While I Boil: Hops and Recipe Scaling

[AaronSchalk]

It's brew day (self developed brown ale I'm calling Brookfield Brown), and while I wait for my 45 mintes of boiling before my next addition, I thought I'd ask a question for those who have done recipe scaling.

Have you noticed proper hop characters and IBUs from small hop additions?

I ask this because I have been brewing 1 gallon batches because of space limitations. I have done an IPA what has a total of .6 oz of hops in it and it just doesn't seem to have the wow factor I was expecting from that much hops for that size batch.

Maybe I don't realize how over the top it takes with hops to get a large hop aroma. Just wondering if anyone has developed a 1 gallon batch and scaled it up with the hops behaving as expected.

Thanks for the thoughts and insight. Now to refill my glass!

 

[Kaz]

Can you explain what you do with the .6 oz of hops? When they are added will play a big role in the hop character of the finished beer. Also, how long do you age? An older IPA will start to lose its hop flavor and aroma. I just scaled an IPA recipe that I've made using Beersmith, going from 5.5 gallons to 1 gallon batch size, it took the hops from about 5 oz to 1 oz.

 

[AaronSchalk]

This was a pretty straight forward ipa.

.1 oz Chinook for 60
.1 oz Cascade for 45
.1 oz Cascade for 30
.1 oz Cascade for 15
.1 oz Cascade for 5
.1 oz Cascade at flameout

Primary for 3 weeks, and bottle conditioned/carbed for 3 weeks as well, so I imagine there is no lose of flavor due to age. Maybe the recipe I'm using is just a little more conservative on the hops compared to my personal tastes.