Beer Smith/Hopville IBU calculator

[xpandnz]

Hi fellow home brewers.

I did a 60 min boil yesterday. Heres how it went down.

I steeped 500g of Crystal Malt for 30 mins at 150 f in about 3-4 litres of water.
After this, I had this boil schedule using zythos:
20grams 60mins
40grams 30mins
20grams 15mins

Once this cooled I added it to my 23 litre fementor with 1.5kg Coopers Real Ale, 1.8kg Muntons LME and 500g of dextrose. I filled it up to 23 litres, sprinkled on my Safale US-05 and its going good.

Now, on Beersmith and Hopville, when I adjust the volume of water I boiled with, it seems to assume that I added all my fermentables into the 3-4 litres of water and therefore my hops did not do their job properly and I get an IBU rating of like 7!!!!!

Is there anyway to change this so it gives me a correct IBU rating?

 

[mdgagne]

Im alittle confused. So you didn't boil your fermentables at all?

 

[ArcaneXor]

That's certainly a very unconventional brewing process - it's almost impossible to get more than 20 IBUs if you boil the hops in 1 gal of near-water and then top it off to 6 gallons.

 

[xpandnz]

I don't have a pot big enough to boil everything.
Basically, all the fermentables go in to the fermenter, then I tip in my 3 litres of water that I had steeped the malt in and boiled the hops. I then add a little more boiling water and stir for a while. That means all the fermentables are mixed up nicely. The kits I use do not require boiling.

Essentially, I am making a hop tea and adding it to my 23 litres.

I sampled a little bit before pitching yeast. It was sweet cause my gravity was at 1.053 but I could taste the under lying bitter and that should come through nicely (or so I am hoping) once the FG hits around 1.010-1.012.

 

[mdgagne]

Its my understanding that if you can't do a full volume boil you add the portion of fermentables that give you the same approximate boil gravity and proceed with the same hopping schedule. This way you get close to the same utilization less a relatively small percentage due to the decreased volume. You add the rest of the extract 15 minutes before the end to kill off bacteria. Not boiling the dme/lme seems to be a contimation risk to me. Hopville and beersmith both account for all of this in their calcs.

 

[xpandnz]

This sounds about right.
So I should try and achieve the SG with the water I am using to boil with for the hops?

All the fermentables I have purchased from my LHBS are no-boil kits. I just heat it up so I can pour it out. I have always done this and never had a bad beer.

 

[mdgagne]

In that case you probably don't risk infection as long as all your extracts have been stored properly. I think the method I outlined above its quite a bit more "conventional". It will give you a closer ibu calculation and it sounds like that is wht your looking for.

 

[xpandnz]

Thank you.
I'm looking forward to tasting it. Hopefully it came out as planned.

 

[mdgagne]

I had an all zythos black IPA a couples months ago. Pretty unique hop character, you won't be dissapointed.