Scale down from 17 gallons to 5 gallons

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Curmudgeon, Nov 6, 2016.

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  1. Curmudgeon

    Curmudgeon Savant (1,110) May 29, 2014 Massachusetts
    BA4LYFE Society

    The APA recipe below should yield 17 U.S. gallons finishing at 4.8% abv. I'm trying to figure out how to scale it down to yield 5 gallons. I'm not sure about hops but I'm thinking the malts do not scale linearly. Is there a formula out there that computes this? I use BrewCipher and maybe it's there somewhere but I haven't played too much with it yet for scaling. Any ideas are appreciated! Thank you! (Reviewing How To Brew pg. 194 as it gets into it a bit there but I'm a bit slow on the uptake)

    21.4 lbs German Pilsner malt
    4.4 lbs German dark Munich malt
    2.2 lbs German Vienna malt
    1.1 lbs German Pale Wheat malt
    7 oz. German CaraPils or similar
    2.5 oz. Belgian roasted barley

    2.3 oz. Chinook, 12.3% @ 60min
    4.7 oz. Cascade, 5.7% @ 0min
    3.5 oz. Mandarina Bavaria, dry hop 14 days
    1.8 oz. Cascade, dry hop 14 days
     
    #1 Curmudgeon, Nov 6, 2016
  2. GreenKrusty101

    GreenKrusty101 Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2008 Nevada

    I think it's pretty much linear unless you are going from barrels to 5 or 10 gals assuming you are not using BIAB and your milling is similar...you will know for sure after your first small batch.
     
    #2 GreenKrusty101, Nov 6, 2016
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  3. makisupapolice14

    makisupapolice14 Pundit (799) Jun 5, 2005 New York

    Try the brewers friend scale recipe tool
     
    #3 makisupapolice14, Nov 6, 2016
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  4. PapaGoose03

    PapaGoose03 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,057) May 30, 2005 Michigan
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    On batch sizes like this the ingredients should scale very well on a linear basis. Just take five-seventeenths (or .294) times each ingredient's amount to get to your new recipe.
     
    #4 PapaGoose03, Nov 6, 2016
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  5. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    Scale away.
     
    #5 pweis909, Nov 6, 2016
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  6. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    In Brewcipher:
    - enter your original 17 gallon recipe.
    - set batch size to 5 gallons
    - enter your target OG at the bottom of the grain bill section
    - enter your target IBUs at the bottom of the boil hops section
    - click the ComboScale button
     
    #6 VikeMan, Nov 7, 2016
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  7. Curmudgeon

    Curmudgeon Savant (1,110) May 29, 2014 Massachusetts
    BA4LYFE Society

    Nice, thanks! Seems like this is similar to my C to F for temperature conversion. If it's 27C I subtract 2 getting 25 then I multiply by 2 to get 50 then add 30 to get 80F. This method works for moderate temperatures and gets a little screwy when going real cold or real hot.

    Thanks for the Brewcipher tip too VikeMan. (the macros aren't working for me. I think I need to update my version of Excel)
     
    #7 Curmudgeon, Nov 7, 2016
  8. LeRose

    LeRose Grand Pooh-Bah (4,423) Nov 24, 2011 Massachusetts
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    If it isn't a version of Excel issue, I think I ran into this before where I could run macros I wrote or that came with Excel, but external ones were disabled for security reasons? There is a way to enable external macros, but damned if I can remember how. That might be what you are seeing, but I'm totally guessing.
     
    #8 LeRose, Nov 7, 2016
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  9. Curmudgeon

    Curmudgeon Savant (1,110) May 29, 2014 Massachusetts
    BA4LYFE Society

    LeRose, that's definitely worth a shot. I hadn't even thought to look into that. Thank you!
     
    #9 Curmudgeon, Nov 8, 2016
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