scaling down recipes

[Kent88]

I'm fairly new to brewing (just been using some extract kits so far, want to branch out to all-grain soon), and I see a lot beer recipes I want to try out, but being an apartment dweller I really can't swing five gallon batches, one gallon batches are what I can do at this point. I'm really not sure how to scale down recipes right now, I'm seeing some conflicting information.

I've been reading that in my situation it would be as simple as dividing by 5 (at least, for the water and grain portion), but then I grabbed some brewing software that predicts things like what the gravity will be and tried typing in a recipe I modified with simple division, and it predicted I'd have some very high-gravity wort. To match the brewing software to the predicted gravity that the recipe provides I ended up dividing by about 25. Is this junk software (or perhaps I'm just not using it correctly)?

Then there is the issue of hops. I'm glad my kits so far have detailed what hops to add and when, because from what I have been reading, and given the small amounts that many recipes I want to try call for before scaling down, I'm just not comfortable with them yet. Am I worrying for nothing, or do I need to make different adjustments for hops?

 

[Ash1616]

hey Kent,

Like you I only have the space to do 1 Gallon batches and have had some luck just dividing the recipes by 5 like you mentioned. I haven't used any software so I cant relate to the questions you have regarding that.

One thing that has helped me out is the use of a good digital scale to measure out the hops in grams since dividing 0.5ozs by 5 is a little hard to eyeball.

Good luck!!

 

[Clarke]

it is a percentage game, just divide it out...

Understanding the numbers and how they interact with each other is important, I took this link did a few by hand then created an excel spread sheet...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Beer_math

 

[bobeer]

What software are you using? Get the 30 day trial of beer smith. And compare the results. Beer Smith has always been on point for me. All it takes to convert recipes is a click of a button. Its the best 27 bucks I've put towards homebrewing in a while.
As for hops, I'd be looking more at ibu's over the amount of hops needed. Beer Smith can adjust ibu levels based on your batch size and equipment profile that you can create. Good luck.

Sent from my LG-E980 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Kent88]

The software is brewtarget. As an example, for the Gopher Oktoberfest 5.25 gallon recipe in Joy of Homebrewing it calls for:

6lbs Pilsner-style malt
4lbs Munich malt
8oz aromatic malt
1/2 oz Perle Hops (added for 50 minutes)
1 oz Hallertauer pellets (added for 10 minutes)
1/4 oz irish moss powder
(yeast, water, priming sugar or DME)

And playing with the numbers in brewtarget to get a similar gravity I get these weights for grain:
3.8oz Pilsner-style malt
2.5oz Munich malt
0.4oz aromatic malt

Which certainly looked off to me. I don't think this is the right software for me right now, there are more options in this than I know what to do with. I'm sure as I get things figured out I'll be able to understand the extra options and properly use the software. Or it looks like there is a linux version of brewsmith, so I might end up buying that if the free trial looks good.

Now on to hops. About how much does a single hop or a single pellet weigh? For this recipe, 0.5 / 5.25 = 0.095oz (I assume this can be rounded to a tenth of an ounce?), can I add that small of an amount without issue? Will that little amount contribute the way I expect?

What about brewing aids? This also includes 1/4 oz irish moss, which is about 0.05 ounce (about a gram and a half), do I need a scale this sensitive, or should I just leave it out? What if I want to use things like ascorbic acid when I bottle, or yeast nutrient in mead?

 

[bernardsmith]

I don't know, kent88, but I think there must be something wrong with your calculator. Six pounds of anything divided by 5.25 (including Pilsner malt) = approx 18.28 ounces and not 3.8 oz. I am a total newbie when it comes to beer making but I think that you simply multiply the volume of beer you want to make with the grain bill for the recipe and then divide that total by the volume the recipe is designed to make (in your case multiply the grain bill by 1 (gallon) and then divide by 5.25 (gallons). This gives you the grain quantities you need . So if you were making say 2 gallons rather than 1 you would multiply 6lbs (of the Pilsner, for example) by 2 (= 12) and divide the 12 lbs (or 192 oz) by 5.25 (= 36.25 oz or 2.28 lbs). You would do the same with each line of the recipe.

Regarding hops, I would convert the ounces to grams and weigh out your hops in grams.
Yeast nutrient is usually labelled in tsp or Tbs /gallon.

 

[mhurst111]

try this site. I use it for all of my brewing. Enter the 5 gallon batch information and they have a SCALE check box. Click it and then change the volume to 1 gallon and all the amounts will change.

http://www.brewers-assistant.com/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=/

 

[charliehorse]

I use an app on my phone, called BrewR, that will scale recipes. I don't know who accurate it is, since I've never scaled a recipe and worried about it. I figure that at the end of the day, I'll have beer and if you measure your gravity, you'll know how accurate everything is.

 

[smyrnaquince]

You can divide by 5 for everything but the pre-boil volume, because the boil-off depends on the pot and does not scale by batch size. If you know the post-boil volume you want and the boil-off rate (gal/hr) for your pot (boil a couple gallons and measure it), you can figure out the pre-boil volume you need.

 

[teleplucker]

You can divide by 5 for everything but the pre-boil volume, because the boil-off depends on the pot and does not scale by batch size. If you know the post-boil volume you want and the boil-off rate (gal/hr) for your pot (boil a couple gallons and measure it), you can figure out the pre-boil volume you need.

This has been my experience too. I also use Brewtarget and it took awhile to get used to using it for 1 gallon recipes. You will need to factor in some actual experience with measurements to get the equipment settings as accurate as possible. At this point, I *think* I have mostly figured it out and the recipes tend to scale by a factor of 1/5 as noted with a few small tweaks.