Low bitterness in IPA?

I recently made this recipe and it was calculated to have 70 IBU. It doesn't taste anywhere near that. The beer is dry and not overly sweet. I would call in balanced but it doesn't taste like an IPA in my opinion. What could I have done wrong? I have fairly soft water so I added two teaspoons of gypsum. But I have made other beers that had bitterness that was spot on?

OG - 1.062
FG - 1.010

10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 76.9 %
2 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 15.4 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.8 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.8 %


0.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 5 12.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 45.7 IBUs
0.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 7 6.9 IBUs
0.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 4.1 IBUs
0.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days

1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast 10

Mash at 152F for 60 minutes.

Galaxy, despite being high alpha %, is more appropriate for late and dryhop additions. It can lend a juicy fruit sweetness (like Citra) which can detract from that harsher type of bitterness we get from say Apollo, Columbus, Summit, or Chinook.

That said, your late and dryhop additions are still quite on the low end. I typically use 3-8 times that amount, depending on the spot from 20 minutes and less. In any case, 3 oz. total hops is not enough for an IPA at 1.062 OG.

First Wort Hopping may also not be for you. But I doubt only 1/4 oz. would matter if this was a 5 or 6 gallon batch. In general though, if you desire harsher, more apparent bitterness, skip the FWH and go with a simple bitter.

Also, 70 IBUs Rager is different than 70 IBUs Tinseth, Garetz, etc. You have to find which one, for your brewing style, is usually the most accurate.

bobbrews said:

Galaxy, despite being high alpha %, is more appropriate for late and dryhop additions. It can lend a juicy fruit sweetness (like Citra) which can detract from that harsher type of bitterness we get from say Apollo, Columbus, Summit, or Chinook.

That said, your late and dryhop additions were still quite low. I typically use 3-8 times that amount, depending on the spot from 20 minutes and less. In any case, 3 oz. total hops is not enough for an IPA at 1.062 OG.

First Wort Hopping may also not be for you. But I doubt 1/4 oz. would matter if this was a 5 or 6 gallon batch. In general though, if you desire harsher, more apparent bitterness, skip the FWH and go with a simple bitter.

Also, 70 IBUs Rager is different than 70 IBUs Tinseth, Garetz, etc. You have to find which one, for your brewing style, is usually the most accurate.

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Thank you, that makes sense.

I just brewd a hop burst IPA with an ounce of nugget as FWH and no additions till 20min which i then threw 1oz each in order of 5min increments of cenntenial, galaxy, simcoe, citra, falconers flight.

This is the first recipe i can claim that i love the FWH. It gives such a subtle smooth bitterness behind all the citrus/tropical ripe fruit tones then say a 60min addition would.
You late additions should be upped to 1oz each and up your FWH to 1oz.
Like said before galaxy is more off a late kettle hop IMO i would use a high AA to bitter at the FWH and 60 min ike nugget or warrior.

my latest batch is an AIPA using no Crystal malt at all and WLP008, East Coast/Sam Adams, which states in its profile, "Similar neutral character of WLP001, but less attenuation, less accentuation of hop bitterness"

I had calculated 50 IBU (low for style) FWH, 60, 30 & 15, combined with the 008 plus using a hop sock (without compensating for it, which sucked my utilization), it went into the fermenter with almost no hop character at all. I'm not shooting for over-the-top hoppyness, but do want to know that it's still an IPA. something more along the lines of Starr Hill's Northern Lights (52 IBU) but not looking to clone it.

I had not planned on dry-hopping (again, not quite to style), so I asked my Jedi Master/LHBS owner and he set me up with 1oz of leaf Citra and 1oz of pellet Sorachi Ace, so I tossed those into the primary for a week.

bottled it this past weekend. I never knew how good flat beer could taste. I almost didn't bottle it, I wanted to drink it right then and there.

so, it looks like you're a little low on the dry hop, & my suggestion to you would be double or even triple your dry hopping.

GrogNerd said:

so, it looks like you're a little low on the dry hop, & my suggestion to you would be double or even triple your dry hopping.

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I love the way the beer tastes/smells etc. I just wanted more bitterness at the end.

think boiling is the only way to bring out the alphas for bittering, so not sure if anything can help at this point.

would think boiling some hops by themselves and adding to fermenter wouldn't be a good idea

GrogNerd said:

think boiling is the only way to bring out the alphas for bittering, so not sure if anything can help at this point.

would think boiling some hops by themselves and adding to fermenter wouldn't be a good idea

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The beer is bottled and done. I made this post to understand why. I'm not trying to fix this batch.

sorry...

OP was not very clear on that point.

then my question would be: did you use a hop sock? I did, but did not compensate for it and I might as well have not added any hops

GrogNerd said:

sorry...

OP was not very clear on that point.

then my question would be: did you use a hop sock? I did, but did not compensate for it and I might as well have not added any hops

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Nope, I used all hop pellets in the boil and dry hop.

only other thing I can think of to consider would be age/freshness