Scaling back recipes

[Ondori]

Hey guys,

I am running into an issue here now. My efficiency is generally about 85-88% ever since I switched to fly sparging. My issue is now my beers are all too damn alcoholic lol. Even when I try to brew a session-ish kind of beer it always comes out like 1-2% higher. Now, I am thinking about scaling back my grains in hopes of actually hitting close to the numbers predicted.

How do you guys do your scaling back? Do I just scale back the grains and keep the same percentages?

 

[chickypad]

How do you guys do your scaling back? Do I just scale back the grains and keep the same percentages?

That's what I do.

 

[brewmeister13]

I've also read a few forums that suggest scaling back only the base grain and leaving the others. Not sure though. Hopefully someone with more experience can help you out.

 

[Ondori]

Hmmm, I guess I will just have to try out both ways. Gives me a reason to brew more Thanks guys

 

[TrubHead]

That's what I do.

Same here.

 

[forstmeister]

If you use brewing software it is simple. You just change your efficiency and build the recipe. Usually you are going to keep the percentages the same to maintain the integrity of the recipe.

Brewtarget is a free brewing software you can download from the interwebs.

 

[Ondori]

Never used that before, but I have iBrewmaster 1&2. I'll have to play around with it more. 2 has a lot more features than 1 used to.

 

[Yooper]

I just scale back the total grain, keeping the %s the same, for my efficiency.

If I see a recipe where they have 65% efficiency listed, I can use that recipe and just scale back the grain- or if I see a recipe that has 85% efficiency, I can scale up. It's really easy to do, as you just keep the grains and specialty grains the same percentages.

I hope that helps!

 

[Ondori]

It does. Thanks a lot I love some big beers, but I would like to be able to drink more than 3 without getting a buzz going on some times lol