG on my scaled version recipe is higher than on the original. All I did was use the "Scale" recipe tool on Brewer's Friend.

Original: Permission Error | Brewer's Friend OG 1.049

Scaled: 2 Gallon Cow | Cream Ale Partial Mash Beer Recipe at Brewer's Friend OG 1.057

My OG when I was done was 1.048. So, basically what the original recipe had. My question is why the difference in the scaled version projection? I just want to make sure I understand it so when I scale more I have a good understanding of the target OG. Seeing as how I basically hit the Original recipe OG, I'm not worried about this batch, just trying to gather knowledge.

Very weird, I iust scaled your recipe up in BF and OG stayed the same...didnyou scale by volume or efficiency?

 

[Jhedrick83]

One of the “recipe tools” says “scale” and you can put if your final volume target and it scales everything for you. That’s what I did. I’m just trying to sort of the scaling can be trusted for some of that. You know, should I trust the original recipe stats as targets or the scaled versions. Or was this just a glitch in the matrix. I guess we will see how the brew tastes when it’s done in a week.