Scaling ingredients

[jwmurdoch85]

Hello, I'm new to the beer side of things, I have been lurking on the wine side of the forums for a while and have got a few brews under my belt in that respect.

However I now feel ready to step up to the mark and turn my hand to some AG brewing!

My question (and sorry if its that straight forward I couldn't seem to find a firm answer any where) is with wine its quite easy to scale the ingredients to suit fermentation vessel size etc is the same true for AG?

I.e a recipe I've picked up for a 23 litre Old Speckled Hen Clone

pale malt 3780 g, white sugar 570g, crystal malt 29g, black malt 29g
start of boil challenger hops 35g, last 10 mins: goldings 13, irish moss 3 (boil and mash times both 90mins)

Would this scale down to say 5 litres (6.25l boil volume) as follows:
Pale malt 822g, sugar 124g, crystal malt 7g, black malt 7g
challenger hops 8g, goldings 3g irish moss tea-spoon

Many thanks for any assistance that can be provided

John

 

[phettebs]

I always scale mine by percentages for the given volume and OG. Of course, it's a lot easier with software to do it for you.

With that said, 5 litres? You are talking 1/4oz of crystal and black malt each. I ran your numbers in BeerSmith and they appear to be correct. My question is, why such a small brew length. Almost not worth the hassle.

 

[jwmurdoch85]

Hi thanks for the reply,

I was considering small as its less to have to dispose of if I get it wrong, and I'd struggle to store as much as 32 litres!!

Is there a recommened brew length below 32 or is that the norm?

 

[markp]

There is no recommended brew length, make as much or as little as you like.
I think the point that Barry is making is that an all grain brew day generally takes 5-7 hours (depending on how organised I am :) ) and there is no way that I'd put that amount of effort in for 5 litres of end product.

Personally, I started with 23 litre brews due to the size of the equipment that I had......but this was soon upgraded to cope with 50 litre brews, though generally I do 40 litres at a time.

See if you can get a second hand plastic keg on ebay or maybe a member here can help you out......that is the easist way to store beer in any volume.

Good luck :)

 

[jwmurdoch85]

That makes sense! Something like 23l could be the way to go then, I'll have to start nosing around for the kit!