Northern Brewer Destructions--Can Brewday be Saved?

[vitrael]

I just picked up an extract + SG kit from Northern Brewer, Dead Ringer IPA. It's supposed to be a clone of Bell's Two Hearted Ale, and everything looked right until I plugged it into Beersmith.

The destructions call for a 2.5 gallon boil with this hop schedule:

1oz Centennial, 60 min
1oz Centennial, 20 min
2oz Centennial, 5 min
1oz Centennial, Dry Hop

The provided Centennial hops are 9.2% AA. According to Beersmith this schedule at such a low boil volume would land me a pathetic 30 IBU. Bell's beer is 60 IBU.

Two things:

1. RAWRRRGHHHH!!! (getting the rant out of the way first) Look, I get it. Home brew suppliers try to make the instructions sound easier than they are, e.g. saying a 2.5 gallon boil is fine when in fact I need a 6 gallon boil for this hop schedule. Really all they've done here is saved themselves 1oz of Centennial per kit and pissed me right off. Anybody had a good experience trying to get bad kits fixed by Northern Brewer? This directly affects the answer to my other question...

2. What's the best way to salvage this brewday considering I can't get more hops tonight and I cannot possibly boil more than 4 gallons of wort? I could use the 1oz of hops that would be dry-hop and add them @ 60 minutes in a 3 gallon boil, or else I could use one half ounce that would be finishing hops and add them @ 60 in a 4 gallon boil (although 4 gallons is begging for boilover in my pot). Both of these would get me into range, but would leave me short on hops. If people think that it is reasonable for me to try to get Northern Brewer to mail me a piddling ounce of hops, I might just go ahead with the former option.

Otherwise the latter option spares me the trouble of begging .03 kg of vegetable matter off of them. How much do you think cutting a half an ounce of finishing hops would affect smell & flavor in the finished process?

Thank you for tolerating my anger. What have I learned?
1. Beersmith was the best $20 I ever spent considering it already saved me from a disappointing batch.
2. Never trust the destructions.
3. I'm not waiting for a birthday. Next paycheck I go out and buy a 9G pot. :rockin:

 

[Clann]

Ive brewed bunches of northern brewer kits with full boils and they turn out fine.

 

[vitrael]

Sure, this recipe would be perfect if I could do a 6G boil, but I can't. My point is that the kit says to use a 2.5g boil so I just assumed (wrongly) that that was the correct boil volume and now I don't have enough hops to complete brew day.

 

[Clann]

before I could do a full boil I made all my kits in a 15 qt enamel. Just followed the directions and beer came out fine. I'd brew it.

 

[cshamilton]

Could you just do a longer boil to extract more of the bitterness? Like a 75 min boil with your bittering hops and then do the rest at the normal times. If you play around with the numbers you might get there, since it's extract you can add half in the last 15 to 20 minutes and get a bit more out of your earlier hop additions.

 

[vitrael]

Could you just do a longer boil to extract more of the bitterness? Like a 75 min boil with your bittering hops and then do the rest at the normal times. If you play around with the numbers you might get there, since it's extract you can add half in the last 15 to 20 minutes and get a bit more out of your earlier hop additions.

Doh!

I should just do a late extract addition. Duh! Thank you. My brain is clearly not working well tonight (I haven't been drinking) and you just kick-started it.

If I add 3.15lbs of LME @ 15 minutes and use the prescribed hop schedule with a 4 gallon boil, Beersmith says 57 IBU. That's *much* better.

You guys are awesome as usual. Brew day can now proceed. :rockin:

 

[yodalegomaster]

I wouldn't worry about it too much just follow the recipe, maybe add the last of the extract late in the boil and you will be fine. Don't worry so much about estimations from beersmith it's just not going to matter that much in the final beer. Relax and have a home brew. I know the people at NB and they don't screw customers, by not adding enough hops to their kits. They test the kits they make all the time, and this one has been out for a long time and it's well liked.

 

[Hockeyhunter99]

i have done countless kits from northern brewer and they have some of the best instructions. they are all designed for partial boil and i have never had a problem with a "clone" from them. have you actually made the kit or did you just put it into beersmith and assume it won't be anything like what you want?

Northern Brewer is very good at correcting any wrongs and is one of the better supply companies. you shouldn't be so quick to put them down.

 

[vitrael]

So what should I trust, BeerSmith or Northern Brewer?

I just don't get how a ~30 IBU beer can be a good clone of a ~60 IBU beer. Maybe it would be fantastic, but now I won't ever know (I already brewed it modified to get 60 IBU).

I have another kit from Northern Brewer, a maibock, which I'll follow instructions on to the T. I'm sure it will be great.

 

[Seven]

So what should I trust, BeerSmith or Northern Brewer?

I would follow the instructions that came from NB. I've brewed this kit several times and it is a very good clone of Bell's Two Hearted Ale.

 

[ArcaneXor]

So what should I trust, BeerSmith or Northern Brewer?

I just don't get how a ~30 IBU beer can be a good clone of a ~60 IBU beer. Maybe it would be fantastic, but now I won't ever know (I already brewed it modified to get 60 IBU).

Change the bitterness calculation to Rager. It'll magically increase substantially. The software estimates can't be compared to true IBU measurements.

 

[vitrael]

Change the bitterness calculation to Rager. It'll magically increase substantially. The software estimates can't be compared to true IBU measurements.

You just blew my mind a little. I googled Tinseth and Rager. I simply didn't realize what a *huge* variance there is from formula to formula. For the kit instructions, Tinseth says 29.2, Rager says 49.9, and Garetz says 24.5.

Well, I really didn't depart much from the NB instructions. I just added 1/3 of the LME late and increased the boil volume. Depending on whether Dr. Tinseth or Professor Rager is more correct I am in for a range of 55-70 IBU.

Further reading: http://users.rcn.com/thor.dnai/dboard/dbnewsl/t9510d.htm

I have a feeling it will be great beer no matter who is right.