Effects of batch size

[freisste]

Do mash efficiency and hop utilization go up on larger batches or is it all basically determined by gravity?

If I was making a 100 gallon batch (20x my current batch size), would I use 20x the ingredients? Or say, 15x for hops and 18x for grain?

 

[flars]

I have no idea. Beersmith2 could help with that. If you don't have Beersmith you can download it free for a 21 day trial.

 

[IXVolt]

It's a linear relationship for scaling. As for efficiency, that's correlated to your equipment, crush, and mash profile.

 

[m1k3]

If we are talking All Grain brewing: Small batch sizes with larger original gravity will often suffer from undersparging which lowers efficiency.

This is dependent on your sparging process but in general if you are not rinsing the gains well enough you will get lower efficiency (and need more grain).

So, I agree BeerSmith2 (or other software) is very helpful for scaling the recipe. You just need to know the efficiency of the system you will be brewing on and scale the recipe appropriately.

BeerSmith2 has a setting for Hop Utilization, which is higher in large batches (it says over 20 gallons).

 

[freisste]

Thanks, folks. I guess I was wondering about batch sizes larger than homebrew. Wondering what tricks the big boys use to save a little cash.

I'm aware recipes are linear in general, just was wondering if they are less linear if you get large enough. Sounds like that is the case for hop utilization, at least to some extent.

Thanks again.

 

[Weizer]

Hop utilization is not linear, I believe it starts scaling differently >20 gallons.

Definitely snag Beersmith. It's a killer program for $20ish. Well worth it!

 

[freisste]

Hop utilization is not linear, I believe it starts scaling differently >20 gallons.

Definitely snag Beersmith. It's a killer program for $20ish. Well worth it!

Yeah, I've put off buying it because of the price. So far I've just been using free software that is considerably less complicated. Might be nice to be able to use some if the more powerful functions.

So does beersmith take batch size into account when it comes to hop utilization?

Thanks.

 

[Weizer]

Yeah, I've put off buying it because of the price. So far I've just been using free software that is considerably less complicated. Might be nice to be able to use some if the more powerful functions.

So does beersmith take batch size into account when it comes to hop utilization?

Thanks.

You actually have to set your hop utilization. If you are under 20 gallon batches, it will be 100%. You can also consult the creator of beersmith for specifics, as he is very helpful!

 

[freisste]

You actually have to set your hop utilization. If you are under 20 gallon batches, it will be 100%. You can also consult the creator of beersmith for specifics, as he is very helpful!

Cool, thanks for the info. I guess my question is more on the practical side compared to the analytical side:

If I want the same bitterness in two beers, but one is a 5 gallon batch and the other is a 500 gallon batch, do I need 100x the hops?

If not, do programs such as beersmith tell me ahead of time, or do I have to screw up 500 gallons of beer to determine that my assumption was wrong?

Thanks again.