IBU question/worry for IPA recipe

I recently brewed the Brewers Best IPA kit for the second time, but slightly different from my first.

I had used a larger pot this time and did a full boil instead of a partial like my first time.

Here's the hops I used at the start of my 60 min boil:
2.0 oz. Cascade
1.5 oz. Columbus

Recipe also includes: 6.6 lbs of Light LME and 1 lb of Golden DME and some specialty grains for steeping (1 lb of Caramel 40L & 1/2 lb of Victory)

Finished it with:
1.0 oz. Cascade 5 mins before flame out.

When I punched the numbers into BeerSmith 2 I was warned that my IBUs were off the chart for the style? I tried the numbers in BeerAlchemy as well for comparison.

BS2 gave me 120.6 IBUs while BA gave me 114.3 IBUs?
Should I be worried since the style range is 40-70?

After tinkering with the software I realized that the full boil must increase bitterness due to what I think refers to better "Hop Utilization". I had no idea it would have that big of an impact. I had been warned about steeping my grains in the full boil, so I handled that in a separate pot holding 1.0 gallons of water at 155 and then added them to the final pot and started the boil.

I am alittle late to post, but Ive done one of these before. Actually based a batch im doing right now off this recipe.

You dont have to worry it will probably come out somewhere close to 45-55 IBUs. The more water you boil the hops with tends to up the bitterness but you should be fine. I did the same thing and was wondering if I made a wise choice, but all turned out well.

This past batch had to add extra hops, kept the rest the same and decided to dry hop with columbus and amarillo.

That seems like a lot of bittering, what was the AA% on the hops?

remman4 said:

That seems like a lot of bittering, what was the AA% on the hops?

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1.5 ozs was 15.2 AA and 2 ozs was 6.4 AA?

That will be a bitter beer, but I would still enjoy it!

I would up the late hops to round out flavor and aroma, but to each their own

remman4 said:

That will be a bitter beer, but I would still enjoy it!

I would up the late hops to round out flavor and aroma, but to each their own

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I'm planning on dry hopping for 7 days. You think I should up that?

As previously mentioned, this will be a bitter, but drinkable, beer. I would have spread that 3.5 oz from the beginning of the boil out to later additions for some flavor and additional aroma. This would also have brought down the IBU.

Theres always a next time.

And I always dry hop my IPAs. It wouldnt be the same without.

I would add another oz of cascade at flameout and dry hop with 1-2 more oz, but that's my personal preference

It is fun to try to learn the differences batch to batch when you change up your recipes in incremental ways

Regardless of what the calculators say the IBUs max out at about 100. That's where the isomerization process maxes out. It is possible to go higher, but not with home gear.

david_42 said:

Regardless of what the calculators say the IBUs max out at about 100. That's where the isomerization process maxes out. It is possible to go higher, but not with home gear.

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Thanks. If nothing else I'll get a good first hand definition of hop utilization

I'll find out in early April. (fingers crossed)