Scaling recipe riddle

I is "kind of" true the way you first posted it as well since the concentration of the boil should be a bit different considering evaporation...

 

To the OP..when was the 1 oz. of cascade added?

Just for argument sake 1 oz cascade added at 20 minutes is about 65IBU in the 1 gallon batch, the 5 gallon batch with 2 oz comes in around 26IBU...that is a big difference and a very different beer. Different schools of though will even say you need MORE hops for a larger batch since the percentage of evaporation is lower.

 

Eh, not really, 1 gal and 1 oz isn't going to scale to 5 gal and 2 oz under any reasonable circumstances.

 

This is the way you first posted:

Which I am not even sure if that would scale correctly. I have never tried to scale a recipe by five times.

 

What were your recipes that you brewed? I guess I am confused about the 1 oz and 2 oz discussion.

 

I suspect while the recipe should scale linearly, as Vike pointed out, your utilization does not. So the amount of bitterness you achieve at 1 gallon size would not scale perfectly to 5 gallons.

Also - you would probably get ~ the same IBUs if you added 1oz of hops to 1 gal of wort at 15 mins, and then added 2 oz of hops to 5 gal of wort at 60 mins - but you most certainly would not get the same flavor profile. What time were you instructed to add the hops for both batches?

You should have added 5 oz of hops to get you closer to the ballpark of what you did at 1 gallon size. Teach your homebrew shop a thing or two, and then ask for a refund.

 

What I first posted was a typo, and yes it would scale correctly, to scale from 1 gal to 5 gal you multiply by 5. When talking about commercial volumes it becomes more complex than that, but at these small volumes it's that's simple.

 

I read the thread, but did I miss where the OP said what was actually wrong with the beer?

 

I'm guessing 1oz is the smallest amount you can buy at a time at your LHBS, and you weren't supposed to use the entire 1oz in the 1gal batch. Any way you look at it, there's either a major error in communication between you and them, or they're just sketchy as hell.

 

For what it's worth, I did a quick test in Beersmith. I used the mini-BIAB setting.

One gallon batch (2gal boil)

1Lb 2-row
12 oz white wheat malt
4 oz Caravienne
1oz cascade (60)

result
OG: 1.048
ABV 5.0
77.8 IBU


5 gallon batch (6 gal boil)

5lb 2-Row
3.75lb white wheat
1.25lb Caravienne
5oz Cascade (60)

result
OG: 1.048
ABV 5.0
IBU 99.3

Dropping the hops to 4oz puts you in the correct range at 79.5

 

Those are very different hop schedules using very different hops. So that would be the culprit in my opinion.

Also, do the guys at your homebrew shop speak english as a first language or do you both speak in your native tongue? I can see a lot of miscommunication occurring because of this.