need some advice (kit tweaking)

Ok, I'm making this porter, so I go to the lhbs to get some yeast,( I don't trust the stuff that comes in the kits) and while talking to the guy there, I decide I want to up the Abv just a little. So, he sells me an extra pound of dme to add. Now, me being all over this site, I say to him, "I want to do this but I don't want to change the taste, or body of this beer." So he tells me to add more hops to offset the extra dme. We looked up which hops I'm getting, 1oz willamette, and 1oz fuggles. He then sold me 2 more oz of each telling me to add ad different intervals. Can anyone help me out on this. I forget when to add what, and I'm not even sure I should be putting all these hops in this. Just looks like too much. I don't want a really hoppy beer this time around! Thanks for any advice.

I am not sure what the new hop additions would be, but an extra 4 oz does not seem right to me. That is double what your original hops would be and you are only adding one more pound of extract. If you have beersmith or something like it, you can plug all your info in and see what it comes up with. I just think that 4 more oz of hops is crazy for just 1 more lbs of DME.

Agreed. Is there a program that will tell me how much of what hop to ad? Thanks

I'm still definitely a new brewer by all standards, but that sounds like he didn't really know what he was talking about. He should have sold you a pound of the lightest DME they had- assuming it's a light or a very light, then 1# is going to do basically nothing to change your flavor in a 5 gallon brew. You're going to get like .12 pts of OG more from that addition. I dont know that i'd even add hops to try and accomodate truthfully -- and certainly not 4 oz worth.

If you really want to dig into it some, check out beersmith 2. you get a free 21 day trial and it can give you an idea of IBUs, color, and gravities for a given beer 'style' and you can tweak your recipe to match it.

2nd the beersmith!!!

I agree also on this. He did tell me to get light dme, and that's what I got. So, I shouldn't add Amy other hops to this? I might end up getting beermaster, and figure this out, but that will have to wait till the next batch.

If you want to post up your recipe i can check in beersmith really fast. i just did a quick test on one of my pale ale recipes - it's a session pale that runs low on ABV intentionally so i don't know how representative it really is -- but 1# light DME hits me for a 4.5 IBU loss. For my pale, im only at 25 IBU starting, so that's more substantial than i anticipated.

Beersmith isn't going to help when it comes to late additions - their flavor contribution isn't accounted for by IBUs. Those are fairly mild mannered hops, but if you don't want a hoppy brew, keep the 30 minute and later additions to a minimum. You should take a look at some porter recipes for perspective. Remember, IBUs aren't the same as perceived bitterness - a roasty, malty beer like porter soaks up IBUs more than something like a pale ale would. A difference of 5 IBUs probably won't be detectable. Those are both low alpha hops, so it will take a lot to make much difference in bittering.

BrewMU makes a good point too about apparent bitterness within a porter. Id rather end up with a porter that was a bit under-bitter than over-bitter... leave your recipe as is and then you've got a baseline for future experimentation

Ok, recipe. 6 lbs dark lme, 8oz carapils, 8oz black malt, 1oz fuggle, 1 oz willamette. I also plan pb adding 8oz of chocolate malt to add some coco flavor to this. Also, the 1 lb light dme. Thanks for the help.

Whats the alpha acid of the hops? Also, whats the porter type? Baltic? Brown? Robust?

Oh, and also.... Are you doing a full 5g boil? or a partial boil of 3g or so?

All of these factors will affect the hop additions.

Okay, i put your original recipe into beersmith. I allowed it to take the standard 4.5% AA on the fuggles and 5.5% on the wilammette and let them both go in as 60 minute boil.

BS2 says youll be at 30.5 IBU like this. If you add in the extra pound of DME, you only drop to 26.8 IBU. If you were to go a .5 oz of 4.5% fuggle for 1/2 hour boil, you'd be back up to 31.4 IBU. That's easily close enough to not notice a difference.

Estimated ABV: 5.2% with the dme, 4.3% without.

This beer is going to look like motor oil from a 1969 camaro that's never been changed...


So, as we said - just about 5 IBU and you probably wont miss it if you add the DME and just leave the hops as is.

Question is their beersmith app for iPhone? Good luck brotha

By the recipe and the added DME, you are making a Robust Porter. They can be lightly hopped (25ibu) or more heavily hopped (50ibu). Its really up to you how much you want to put in or if you want to add some flavoring at the end. Depending on the AA of the hops (and knowing that this years crop seems to be high in all varieties) I would not add all the the homebrew shop gave you. Follow the above posters advice or add a 0.5-1oz more at 60min if you like a slightly bitter flavor. Or, feel free to add an ounce or 2 at the last 0-15mins left in the boil for a bit more spicy aroma to your porter. Its up to you! You are the brew master!

Willamette AA 4.6%, fuggle AA 5.3%, ill be doing a 5 gallon boil.

Oh, and just a basic porter from Midwest

nelgbot said:

Question is their beersmith app for iPhone? Good luck brotha

Click to expand...

No beersmith apps yet. But, as of a post in May, 2011, I think he is planning on one. No need for one anyway if you have a computer and a printer.

There are a few great apps for the iPhone. I use brew pal which was only .99
Northern Brewer recommends one called iBrewMaster and comes with a bunch of their recipes. I'd check out Brew Pal first, for 99 cents it's extremely full featured.

I need android aps. Well, ill play with what I'm going to do with this. I might just go with the extra dme, and chocolate malt for the brew, then add cocoa to the secondary. Looking to add chocolate flavor to the porter. I want a decent amount of flavor. Guess ill make my mind up soon. Brew day starts in about 8 hours!!

It looks like there are some Android apps as well. I'm not sure how up to date this page is but check it out http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2011/02/android-homebrewing-app-roundup.html?m=1