Smaller Batches

[DoubleG]

Does anyone know how to go about making smaller batches?

For example if a recipe is made up for 25litres do you just divide all the ingredients by two to make 12.5litres?
Do you still boil for the full hour and use the full amount of yeast?

I am looking to do some smaller batches to experiment with and was wondering if there is an exact science behind it or is it a case of make half the amount then divide everything by half.

[Garry]

For example if a recipe is made up for 25litres do you just divide all the ingredients by two to make 12.5litres?

Yes.

Do you still boil for the full hour

Yes.

and use the full amount of yeast?

You don't have to use the full amount of yeast, half will do. But I probably would just throw in the full amount.

The handiest way to do it is put the recipe into BeerSmith (or your software of choice). Then change the brew length and it will adjust the quanities for you.

PS: welcome to the NHC 

[DoubleG]

Cool thanks, I've heard a lot about Beersmith, is it worth the investment? How much does the software cost?

[brenmurph]

Bout 20 dollars

[brenmurph]

And its fantastic

[Dunkel]

Or you could try BrewMate for starters - it's free!  http://www.brewmate.net/

[LordEoin]

Brewmate is awesome, until you try some beersmith.
You'll be more than happy with brewmate for a long time, but it's a gateway drug software that won't satisfy you any more after a few hits of Beersmith.
Next thing you know you're strung out on a corner somewhere selling yourself for grain.

One of the many handy things about Beersmith is that you can simply bang in someone else's recipe and then with a few clicks scale it down perfectly to whatever small batch size you want.
So you can grab a 10gallon recipe you fancy off beersmith and then just convert it to your intended brew size.
It's $27.95, but worth every penny because of the huge amount of additional tools it has (so many that it seems daunting until you just start playing with them a bit)

Keep an eye open for prizes of beersmith keys. They're a generous crowd and often throw a few keys in our direction.
I think the IPAfest has a few for prizes at the moment.