Bittering after primary?

[gr8shandini]

Hey all,

I just put my first batch into the primary yesterday and it's bubbling away happily, but now I'm second guessing myself. I bought an extract + specialty grain kit for an English pale ale and followed the directions but there was an extra packet of hops in the kit that wasn't in the recipe. I did some quick calculations using the IBU equations in Palmer and got ~30 IBU which is smack in the middle of the predicted range of 20 - 40, so I left it out.

However, I realized today that I had used the boil volume, not the total volume in the equation. So I recalculated and came up with 19 IBU and it turns out that I would have ended up with 33 if I had used the "extra" hops.

Is it possible to boil them in a small volume of water for the appropriate amount of time and add it to the beer when I rack it to secondary? Or should I just live with the fact that the beer will be less bitter than I like?

Here's the recipe if anyone wants to check my math:

3.3 lbs light LME
2 lbs light DME
8 oz. crystal malt 60L steeped for 30 min
1 oz Kent (marked 4.5% alpha) at 60 min
2 oz Cascade (3.2% alpha) at 15 min
1 oz Glacier (6.0% alpha) at 5 min
1 packet Nottingham yeast

Per directions, that was all in a 2 gal boil with 3 gal of water added to the wort in the primary. The "mystery hops" were 1 oz of Columbus marked 12.2% alpha. They were also marked "flavoring hops" like the Cascade, so I assume that they were meant to be in for 15 min. I calculated the boil gravity to be 1.099 and used the utilization tables for 1.100 since that was the closest. OG was measured at 1.044 at roughly 80F if that helps.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

The beer will still taste fine, just not as bitter as the style calls for. You could save the hops for your next brew, you could add some additonal hop aroma by tossing them in the secondary. I would hang on to em and use them in another recipe, but that's me. If you did a late extract addition your hop utilization would be a little better. Can you describe your process better?

Per Beersmith:

Type: Extract
Date: 5/10/2009
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 2.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (5 Gallon)

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 34.48 %
3.30 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 56.90 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.62 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [3.20 %] (15 min) Hops 6.4 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [6.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.4 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.042 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.11 %
Bitterness: 17.9 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 9.3 SRM

17.9 IBU's w/o late additon. If you were to add your DME at 60 minutes and add your LME at 15 minutes your IBU's would jump to 28.7 acording to Beersmith. If you aren't familiar wiht Late Extract addition method, search the threads here on HBT, it will help your color and IMO flavor.

 

[gr8shandini]

Well, I'll try to give a better description, but being kinda new, I'm not sure what you're looking for:

Using the biggest stockpot I had (12Q) I heated 2 gal of water to 165 degrees and steeped the grain for 30 minutes. Then I brought it to a boil and added both the DME and LME. After it came back to a boil, the hops were added as listed above. When the aroma hops went in, I killed the heat and let it rest for the 5 minutes. I chilled the wort using the ice-in-sink method and got it down to 80 degrees in about 15 or 20 minutes (I didn't time it). Then I boiled 3 additional gallons of water, cooled it, aerated it, added it to the wort and pitched the rehydrated yeast.

I think I'm going to take your advice, though and just use 'em for the next batch. Know any good recipes that call for Columbus?

Thanks.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

www.Beersmith.com, they offer a free 21 day trial, you can formulate your own recipes, and play with IBU's as well as gravities. Like I said research the Late Extract Addition method, it will improve color (lighter beer due to less caramelization) and improve your hop utilization.

I have a 20qt pot that I will do a 3.5-4.0 gallon boil and I top off with PUR filtered water, I normally wash and sanitize my gallon water jugs a couple days before and place in the fridge to chill. When brew day arrives, I pour 1 gallon of the chilled water into the primary, add my cooled wort (same icebath method, usually around 100 degrees) and then top off with the additional gallon of chilled water until I get 5.25 or 5.50 gallons total. I will normally get my temps around 70-75, I pitch my yeast and there she goes.

As for recipes, search HBT for recipes there are a ton. If you like Stouts, I posted a recipe for one that turned out great it is under "my recipes" the key is to only add only 1# of the wheat DME to 3+ gallons of water along with the 60 min hop bittering addition, and add the rest of the DME at 15 min along with hops and yeast nutrient.

This forum blew my mind when I joined, I love it there is a ton of infor, and although it is probably already here somewhere, if you can't find it just post, most people are quick to respond and many have great info.

I am fairly new, but I have been quite successful so far, minus the dubbel I just checked the gravity on OG 1.078, at 14 days it is 1.026, that is only 66% attenuation, and this yeast is supposed to attenuate at 74%+, so I will be posting a question shortly.

Welcome to HBT, good luck, and happy brewing!

 

[gr8shandini]

Thanks again for the help. I knew about the late extraction method from reading Palmer, I just didn't know that's what it was called. I plan to do that on the next go-around. For my first outing, I wasn't planning on doing any calculations and just blindly following the recipe as written as an intro to the process. That's why I proceeded without further tweaking once my initial number crunching "confirmed" the original recipe. Beersmith will definitely be consulted in the future.

Great tip about the pre-chilled water, by the way.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Brew on Brotha gr8shandini!