Brewing At Altitude

My house sits at just a hair under 7200 feet, its great for growing juniper berries that I hope to throw into a porter eventually but not so great for boiling water. Water boils at about 92-93C slightly weather dependent. I do extract partial boils due to space, equipment, financial, and expertise limitations. That coupled with the altitude and I am having a hard time getting the bitterness I want. I have fiddled a little with longer boils (up to almost an hour and a half) and higher hop additions (up to 1.5x recipe and 2x recipe) and haven't been satisfied. Any suggestions? The best solution currently might be to pressure cook the wort but I broke my 6 gallon pressure canner last season and haven't gotten around to replacing it.

-dylan.

pr0cess said:

My house sits at just a hair under 7200 feet, its great for growing juniper berries that I hope to throw into a porter eventually but not so great for boiling water. Water boils at about 92-93C slightly weather dependent. I do extract partial boils due to space, equipment, financial, and expertise limitations. That coupled with the altitude and I am having a hard time getting the bitterness I want. I have fiddled a little with longer boils (up to almost an hour and a half) and higher hop additions (up to 1.5x recipe and 2x recipe) and haven't been satisfied. Any suggestions? The best solution currently might be to pressure cook the wort but I broke my 6 gallon pressure canner last season and haven't gotten around to replacing it.

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Altitude isn't significantly altering your hop utilization. Isomerization happens anywhere above 60C. More likely, your water has a Cl/SO4 balance that favors malty flavors over bitterness.

I've brewed on a 14er (14,000ft)...no problems with bitterness, just a hell of an ER trip because of 2nd degree sunburn. I've seen sherpas brew milletwine and barleywine at over 17,000 feet. Their beer/wine was quite bitter, although the type of herbs they used instead of hops might be different. O'Dells, Avery, Great Divide, UpSlope, and New Belgium all brew at high altitude, and they make some really hoppy beers.

Using more water in the boil, say 3 gallons instead of 2, will help increase hop utilization.