Can hop tea add IBU's?

I have a beer that has been in my primary for about 10 days and I would like to increase the IBU's. I've read about people using hop tea to add aroma and flavour but not for bittering. My plan, unless advised otherwise, is to boil some hops for 30-60 minutes and take that concentrated 1 to 1.5 litres of "IBU cocktail" and add it to my bottling bucked with the priming sugar.

If anyone has tried this, or has some way of calculating how much bitterness I can add, please feel free to advise me on how this should be done. Also, if you think this is a huge mistake let me know!

The recipe I used was Ed Worts Haus Pale Ale, with an additional 2lbs of munich malt. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

It's difficult to get enough IBUs in a small tea to move the bitterness on a full batch by any appreciable amount.

Max "perceptible" IBUs in the tea will be about 100; if you're diluting that by 20:1 you're only adding 5 IBU or so to the overall batch. And most people can't taste differences of less than 10.

Although the max perceptible IBU's is 100, if I make the tea 200 IBU's would that then translate into a 10 point increase when added to the 5 gallons?

I guess "perceptible" was a bad choice of words. Most sources say that ~100 IBUs is about the maximum you can get in solution. So making a 200 IBU tea isn't possible.

If you really have a problem with the IBUs in your current batch, you'd be better off brewing another batch with the same recipe, but overhopped, and blending them.

Thanks for the good advice Bike n Brew. Blending the two brews is a good idea and I may do that.

One more question. What if I were to take some of the beer and use it to make the hop tea? That way I could use more liquid, maybe 3 or 4 liters, without watering down the batch. I'm not concerned with losing the alcohol that boils off, as long as the flavour is improved.

I apologize for these questions, I know that the best thing is to just brew it right the first time.

you might want to read though this for some ideas:

http://homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=55721

brucepepper said:

One more question. What if I were to take some of the beer and use it to make the hop tea? That way I could use more liquid, maybe 3 or 4 liters, without watering down the batch. I'm not concerned with losing the alcohol that boils off, as long as the flavour is improved.

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If you don't mind the loss of alcohol (and if the loss doesn't change the taste of the beer that much) I don't know why you couldn't do that.

I wonder if this isn't a good candidate for adding hop iso-alpha concentrate:


Per Hoptech:

This extract contains pure iso-alpha acids, which can be added to beer at any stage (post fermentation is best) to add up to 50% of its bitterness. (Not recommended for bittering your beer entirely since there are secondary benefits from wort boiling with hops.) However, our Iso-Alpha extract is useful for correcting an under-bittered beer and also for training yourself to judge bitterness levels. The Iso-Alpha extract can be added at any stage of brewing, but best utilization will occur if added just prior to bottling or to the serving keg. Simply add 1/8th of a teaspoon to 5 gallons of beer for each single IBU you want. Supplied in a 2 oz bottle, enough to add 16 IBUs to 30 gallons of beer.

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Iso-alpha concentrate is different from hop oil, which will not add bittering. This stuff reportedly will add bittering. at $10.95 from Hoptech, it might be just the ticket.

The concentrate is a good way to go and that product is really easy to control. Some extracts are so concentrated, you need multiple dilutions to get a usable solution.

But, boiling part of your beer would also work. Maxing out 10% will add 8-10 IBU.

My vote is to save your money and time. Unless you completely forgot to add hops, it should turn out fine. Make your next beer hoppier.

I was under the assumption that we can only perceive ~100 IBU's. So if you made a 200IBU tea, its still got 200 IBU's worth in there. If you dilute that down it should bitter twice as much.

sirsloop said:

I was under the assumption that we can only perceive ~100 IBU's. So if you made a 200IBU tea, its still got 200 IBU's worth in there. If you dilute that down it should bitter twice as much.

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IIRC, it's not a perception issue, it's that only~100IBU worth of alpha acids can dissolve in solution before it becomes saturated.

It's not JUST a matter of perception on the IBUs, though; there's a physical limit to how many iso acids can be absorbed into solution. I've read where uber-bitter beers like Pliny (whose close recipes are well north of 200 IBUs as per the calculators) are actually significantly UNDER 100 IBUs when measured in the lab. There's a certain point where you just can't get more bitterness extracted.

sirsloop said:

I was under the assumption that we can only perceive ~100 IBU's. So if you made a 200IBU tea, its still got 200 IBU's worth in there. If you dilute that down it should bitter twice as much.

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Two factors to consider:
perception threshold and here's some big science
https://my.johnihaas.com/cmsdk/content/bhg/research/pdf/06_bitterisbetter_Schoenbe_MfB.pdf

Then you also have to factor in how many IBUs you can acutally extract into solution:
"The maximum IBU level in a beer is somewhat dependent on composition of the beer. A higher alcohol, higher gravity beer can have more IBU than a beer at 5 percent alcohol. A 5 percent beer will max out at 120 parts per million iso-alpha acids, which corresponds to about 80 IBU. It is physically impossible to have more IBU than that in a 5 percent beer. As alcohol and unfermented carbohydrate in the beer increases, so does the ability of the beer to carry more IBU. Our hop research expert feels that the claim that some barley wines have over 100 IBU is probably valid."
http://www.allaboutbeer.com/features/246doubleIPA.html

I've seen a better link explaining the quote..I'll have to search that out.

Thanks everyone for the help, I'm always impressed with the knowledge that some of you have. I'm going to look into getting those drops, and if it's too difficult for me to get them I'll boil some of the beer with some pellets.