Scaling down 5-gallon all grain kit

[intothewhite]

Bought a 5 gallon all grain kit from northern brewer (plinian legacy). Will I be able to divide all ingredients by 5 and make separate 1 gallon batches out of it? (I am aware I will probably want to get new yeast packets for each batch.) I'd really like to be able to start my homebrewing on the stovetop and also to have several cracks at perfecting my process on the exact same recipe, so I'm thinking this would be a really ideal way to get started. Any reasons this won't work provided I do my best to keep the hops and milled grains fresh in between brew days?

 

[PADave]

I wouldn't recommend doing that. How are you going to ensure the grains are mixed and equally divided? They sell 1 gallon kits, why not get a few of them? If anything, I'd only divide the kit in half.
I'd rather scale the recipe down to 1 gallon, or look at the directions for their 1 gallon kit, buy the ingredients separate.
That being said, the plinian legacy probably wouldn't be my choice for doing this. I'd consider it a more advanced brew.

 

[BobBailey]

The biggest problem I see with doing this is volume losses to trub in the kettle and fermenter. I'd plan on 4 single gallon batches unless you want weak renditions of the recipe. As for yeast, you can repitch slurry and not need to buy extra.

Common practice is to begin brewing with simple processes and work your way up. I don't see any problem with learning from a few mistakes right from the start. Good luck

 

[Biscuits]

Like others have said, it doesn't quite work that way. However, it isn't a bad idea to try it just to learn your process and system. Although, it might be cheaper to just do five 1 gallon SMaSH recipes instead of worrying about dividing up specialty grains. Be sure to take accurate and detailed notes of your volumes: Mash in volume, sparge volume, volume to kettle, volume after boil, volume to fermentor, etc.

 

[seabrew8]

Bought a 5 gallon all grain kit from northern brewer (plinian legacy). Will I be able to divide all ingredients by 5 and make separate 1 gallon batches out of it? (I am aware I will probably want to get new yeast packets for each batch.) I'd really like to be able to start my homebrewing on the stovetop and also to have several cracks at perfecting my process on the exact same recipe, so I'm thinking this would be a really ideal way to get started. Any reasons this won't work provided I do my best to keep the hops and milled grains fresh in between brew days?

You can make 1 gallon batches sure.

brewersfriend is an excellent site to figure out your recipe.

You can harvest yeast slurry if you only ferment one gallon at a time.

 

[TonyKZ1]

Well, if you ask them first, some of the ingredient vendors will split the grains up into separate 1G amounts, but that's when you order the recipe. You would then just need to split the hops and the yeast into the 1G amounts. But as others have said, it's probably a little late now unless you wanted to brew the whole 5G amount and then split it into 5 1G jugs.

Edit:But as others have said, WTH just go for it. When it's all done, you've still made beer. As for splitting the dry yeast for a 1G batch, no problem, about 2 teaspoons from the package is what I use and that will give you enough yeast for the recipe.

 

[kh54s10]

I will go against the grain and say go ahead and do it. Scaling is not exactly just using 1/5 the 5 gallon recipe, but you will be close enough. Unless you get the grains mixed very evenly the 5 one gallon batches will be slightly different.

Use a digital scale to weigh out the ingredients.

I will go with the grain and suggest you start with a much simpler recipe if you are just starting out your all grain brewing. I would consider the Plinian Legacy a bit of an advanced recipe.

If you do brew it I suggest that you get a paint strainer bag to contain the hops or you will lose quite a bit of beer to the layer of trub in the fermenter.

Depending on how frequently you brew, you could use part of the yeast cake from the first batch to ferment the second, then a portion of each for the successive batches.
If you brew before the first is done, etc. You will need yeast for each. If you are using dry yeast you could divide the pack into 5 portions. But that would be a PITA.

 

[violinguy]

You can make 1 gallon batches sure.

brewersfriend is an excellent site to figure out your recipe.

You can harvest yeast slurry if you only ferment one gallon at a time.

^^THIS

Go to Brewersfriend and put in the recipe, then click "scale." Beersmith also auto-scales recipes. This is the easiest and best way to get accurate results.

 

[kh54s10]

You can make 1 gallon batches sure.

brewersfriend is an excellent site to figure out your recipe.

You can harvest yeast slurry if you only ferment one gallon at a time.

^^THIS

Go to Brewersfriend and put in the recipe, then click "scale." Beersmith also auto-scales recipes. This is the easiest and best way to get accurate results.

This is good if you are trying to scale a recipe. Or have individually separated ingredients.

But the OP stated he has a Northern Brewer KIT. Unless NB kits have changed he has ONE bag full of all the grain in the recipe.

So using a recipe building program will not help with the grains.

 

[violinguy]

This is good if you are trying to scale a recipe. Or have individually separated ingredients.

But the OP stated he has a Northern Brewer KIT. Unless NB kits have changed he has ONE bag full of all the grain in the recipe.

So using a recipe building program will not help with the grains.

But wouldn't BF or BS be the most accurate way to find out exactly how much of what he has he should boil? I would think that is a better way to get the correct amounts rather than just separating out 1/5 of the ingredients.

Another option would be to go to NB site and look up the 1-gallon recipe and use those amounts.

 

[allanmorgan]

But wouldn't BF or BS be the most accurate way to find out exactly how much of what he has he should boil?

Yes it would, but only if all the grains were in separate bags. But the kit doesn't come that way. All the grains are crushed and mixed into the same bag. There is no way to guarantee that when you split this into 5 separate 1 gallon grain bills that you have, as an example, 2 lbs of 2-row in each one. You may end up with 1 lb of 2-row in one batch, 2 lbs of 2-row in another batch and 3 lbs of 2-row in another. If all the grains were packaged separately, then yes, it would be easy to split everything up.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Learning to brew is about the process not the beer. OP, just divide the ingredients by 5 and make your batches. Pay attention to the steps, volumes and processes. Once you get the actions down, you can focus on making the beer be whatever you want. Learn to brew first....

 

[chickypad]

Honestly I think we're making this harder than it has to be. If you mix the bag of grain well it will be uniform enough. I often mix up the grainbill before crushing, try it sometime with a batch that has dark grains and you'll see they are nicely distributed just stirring a bit. Anyway that recipe is almost all basemalt with just a little crystal - you'll be able to see if that's mixed or not.

OP you do need to figure out things like water volumes for yourself, as that will change according to your system, batch size, etc. You also should eventually figure out your efficiency so you know how to scale any recipe to your system but I wouldn't worry about that for now. Looks like they have targeted 6 gals finished wort so I would just use 1/5 the ingredients and target 1.2 gals post boil.

 

[kh54s10]

But wouldn't BF or BS be the most accurate way to find out exactly how much of what he has he should boil? I would think that is a better way to get the correct amounts rather than just separating out 1/5 of the ingredients.

Another option would be to go to NB site and look up the 1-gallon recipe and use those amounts.

The problem is that the grains are already mixed together. How would you figure out which were which in one big bag of grain.

The only choice to use the KIT for 5 one gallon batches is to mix the grains as well as possible then split them into 5 equal parts.

 

[allanmorgan]

The problem is that the grains are already mixed together.

My point exactly. But, now I think that the OP should just go for it. You might get 5 gallons that taste exactly the same or you might get 5 gallons that taste different.

The bottom line is that you get 5 gallons of beer. 'Nuff said. Enjoy the process and post back on how things turn out.

 

[violinguy]

The problem is that the grains are already mixed together. How would you figure out which were which in one big bag of grain.

The only choice to use the KIT for 5 one gallon batches is to mix the grains as well as possible then split them into 5 equal parts.

Gotcha. That makes sense now.

 

[ChemErik]

I would add that if the OP splits this into 5 batches, I think it is best suited to BIAB. All the volume and efficiency concerns for scaling down to 1 gallon batches on a more traditional system seems like a huge source of potential error.