IBU HELP! Beersmith vs online calculators

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user 165400

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Hey all.

Im brewing a small 2 gallon Irish Red. This is extract with steeping grains. About 3.15 or so of grains. To get an IBU in the 15-17 range, Beer smith is telling me to use 2 oz of each hops i am using (Golding, East Kent for boil 60 min and Willamette for 1 min). So 4 oz of hops for an Irish Red 2 gallon? This seems quiet extreme to me so i went and used a few different online IBU calculators. My Original Gravity is around 1.056 (what I'm shooting for) and I'm going to start with 2.5 or 3 gallons of water, and those show that if i use .4 oz of each ill have an IBU ranging from 19-28 (depending on the calculator) which makes more sense to me.

i was thinking there is a setting in Beersmith I'm missing that is calculating this wrong, but i also could be using the online calculators wrong. Ive done one small batch before where i used .25 oz for 1 gallon so the .3 and .4 makes more sense than 4oz... i don't want it to be a hoppy red irish, just a red irish, thoughts??

thanks!
 
Burzlurker said:
Hey all.

Im brewing a small 2 gallon Irish Red. This is extract with steeping grains. About 3.15 or so of grains. To get an IBU in the 15-17 range, Beer smith is telling me to use 2 oz of each hops i am using (Golding, East Kent for boil 60 min and Willamette for 1 min). So 4 oz of hops for an Irish Red 2 gallon? This seems quiet extreme to me so i went and used a few different online IBU calculators. My Original Gravity is around 1.056 (what I'm shooting for) and I'm going to start with 2.5 or 3 gallons of water, and those show that if i use .4 oz of each ill have an IBU ranging from 19-28 (depending on the calculator) which makes more sense to me.

i was thinking there is a setting in Beersmith I'm missing that is calculating this wrong, but i also could be using the online calculators wrong. Ive done one small batch before where i used .25 oz for 1 gallon so the .3 and .4 makes more sense than 4oz... i don't want it to be a hoppy red irish, just a red irish, thoughts??

thanks!
Click to expand...

check your boil volume and batch volume on Beersmith. If you have the boil volume at, say, 1 gallon, it will have you double the hops (since you'd be adding a gallon of water cutting it in half later). See if the boil volume in Beersmith is 3 gallons, and if not, set it there, and you should be all set.
 
Awesome ill look for those options. My gal and I are brewing beers for each other but not telling the other the style or ingredients and we are going to see if they can guess the style, hops, etc. don't want this to come out to hoppy
 
Burzlurker said:
Hey all. Im brewing a small 2 gallon Irish Red. This is extract with steeping grains. About 3.15 or so of grains. To get an IBU in the 15-17 range, Beer smith is telling me to use 2 oz of each hops i am using (Golding, East Kent for boil 60 min and Willamette for 1 min). So 4 oz of hops for an Irish Red 2 gallon? This seems quiet extreme to me so i went and used a few different online IBU calculators. My Original Gravity is around 1.056 (what I'm shooting for) and I'm going to start with 2.5 or 3 gallons of water, and those show that if i use .4 oz of each ill have an IBU ranging from 19-28 (depending on the calculator) which makes more sense to me. i was thinking there is a setting in Beersmith I'm missing that is calculating this wrong, but i also could be using the online calculators wrong. Ive done one small batch before where i used .25 oz for 1 gallon so the .3 and .4 makes more sense than 4oz... i don't want it to be a hoppy red irish, just a red irish, thoughts?? thanks!
Click to expand...

There are three formulas for calculating IBUs: Rager, Tinseth, and Garetz. If I'm not mistaken, Beersmith defaults to Tinseth. You can switch the formula in the Beersmith options page. There should be a tab with this field in it (I'm not at my computer so I can't tell you specifically what it's called). Each formula will give you a different value for IBUs than the others. From what I read, Rager is the most popular but a lot of people use Tinseth too.
 
I personally prefer Tinseth but regardless any beer that is calculated to be over about 70 IBU's will be off as utilization drops off considerably beyond that and can only be accurately measured by a Lab.
 
Denny's Evil Concoctions said:
I personally prefer Tinseth but regardless any beer that is calculated to be over about 70 IBU's will be off as utilization drops off considerably beyond that and can only be accurately measured by a Lab.
Click to expand...

+1

Don't forget that each persons system plays a part into utilization as well.
 

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