IPA partial boil to full boil conversion

I've picked up a Brewer's Best IPA kit. The instructions call for boiling 2.5 gallons and adding 2.5 gallons to the fermenter. I'd like to do a 5 gallon full boil instead so I understand the amount of hops need adjustment. In an effort to learn myself I downloaded the beersmith application.

What I entered is as follows for the recipe as called for in the instructions:

5.0 gallon batch

1.0 lb Light Dry Extract (brewer's best light spray dried malt)
6.6 lb Pale Liquid Extract (Muntons Malt Extract Light)

1.0 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 40L
8.0 oz Crushed Victory Malt

2.0 oz Cascade Bittering Hops (7.5% alpha acid) - boil 55 minutes
1.0 oz Columbus Bittering Hops (14.2% alpha acid) - boil 55 minutes
1.0 oz Cascade Aroma Hops (7.5% "" "") - boil 5 minutes

Plugging that all in and I'm getting an IBU of 98.8...not sure if I'm entering something wrong but that's what the recipe calls for. The recipe gives an IBU range of 45-49.

Any help on what I'm doing wrong to get such a high IBU and how to adjust it to around a 60 - 80 IBU instead? Thanks

A good rule of thumb when doubling the boil volume is to cut the bittering add by 1/3rd. In that recipe, you could move half of the bittering Cascade add to 15 minutes.

Hi -

I just went thought this exact exercise.

Make sure your boil volume is set correctly. In the "Recipe View", click on "Choose" next to the greyed out "Equipment" field. Then click on "New" and enter your custom brew kettle size if you don't see something listed that will work. You should see your IBU change instantly.

Doing it this way will also calculate how much water you should start with given a 9% evaporation rate for your boil time. That 9% is customizable too, but I guess that's about right?? That's the default number that the beersmith people used.

And just to let you know, I don't think the free trial saved my recipes that I was working up yesterday...at least I coudn't find it when quickly looking. So make sure you copy the recipe into notepad or something just in case the free trial dosen't allow you to save.

Did you pick this up at How do you Brew? I just picked up the English Pale Ale. I really wanted the IPA, but they were out of it. I'm guess you're the guy responsible for that???

Jay

So instead of 2 oz of cascade at 60 minute boil do 1 oz and then 15 minutes of the other 1 oz?

Plugging that into beersmith gives me about a 90 IBU. a lot closer to what I'm looking for (pretty much right on). thanks.

any reason that beersmith gives me a much higher IBU than the stated IBU on the recipe?

whoneedsabeer said:

Hi -

I just went thought this exact exercise.

Make sure your boil volume is set correctly. In the "Recipe View", click on "Choose" next to the greyed out "Equipment" field. Then click on "New" and enter your custom brew kettle size if you don't see something listed that will work. You should see your IBU change instantly.

Doing it this way will also calculate how much water you should start with given a 9% evaporation rate for your boil time. That 9% is customizable too, but I guess that's about right?? That's the default number that the beersmith people used.

And just to let you know, I don't think the free trial saved my recipes that I was working up yesterday...at least I coudn't find it when quickly looking. So make sure you copy the recipe into notepad or something just in case the free trial dosen't allow you to save.

Did you pick this up at How do you Brew? I just picked up the English Pale Ale. I really wanted the IPA, but they were out of it. I'm guess you're the guy responsible for that???

Jay

Click to expand...

lol, yeah, I just saw your thread a little earlier. I changed the equipment to a 7.5 gallon pot but I don't think it did much.

I did pick it up at How Do You Brew but they just got a shipment in about Tuesday. There were quite a few IPA's I swear!!!

Oh yeah...the other thing is you just have to click the "Bitterness" button up in the tool bar. This will allow you to put whatever custom IBU value you want. This then should alter the hop schedule accordingly.

Ok - you're off the hook then. I went up there on Wednesday. They were pretty picked over. The guy did say he expected a shipment on Thrusday, I guess he was right.

Jay

i would take 1oz of that bittering cascade and do a dry hop, it should get your IBU's in order and be a good move for aroma in that IPA...