help! I screwed up IIPA and now I'm afraid it won't be bitter enough

[dillypo]

I was brewing an IIPA this last weekend with an OG of 1.083 which I hit on the nose (extract brew makes it easy). The hop schedule is below, but I made one big mistake. When I was calculating out IBU's I was going to do a 4.0 gallon boil. It just slipped my mind and I ended up doing a 2.0 gal boil instead

It didn't occur to me until today. According to hopville's beercalculus the 4.0 gal boil would have given me 77 IBU's while a 2.0 gal boil will only get me 30!

It's currently fermenting at 68F right now.

Hops:
1.5 oz Columbus @ 60min
1.0 oz Centennial @ 15min
0.5 oz Columbus @ 15min
1.0 oz Centennial @ 1min
1.0 oz Simcoe @ 1min

1.0 oz Simcoe - dry hopped 7days
1.0 oz Centennial - dry hopped 7 days

I still have the oz of Simcoe and the oz of Centennial I'm planning on dry hopping and of course I can run to the store and buy more.

What are my options?

Do I just wait it out and see what happens or is there something I can do to correct it now?

I was googling around a little bit, I saw some suggestions to add hop extract to the fermentation to up the IBUs but not a lot of help on how much to add and whether or not to attempt to boil it in a bit of water first to sanitize.

 

[TopherM]

You can make a "hop tea" by boiling some hops in some water on the stovetop, then add that. I'd recommend some more Columbus, about another 1.0-1.5 oz of it. Just boil it for 60 minutes on the stovetop in about .25-.5 gallons of water, then add that to your wort and gently swirl/stir it in.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Another option is to use hop extract. Your LHBS will sell it in a 2oz bottle usually, a little goes a long way.

 

[dillypo]

Thanks guys I think I'm going to go with iso alpha hop extract.

I kept searching and came across where someone said to boil more hops and add it in, but then someone else replied with:

Grassy /hay flavors come from myrcene and other hop oils that will boil off after a while. Boiling hops in wort will extract tannins and other polyphenols but this is limited because of the low PH. During the boil proteins from the malt adsorb onto the polyphenols and then precipitate out. Boiling hops in water will extract more polyphenols because of the higher PH and they wont precipitate out because of the lack of proteins. You will get astringency like you do in tea. How much I can't say and it's hard to tell what the effects in beer will be. It might come across as a rough maltiness or barely be noticed. You can limit the amount of polyphenols by using a smaller amount of HIgh alpha hops.

That scared me off from trying that so extract it is!

thanks again.

 

[tre9er]

the obvious solution would be to add a pinch of extract to your hop tea...or steep some grains in it first. That's what I would do.

 

[D_Nyholm]

If you dry hop the crap out of it, won't that give you more 'percieved' bitterness? At least it may help mask the mistake?

Let us know how the extract works, I may have to order some to have on hand in case. I wonder if it can be added glass by glass as flavors can be? I have a 2ml syringe I use for that purpose and being able to 'hop up' a pint at a time may be fun if I don't have an IPA on tap!

Edit: just looked it up on northern brewers site and it looks like it will need to be boiled. Boo.

 

[dillypo]

Another reason you won't be able to add it glass by glass... I looked it up on morebeer's site and they have a calculation to figure out how much to add.

Formula
To figure out the amount of IsoHop needed, you must first know:
- How many IBU's you want to add to your beer
- How many gallons you are going to add it to
Then take those numbers and plug them into this equation:
B x V x 0.0117/30 = I
Where B = IBU's required, V = volume of beer in barrels, and I = amount of IsoHop in Liters
For example: Say you want to add 10 IBU's to 10 gallons of beer. A quick Google search for "10 gallons to barrels" gives you the conversion of "10 US gallons = 0.322580645 barrels" - perfect! Now start plugging in the numbers - 10 x 0.3225 x 0.0117 = .0377/30 = .00125 liters, or 1.25ml. If you are bad with a pipette, about 20 drops per ml. The IsoHop has a 90% efficiency rate, so you will need to divide the number in liters by .9 - .00125/.9 = .00138 liters, or 1.38 ml.

Thats 1.38ml for 10 gallons. Your 2ml syringe isn't going to be accurate enough to measure out for one glass!