You guys done scared me outta' my IIPA.

So I wrote up a fat, "Pliny-esque" recipe for an IIPA the other day, and I got all my ingredients from the store, and I was heating up the water and had just put in a few specialty grains, when I came on here and started reading all this stuff about "not being able to achieve IBUs of over 100", "anything over 100 being a waste", etc.

I got so darn scared that I cancelled the brew. But now I find several threads where people talk about (and other posters validate) some competition-worthy IPAs whose CALCULATED IBUs are 200+.

Now... if hop utilization is often so low with extract brewing, tell me, WHY would it be bad to have 200 IBU's? I'd be using some gypsum, and doing a 90 minute boil, and adding 1# DME at the start of boil and the REST at 15 minutes...

I want to have a huge, beast of an IIPA, the kind of beer that makes your face curl into that satisfied snarl, the same snarl you get when you hear a real dirty metal riff or something.

Now do I have reason to be scared? Does anybody have any advice for achieving a true hopzilla with extract / partial-mash brewing? I'm just about ready to brew it anyway with my 200 IBU hop-bill, multiple flavor additions, 4 steps of dry-hopping, and throw caution to the wind... but I'd like a little advice, being as that all those hops were awfully durned expensive.

Thanks.

full boil!!!!! hop utilization increases w/ the size of your wort (if your overall brew size is unchanged)

finding a link for you...

edit: this is what i was looking for (4th post down) but it seems to just confirm what you were thinking.

these were also interesting
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/full-boil-vs-partial-boil-hops-utilization-88417/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-many-ibus-do-i-gain-lose-when-using-87998/

The fact is that no more then 100 IBUs worth of iso alpha acids can be dissolved in wort before it reaches its saturation point. The calculations may say 200+, but your taste buds and any scientific instruments will tell you otherwise. Pliny is stated to be around 100, but with topping off to acieve the final 5 gallon volume, it's impossible to get there. Of course it seems like you may have already read my threads, and the links are above if you haven't. Trust me, I tried to make a hop bomb using a partial boil, it just isn't gonna happen.

If you really want, tomorrow after my Thanksgiving drunkness wears off, I can dig up the links to the interviews with John Palmer and possibly some other articles, but most everything should be in those threads.

EDIT: Threads about IPAs and IBUs just draw me in.

I recall reading somewhere credible that 100 IBU is about the limit of sensory overload in humans. After that point, all you taste is BITTER. The taste equivalent of standing next to USS Theodore Roosevelt; all you see is grey.

Bob

Bob - that reminds me of a foggy, foggy day at Ballast Point. Looking out the window of the BOQ and seeing nothing but gray. Then I realized the fog bank had rivets!

The problem with calculated IBUs is simple: all of the calculators use approximations that are meaningless above 100 IBU. The wort saturates and you can't get any higher without using a pressure cooker.

But, hop aroma and flavor are a whole different story.

Barley,

I have read 2 of those 3 links you posted. Very useful stuff, thank you.

On my last few brews, I've been filling my 5-gallon brewpot as CLOSE to full as I can (closer to a FULL-BOIL). Probably 4 gallons, maybe 4.25.

I think my stove can handle 5 gallons though. If I bought a 7-gallon brewpot, and my stove could handle it, should I be brewing with 6 gallons to compensate for evaporation? And if I did this, would I be able to get 100 IBUs because of no topping off?

And I suppose I should be investing in a wort-chiller if I'm boiling 6 gallons of water at once, huh? Those things work pretty well, or what?

This thread may be of some interest to you. It describes a method many people are using to maximize flavor and aroma from their hops.

rph33 said:

I think my stove can handle 5 gallons though. If I bought a 7-gallon brewpot, and my stove could handle it, should I be brewing with 6 gallons to compensate for evaporation? And if I did this, would I be able to get 100 IBUs because of no topping off?

And I suppose I should be investing in a wort-chiller if I'm boiling 6 gallons of water at once, huh? Those things work pretty well, or what?

Click to expand...

Yes and Yes.

A lot of people notice a marked improvement just by going to full boil. And if you can achieve a full boil, then that's one step closer to all grain. If you can get a good boil going in over 4 gallons, a good pot should be able to keep an extra couple gallons going, especially if you can set it on top of two burners at once.

Wort chillers are important when boiling that much liquid, because you want to get it down to temp as quickly as possible and get your yeast in there. The longer it sits cooling without being in the fermenter with an airlock on and your yeast in it, is more chance to get some other wild yeast of bacteria in there, and that much wort will take a while without a chiller.

I have a 8 gallon heavy duty brew kettle and it sits nicely over two burners on my stove. It's enough with both going full blast to boil 6.5 gallons of water and over that hour or so of cooking... results in about 5 gallons.

I did as Barley suggested, and got a wort chiller and began making my own which is much larger.

Full boil, late extract/hop addition. You do have to be a little careful with late additions, but I've read nothing but great things about full boils (minus boil over incidents).

cancelled teh brew cause you were skeerd?? ... screw that noise... you just got to the fun part!