Kriek IBU's

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todd46

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Ok, so I'm going to be brewing my blonde kriek soon and have adjusted the ibu's to be around 10. I kind of wanted to split off 1 gallon of the blonde base to drink as is. My question is, will a blonde ale taste bad/weird with only 10 ibu's? Should I just keep the whole batch together? It seems that most blondes have ibu's in the mid-20's typically. I don't want to waste a gallon if it will suck.
 
I'm not much of a Blonde Ale brewer. The style guide says 15 - 28 IBUs.

My guess is the cherry one would be fine. You should get some tartness from the fruit that will also offset bitterness. The one without cherry, will probably taste more sweet or malty.

My advice would be to up the IBUs and pick a floral or earthy flavored hop.
 
Beernik said:
I'm not much of a Blonde Ale brewer. The style guide says 15 - 28 IBUs.

My guess is the cherry one would be fine. You should get some tartness from the fruit that will also offset bitterness. The one without cherry, will probably taste more sweet or malty.

My advice would be to up the IBUs and pick a floral or earthy flavored hop.
Click to expand...

I just don't want the IBUs to inhibit the lactobacillus or any of the other bugs that will be in the kriek portion, which is why I dropped them to about 10. I'll be using Palisade hops, which I've seen described as "floral, grassy, and even apricot-like". More of a flavor than bittering hop, so right on point to your comment. Thanks for your thoughts
 
I didn't realize you were putting Lacto in with the cherries. The 10 IBU limit makes sense. What OG are you thinking about?
 
todd46 said:
I just don't want the IBUs to inhibit the lactobacillus or any of the other bugs that will be in the kriek portion, which is why I dropped them to about 10. I'll be using Palisade hops, which I've seen described as "floral, grassy, and even apricot-like". More of a flavor than bittering hop, so right on point to your comment. Thanks for your thoughts
Click to expand...

All the commercial lacto strains are hop resistant. If your using raw grain, then maybe not
 
bellmtbbq said:
All the commercial lacto strains are hop resistant. If your using raw grain, then maybe not
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Really? Hadn't heard that before. To answer Beernik, OG should be 1.059
 
With an OG of 1.059, you're OG to BU ratio (59/10 = 5.9) is really high. Blonde Ales look like they are typically in the 2.5 to 1.5 range.

I know it cuts down the ABV a lot, but you might want to consider dropping the OG to 1.045ish and up the IBU to 12ish.

That makes the OG to BU ratio to 3.75. That shouldn't end up too malty and an extra 2 IBU should hurt the Lacto too much.
 
Beernik said:
With an OG of 1.059, you're OG to BU ratio (59/10 = 5.9) is really high. Blonde Ales look like they are typically in the 2.5 to 1.5 range.

I know it cuts down the ABV a lot, but you might want to consider dropping the OG to 1.045ish and up the IBU to 12ish.

That makes the OG to BU ratio to 3.75. That shouldn't end up too malty and an extra 2 IBU should hurt the Lacto too much.
Click to expand...
I think its typically IBU/GU, not the other way around.
10/59=.169 which isn't particularly bitter. My pale ales are usually in the 1.25-1.45 BU:GU range.

Im bottling a 10 month old gallon of sour beer I made with extra wort from a dunkelweizen and dregs from RR sanctification (No sach, just brett, lacto and pedio). The wort was calculated to have ~16 IBU and managed to become relatively sour.

Im not sure IBU/GU is too important for a sour beer, I think more important is the number of IBUs. I would aim for 15 at the most, but make sure to stay under 20.
 
The level of IBUs depends on the souring bacteria used. Pediococcus is generally very hop tolerant and you could hop it to 40ibus if you wanted. I make a sour saison every year and I've used standard lambic blends in the past starting with WY/WL in the past and last year with ECY. This year I did it with just lambic bottle yeasts/bacteria with hopping to about 25 or so IBUs. It's nice and sour with no bacterial inhibition through my hopping.
 
Ok good. I knew I'd be ok on the sour portion, and it sounds like being in the 9-12 range on IBUs (what I anticipate) should be fine for the non-sour 1 gallon I pull off of it (since that is just below the bottom level for the style). Thanks all, this helped
 
todd46 said:
I'll be using Palisade hops, which I've seen described as "floral, grassy, and even apricot-like".
Click to expand...

I've brewed a couple pales & IPA's recently with Palisade as the flavor & aroma additions. They actually gave me a decent, but balanced bitterness at the 30 min addition. Your description sounds very on par from the flavors I get from them. I did get a little apricot flavor, and a nice mild spiciness. Sounds like they would be a good options for your brew. Good luck with it!
 
nofootbreak said:
I think its typically IBU/GU, not the other way around.
10/59=.169 which isn't particularly bitter. My pale ales are usually in the 1.25-1.45 BU:GU range.

Im bottling a 10 month old gallon of sour beer I made with extra wort from a dunkelweizen and dregs from RR sanctification (No sach, just brett, lacto and pedio). The wort was calculated to have ~16 IBU and managed to become relatively sour.

Im not sure IBU/GU is too important for a sour beer, I think more important is the number of IBUs. I would aim for 15 at the most, but make sure to stay under 20.
Click to expand...

Its a split batch. It's not the soured side I'm thinking of. It's the unsoured side I'm thinking of.
 
Or maybe I could dry hop the non-sour portion to bring it closer to style, that would give me the best of both worlds? Sorry just thought of that idea. I've never dry hopped before so I'll read into it but this sounds like an option.
 

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