First Wort Hopping

I have been reading alot about this technique lately and was curious what everyone's opinion is. I'm especially excited to see if anyone has done a double-batch/side-by-side test (even better with empirical data)!

I think I've finalized my IPA recipe (4th round) and will probably look to do my own test, although with no lab data.

Alot of literature says that it replaces the 10-15 min hop addition, but also is to be used with only low-alpha hops.

My main question - I want to know if the 60 min hop can be replaced with the FWH - I'm not sure why it wouldn't.

From what I remember reading, you take 30% of your late additions and move them to FWH. Me? I roughly do that. But then I do my FWH and I don't do any other bittering addition at all. Works great for me. And as I stated in another thread, for me at least, it prevents boil overs. I also don't do it with just low alpha hops. I do it with whatever hops I'm using. I haven't done a side by side comparison though...

The perceived bitterness is much lower than with a 60 minute addition. To hit a high IBU level in a beer like an IPA I would recommend combining with a 60 minute addition. However, a beer that doesn't need quite that punch is a nice beer to try a FWH hop only. I recently made a Saison with FWH only. The beer has a nice balance and subtle hop flavor, I would like to try this in a cleaner beer. Let us know what you learn when you do this.

FWHing is great

Due to the drastically increased hop utilization, they do recomend using noble hops. There is the potential for a couple things if you are moving your 60 minute addition to FWH.

1. FWH gives a MUCH different bitterness perception than a 60 minute addition will, much more complex and notably milder.

2. Moving a high alpha hop to FWH could really end up blowing you away if it is a harsh hop.

FWH in my experience has offered the equivilent of 30 mins of bittering perception and TONS of flavor. I have made adjustments in the settings of ProMash so that I can formulate recipes that utilize FWH and it will compute not the TRUE IBUs but will give me the PERCIEVED IBUs... which is what matters when tasting.

Bottom line, it is your beer, you do what you like and try what you think is worth trying.