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split batch

Ilovebeer

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I can brew up to 12 gallons or so at a time but ferment in 6 gallon carboys, keg in cornys. I often mash and boil full 10+ gallon batch but use different fermentation/dry hop procedures to make two different beers. I never know the best way to handle this in Beersmith. I like to keep a record of each 5 gallon batch individually if possible. So sometimes I put in the basic recipe/mash procedure for 10 gallons, copy it to a different name so I have two, tweak each to reflect the differences, and save. That works for designing the beer, but records are off because it says I made 10 gallons of each, and I have to remember to cut the dry hops in half. And I have to input the yeast as twice the amount I actually use. Or, I can cut the recipe in half but then the losses are incorrect and I have to double everything in the brew steps.
Maybe someone has a better solution?
 
Why not just scale the recipe to half size, print two copies and then return the recipe to full size?
 
Sorry for the long delay, forgot about my post. Thanks for your response.
So I would design two beers as if full size, then scale each to half, print instructions and brew beers, then scale back to full size.
I think it would be smart to print one at full size for use on brew day, which would mean that my equipment losses, etc would be correct
Use the separate scaled printouts for dry hop/fermentation, OK
If I scale it back up, then my records say I brewed 10 gallons of each beer that day, which I did not.
If I leave it scaled down but do not change the equipment, I would assume that Beersmith would change the volumes to double the losses, so that if I actually wanted to reproduce the beer in a 5 gallon batch on the same equipment, I could follow the recipe.
So I think that leaving the two recipes at half scale makes more sense.
 
Hi

I know this is an old thread but as I'm about to get into this myself I thought I'd post what I'm going to do to see if anyone has any comments.

Design a recipe for my full kit.
Create a virtual 50% brew kit profile - i.e. not just half size but half the losses/deadspace etc.
Scale recipe to the 50% kit then duplicate and make dry hop and/or yeast changes for 2nd fermentor.

On my brew day I can follow my main kit recipe through to the end of the boil, whilst filling in 50% of the volumes in the other 2 recipes THEN follow the 50% recipes for pitching and dry hopping.

That should give me accurate records, yes?

Mike
 
LondonBrew said:
That should give me accurate records, yes?

Seems like it to me. The two carboys share identical gravity, Color & IBU, but will split all losses and measured volumes. They may vary in terms of final gravity and yield, simply because beer is a living thing.
 
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