Screwed up my IBUs

I brewed a second batch of my porter a few weeks ago, but I beefed up the OG from 1.050 to 1.067. I left the hops schedule the same. However, I realized afterwards that I hadn't taken the higher malt content into account when calculating the IBUs, and I also hadn't boiled the hops as long as I should've. So, according to my corrected calculations, my 1.067 OG porter has a measley 5.4 IBUs! It's been in secondary for a week and a half at this point. I tasted it, and it's not bad, but it could definitely stand a little more bitterness to balance the heavy malt and chocolate flavor. What's the best way, if any, to fix this? Can I boil up a little hop tea and perhaps pour it into my bottling bucket?

Or just dry hop in the secondary...

Dry hopping will give you aroma, but no bitterness.

Hop tea works well for increasing the bitterness. (At least, it did for me, the one time that I did it.)

-a.

ajf said:

Dry hopping will give you aroma, but no bitterness.

Hop tea works well for increasing the bitterness. (At least, it did for me, the one time that I did it.)

-a.

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True - actually it probably wouldn't hurt to do both as your hopping as a whole is "lacking"...

wait....5.4? Seriously? or 54?

dcbrewmeister said:

True - actually it probably wouldn't hurt to do both as your hopping as a whole is "lacking"...

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So I just boil, say, a quart of water with my hops of choice for a while, then add it in like you would priming sugar before bottling?

Evan! said:

wait....5.4? Seriously? or 54?

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I hang my head in shame.

Torchiest said:

So I just boil, say, a quart of water with my hops of choice for a while, then add it in like you would priming sugar before bottling?

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Pellets, whole, or plugs?

Pellets - boil for a short time and strain the tea.
Whole - steep in ~170°F water ~20minutes with enough water to "float" the hops.

Plugs - I dunno, never done it with plugs before...

I have an idea. Could I put pellet hops into my coffee machine, and brew a hop tea that way? If not, I guess I could just use the machine to filter after I brew. Another possibly clever, possibly bad idea.

Torchiest said:

I have an idea. Could I put pellet hops into my coffee machine, and brew a hop tea that way? If not, I guess I could just use the machine to filter after I brew. Another possibly clever, possibly bad idea.

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Might work using it like a "coffee" brew, but I wouldn't use it to "filter" the tea after, it would most likely just clog up your coffee maker.

Don't forget, pellets swell up like a balloon when they get wet.

Well, if I just pour the whole mix slowly into the part that holds the filter, with a coffee filter in there, I should be able to keep it under control without spillage or overflow. I don't really have any other way to completely filter the hops out, and since this will be added to the bottling bucket, I can't let any debris get in there. BTW I will be using pellet hops.

I think all that idea would do is give you really hoppy coffee for awhile.

Hmmmm.....

You know, I just checked the gravity one last time, and drank the sample, of course, and I think it might be okay without extra hops. I used a pound of cocoa powder in the boil, and let it boil for a long time before getting down the the real brewing. I think it added a fair amount of bitterness on its own, and I'd rather just stick it out than perhaps screw it up with too much hops this late in the game. I'm not 100% either way yet, but we'll see.

<shrugs> It is a porter and isn't supposed to be hoppy anyway. If you think it "seems" ok now, just remember the profile will change with conditioning.

So what DID you add for hops, and when?

Wish I had that problem. My last two batches, I screwed up in the other direction. I love hoppy beers, but these are way over the top.

the_bird said:

So what DID you add for hops, and when?

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You may have seen that other thread I started about how I was a bit confused about bittering versus flavoring and aroma hop additions. After getting answers in that thread, I realized that I had been over-estimating my hop additions for my first seven batches, by counting time after I turned off the flame as part of the boiling time.

My recipe ended up with an OG of 1.067. I added 1oz of 4.2% Willamette, which I boiled for 15mins. I then added 1oz of 6% Cascade and turned off the heat. I let the whole thing sit for 10mins before I moved it indoors for chilling. In retrospect, it seems obvious that you wouldn't count time after flame-out as part of the boiling, since you're usually trying to cool it immediately after that, but, oh well.

The first time I made the recipe, the OG was only 1.050. I think I followed basically the same hop schedule, but that was only my second batch, and it was done at the LHBS, with only a hazy understanding of the process. According to my calculations at the time, I thought my IBUs on that batch were 9.7, but making corrections, I think it may have been only 7.6 IBUs. If that's the case, I suppose it doesn't really matter, since that batch was very tasty, and this batch is pretty close to the same, except with more malt and flavoring.

The other thing I'm cocerned about is: IF I were to make the tea, how long should I boil the hops, and should I use an entire ounce? I could end up with something way out there on hoppiness, since I figure I'd do this in straight water, with no malt or anything to hinder absorption. I was going to use another ounce of 4.2% Willamette.

I'm noticing, lately, that I need to go heavier on my hops than what I come up with in ProMash. My IPA, which is, IMHO, truly badass, is a bit underhopped. I mean, it's got tons of hop character from the dryhopping, but on the bitter end, it's a bit low. Which is odd, considering that, according to ProMash, it has a 67.5 IBU count, to go along with its 1.071 OG. Both are towards the upper end of the range for an American IPA style...but I just think it could use more bitterness. Next time, I'll go high and see what happens. But I do love this beer...

The pound of cocoa may be your saving grace. That will add quite a bit of bitterness on its own. If you do feel the need to make a tea, I would suggest a few minute boil and with the hops in the water and then strain it (you could probably just use a coffee filter set up somehow). Then just use small additions swirl gently and retest a small sample. Go lighter than heavier. The reason I say all this is because you are basically looking for bitterness rather than hop flavor, no? So boil off the aroma and just add your bitterness but carefully.

All that being said, if it tastes alright now I would let it be. Perhaps it is not what you are shooting for now, but this could be chalked up to a learning experience at any rate and if the beer is drinkable why fiddle and possibly make a mistake?

To increase the bitterness you may want to boil some hops and DME in a quart of water. Aim for a graviy of about 1.030 - 1.040 and add the remaining priming DME later. This will give you good hops utilization while still providing pH that is close to a regular wort boil pH. Though hop utilization is higher in higher pH solutions (the solubility of the alpha acids goes up with pH) I would be concerned that the quality of the bitterness becomes worse if the hops are boiled in water.

Since there is a limit to the IBUs that you can get with conventional boiling (some sources suggest it is around 100 and even before this your utilization will drop significantly) you will have a hard time increasing the IBUs of the beer by more than 5 unless you make more of the over-hopped priming wort. But that may lead to a dillution of the other beer flavors.

Kai