Brewers friend whirlpool hops calculations

[philly224]

I am planning on brewing this on Saturday:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/580560/haze-city

I have two whirlpool hop additions at 170 and brewers friend had the default utilization at 10% which made my IBUs go sky high for the recipe. I set them to 0 with the assumption they wont add to the IBUs at all if I whirlpool at 170. Is this correct or is there any kind of calculation I can do to get the actual utilization?

 

[Yooper]

They do add the the IBUs. By using a hop stand, the temperature and the time do impact the IBUs. From the FAQ on Brewer's Friend:

Support for Hop Stands - select Whirlpool or Hopback in the Hop Use drop down.
A hop stand is a technique where hops are exposed to the wort after the boil but before fermentation.

• In a Whirlpool hop stand, the whirlpool is started after the boil and extra hops are added.
• With a hopback the wort is pumped or drained through a container holding the extra hops on the way to the fermentor.

Hop stands avoid vaporizing the essential oils and are said to result in smoother bitterness and flavor. The temperature and time of the exposure greatly impacts the utilization (for the purposes of IBU calculations). Given the wide variation in process and equipment out there, the utilization factor is left up to the brewer. A value of 10% is generally accepted, but could vary based on process. The hotter the temperature and the more time, the higher the utilization.

When selecting Whirlpool or Hopback as the hop use, two new fields will appear.

• The utilization of the hops (normally 10%, but could be zero if done at lower temperatures or for a short time).
• The temperature at which the hop stand is performed at.

For more information on hop stands see this excellent and detailed write up by BYO (Mar/Apr 2013).

 

[philly224]

Thanks! Do you think I will be okay with that hop schedule? Going for a juicy IPA.

 

[thehaze]

You need some late additions in the boil, at least for my taste, these will provide me a better, more stable flavour in the final beer.

Whirlpooling at a lower temp. also helps and the massive dry hopping at day 2 during fermentation and then again a few days later.

 

[brew703]

I whirlpool some of my batches. I generally ignore the IBU's that the calculator shows for the WP additions. My process is I usually add my WP hops at 160 for 20-30 minutes. I find WP hops do add some to the bitterness factor but for my process it's not what the calculator shows.
I don't circulate. I just stir every 5 minutes. Flavor wise it helps. As Yooper noted, every setup is different and results vary. Just make notes and make adjustments next time.

 

[philly224]

You need some late additions in the boil, at least for my taste, these will provide me a better, more stable flavour in the final beer.

Whirlpooling at a lower temp. also helps and the massive dry hopping at day 2 during fermentation and then again a few days later.

What type of hops would you suggest and for how long? Maybe 3 ounces of galaxy for 5 mins?

 

[thehaze]

I like the effects of late additions in the last 20 minutes or so. Every 5 minutes, add 0.5 oz hops or more ( IF the %AA of the hops is not too high to negatively impact the overall bitterness ). Whirlpool at a lower temp. at least with 2-6 oz for 15-30 minutes, depending on your system.

 

[ncbrewer]

Whatever you decide to do, I suggest making notes about your perception of the resulting bitterness. If you've added enough IBUs with the whirlpool hops, you can estimate how much bitterness was added with the whirlpool. Then you can come up with a factor to use with the standard formula to calculate IBUs in future brews. In my case, I add hops at 190F for 30 minutes, and I figure it's equivalent to adding to the boil for 10 minutes.

 

[philly224]

I think I'm going to stick to the hop schedule I have now. I may add some at 190 instead of 170 though. I'm curious how it'll turn out.