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Author Topic: Scaling Help Needed  (Read 2066 times)

Offline devilpanda

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Scaling Help Needed
« on: November 04, 2010, 10:24:03 am »
First time I've ever attempted to scale down a recipe.  I think I was able to get the grain bill calculated correctly but am having a hard time figuring out how to convert the recipe from 16bbl to 5 gal.

Here are the percentages that I came up with:

Fermentables         Lbs         %
2-Row                   700   57.85%
Biscuit                   220   18.18%
Munich                  110   9.09%
Victory                  75    6.20%
Black Malt              50    4.13%
Carafa III               40    3.31%
Molasses                15    1.24%
                         1210   100.00%

I believe a bbl is 43 gals so that brings this to 688gals.  This is the part where I'm stuck. 

Anyone have any advice?

Thank you,

MN

p.s. - Never worked with molasses before.  Not sure when to add that to the boil.







Offline jeffy

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Re: Scaling Help Needed
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2010, 10:40:45 am »
You already have all the percentages, so what you need is the amount of total malt.  To get that, find the original gravity of the beer you're trying to replicate and then figure your efficiency.  The rest is just multiplication.  Once you find out how much malt you need to get the O.G. then each ingredient is a percentage of that.
Jeff Gladish, Tampa (989.3, 175.1 Apparent Rennarian)
Homebrewing since 1990
AHA member since 1991, now a lifetime member
BJCP judge since 1995

Offline BarleynYeast

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Re: Scaling Help Needed
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2010, 10:48:16 am »
A bbl is 31 gal so start with 496 gal. You can add sugar anytime during boil, just shut of the heat before adding it to prevent scorching. Then stir the wort well to dissolve the sugar and bring back to boil. When you add the sugar will make a difference in hop utilization. (Thicker wort = less hop utilization)
You need the Brewhouse efficiency for this recipe as well as your Brewhouse efficiency before you can scale a recipe. Once you have that you can enter the recipe in a brewing program with 496 gal @ whatever the original efficiency was and then have the program scale it down to 5 gal and your Brewhouse efficiency. I have done this both ways using Brew Smith. Unfortunately recipes from larger brewery are not linier but this method has given me a good starting point in the past.   

Matt

Offline devilpanda

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Re: Scaling Help Needed
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2010, 11:08:09 am »
Thanks guys.  I see I was looking at the UK barrel conversion there originally.

I doubt I'm going to be able to get too much more in terms of OG or brewhouse efficiency from this brewer so I'm jsut gonna have to fill the gaps with some generalities. 

-MN

Offline jeffy

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Re: Scaling Help Needed
« Reply #4 on: November 04, 2010, 11:14:47 am »
Can you find out the ABV?  You can work back from that.
Jeff Gladish, Tampa (989.3, 175.1 Apparent Rennarian)
Homebrewing since 1990
AHA member since 1991, now a lifetime member
BJCP judge since 1995

Offline 1vertical

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Re: Scaling Help Needed
« Reply #5 on: November 04, 2010, 11:21:08 am »
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Scaling Help Needed
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2010, 12:44:12 am »
496 gallons is close enough to 500 that I would just divide everything by 100.

Fermentables         Lbs
2-Row                   7
Biscuit                   2.2
Munich                  1.1
Victory                  .75
Black Malt              .5
Carafa III               .4
Molasses                .15

If you can't get any info on efficiency, start with that and see how close it is, tweak it from there.  If you can find some efficiency or alcohol content, then I would only change the 2-Row to hit the gravity for your system.

That's what I would do anyway.   ;D
Tom Schmidlin