Upscaling a recipe

paul.wied · Jun 8, 2024

Hej,
I have a very unique opportunity to brew a 500 liter brew, as a guest brewer, because the owner of the macro brewery likes my beer

.
I never thought about anything more than 30 liter batches before.
Is upscaling linear, or what are the areas to watch out for??
Hit me please!
No schedule, but for me the sooner the better :-D!
/Paul

Drinking Sensibly · Jun 8, 2024

It's more or less linear. Possibly a bit better hop utilisation, better efficiency, maybe colour might be a bit different. The beer probably won't be exactly the same because different equipment will impact. Many brewers do test brews in small batches, the difference won't be huge. The software you use probably has an option for upscaling recipes, go with that.

mac_1103 · Jun 8, 2024

Member @MaxStout got to do a pro/am brew a while back and posted about it here. He might have some insight. I would also think the brewery owner might know a thing or two about this.

MaxStout · Jun 8, 2024

The pro/am brew was a Grodziskie I had previously homebrewed.

The head brewer made some changes. One, not using 100% wheat malt, as he was concerned with a stuck mash. Our mash bill was about 30 or so percent Pilsner. Second, we bumped the abv to 5%, as he believed customers might not be as receptive to a 3% beer. Third, we couldn't force-carb to the 3-plus volumes typical of the style. We were able to carb to around 2.6 without experiencing foaming issues.

The beer turned out great, and they sold out the full 15 Bbls in a month, which is good for a specialty beer.

One of my big takeaways in being involved with this pro brew was that going from homebrew to a production brew is more than just scaling up amounts.

OP: Talk to the head brewer, bring your recipe and all your notes. They'll know how to adapt it to their processes.