Understanding how much late addition hops

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jbsengineer

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Hoping someone could help me out here. So if I take a recipe I find online and plug it into Beersmith I'm always a bit puzzled on how to mirror the amount of late additions hops. Early addition hops are fairly easy given I can use the IBU's as a gauge. However, 1 minute or 0 minute hop additions don't add any IBU's. So after I calculate the difference in my AA% and age how would you replicate the amount of hops during a late addition?
 
Hoping someone could help me out here. So if I take a recipe I find online and plug it into Beersmith I'm always a bit puzzled on how to mirror the amount of late additions hops. Early addition hops are fairly easy given I can use the IBU's as a gauge. However, 1 minute or 0 minute hop additions don't add any IBU's. So after I calculate the difference in my AA% and age how would you replicate the amount of hops during a late addition?

AAUs don't matter, so they are just used at the same amount. An ounce of hops late in the boil for aroma give an insignificant difference even if the AAUs are different.
 
Some would say that the more you add at, say 1 minute, the better the beer. Well, the hoppier the beer,which is almost the same.
As Yooper said, it doesn't matter,dont stress and just add as much as you want to get aroma in return.
 
Understand. So in your opinion where in the boil would you rely on the amount versus the IBU's? 15 minutes there is some bitterness added so you could use the IBU calculations to mirror the amount of hops. Whereas at 5 minutes there are so little IBU's you probably want to rely more on the amount of hops proportional to the batch size?
 
Understand. So in your opinion where in the boil would you rely on the amount versus the IBU's? 15 minutes there is some bitterness added so you could use the IBU calculations to mirror the amount of hops. Whereas at 5 minutes there are so little IBU's you probably want to rely more on the amount of hops proportional to the batch size?

No, I'd probably use the same amount of hops at 15 minutes as in the recipe I'm following, regardless of the AAUs.

Think of it this way- flavor and aroma hops are like spices in cooking. If you use, say, a teaspoon of oregano in your spaghetti sauce, using .75 teaspoon will lessen the flavor. It'll still be ok, but not with the same flavor punch as intended. The same is true of hops in those late additions.

I'm not sure how many IBUs a small AAU difference will be in 15 minutes without running it through some software- but it won't be much. The difference between 5.7% AAUs and 6.5% AAUs in a 15 minute addition should be negligible.
 
So where would be your cutoff point on relying on amount vs. aaus? 20 minutes? 30 minutes?

Thanks Yooper!
 
So where would be your cutoff point on relying on amount vs. aaus? 20 minutes? 30 minutes?

Thanks Yooper!

It really depends on the style of beer- a German lager would perhaps be something I'd keep the IBUs closer, for example- but for any pale ales or ambers where the hops are a flavor/aroma part of the flavor I'd not worry about changing any hops that weren't bittering hops. Generally, that'd be with 20 minutes or less in the boil.
 
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