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Converting 5G boil recipe to a 3G boil recipe
Hi guys,
I saw a recipe on homebrewheaven that I wanted to try (the vanilla weizen). Unfortunately, I am only setup to do 3G boils right now, and the recipe is for 5G boils...how can I convert the recipe? It might be a pain because I don't think homebrew heaven divulges the exact measurements of their ingredients in the recipe. Will I lose a lot of character doing a 3G boil on a 5G recipe? Any advice? I just want to get some use out of this stockpot I bought and I'm not really ready to upgrade to full boils yet...
Thanks!
hello daniel,
As far as generalities go, when you do concentrated boils the wort will be darker than it would've been and you won't get as much bittering power from the hops (so you need to use more). I'm assuming you can ferment 5 gals, in which case you'd top of the fermenter with enough water to get your volume. Otherwise, you'll get a stronger beer.
Without knowing the recipe, it's difficult to give definitive guidance. I did look at their site though, and according to the label the OG is 40 to 50, IBU is 6 to 8. I punched some numbers in Promash for you to get some ideas based on a 5 gal boil. I'm estimating the recipe has 6 lbs of extract, and 1/4 lb crystal 10L to get the gravity and color stated according to the label. It probably also has 1/2 oz of Hallertau mixed in the extract for bittering. With these numbers I get an OG of 46 and IBU=9.
I then converted it to a 3 gal boil. Since the IBU is so low, you won't get too much loss (IBU=8 ) actually. You would either have to boil longer or add a little more hops to get the extra IBU. Personally, I wouldn't futz with it. If you were going to make an IPA then I'd adjust for it, but a Weizen is supposed to be less bitter anyway. And if you did a longer boil, it'd get darker...it's already going to be a bit darker anyway due to the concentrated boil.
My Suggestion: use the recipe as is, and boil it at 3 gals like you're planning. In this particular recipe, I don't think you'll lose much in the way of character.
Hope this helps
all the best
i was just listening to a podcast about this yesterday wherein they suggetsed doing 2 seperate 2.5 gallon boils and combining them in the fermentor to make 1, full-boiled 5 gallon batch.
i was thinking of trying this for my next batch.
I've done quite a few 5 gallon batches of beer with a 3g boil. They've always turned out satisfactory but maybe a little dark in color. This is fine with me and something I'd sort of wonder about but never put too much thought into. One advantage to boiling 3g is that you can add 2g of ice cold water to speed up the cool down process. While I'll admit that I want to get a bigger boiling kettle and a wort chiller I wouldn't worry about it and would follow the recipe as is and add the extra 2g of water when your boil is done.
daniel, try useing Promash, they have all the things you need to calculate a batch of any size. Promash.com should get you there
I never did a 5 to 3 gallon conversion, only the other way around. My last homebrew shop owner was good in math and could convert it in seconds. Well, I can't.
I estimate and it seems to work out fairly well.
If the recipe shows 8# pale, 1/2# crystal 20L, and 1/2# munich, I go for roughly 1/3 the recipe.
In the example, I would use 6# pale, 1/4# crystal, and 1/4# munich. It's not exact, but you figure it is just over 1/2 the original recipe, so all you might do is bump up the specialty grains a little bit.
The different won't be that substantial. Worst case scenario, just half the recipe.
That style does not call for a strong hop bitter, flavor, or aroma. You should be fine as is or if you wish boost your hops by about 10% to account for the reduced utilization with a concentrated boil.
Fred
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