BU:GU ratios?

[pgenius]

Can someone please explain to me BU:GU ratios. Do they help determine if your beer is balanced?

Cheers!

 

[BarleyWater]

Yes. Ray Daniels came up with the ratio in his book Designing Great Beers, its the IBUs compared to the OG, and helps determine if a beer is balanced or not. Around .5 is pretty balanced, under .5 and it gets sweeter, over .5 and it gets more bitter. Different styles have different ranges that it should fall into.

 

[pgenius]

I'm horrible at math and this is probably easy, but how is it calculated.

ex: 60/50 BU:GU = 1.2

I don't understand where the 1.2 comes from.

 

[hammacks]

well it sounds like a beer with 60 IBUs and a starting gravity of 1.050.

The BU:GU ratio is 60/50 like you said, which equals 1.2. Getting past ESB maybe into IPA territory (well depending on the specifics of course)

Now if someone could post that beautiful chart BM likes to use...

 

[BarleyWater]

Anything over 1 is going to be extremely bitter tasting.

Here are some examples...

A brown ale which is relatively malty would have a BU:GU number of around .35-.45

Strong Scotch Ale - .27-.5

Pale Ale - .45-.75

IPA - .5-.9

IIPA - .65-1.2

It's just another way to check to see how sweet or bitter it will come out to be, and is very useful when scaling up or down recipes.

 

[hammacks]

Yeah BarleyWater is right.

Check out the chart here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/

Look how far to the right 60IBUs and a gravity of 1.050 would be.

 

[khiddy]

I've used the BU:GU on all of my beers (I've always created my own recipes from the start, excepting the Mr. Beer batches). I aim for less than 0.50 for beers my wife will drink, and higher than 0.7 for beers that I'm planning to enjoy myself.

 

[pgenius]

Can someone just explain how their calculated?

 

[double_e5]

You did it in your own post, but I guessing you are missing something.

It is IBU divided by gravity points. So, a 60 IBU beer with a 1.050 gravity would be:

60 divided by 50. Which equals 1.2.

 

[Twofox]

You did it in your own post, but I guessing you are missing something.

It is IBU divided by gravity points. So, a 60 IBU beer with a 1.050 gravity would be:

60 divided by 50. Which equals 1.2.

What he's missing is that (/ = divide by) so 60/50 is 60 dvided by 50.

 

[duffbeer71]

Yeah BarleyWater is right.

Check out the chart here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/

Look how far to the right 60IBUs and a gravity of 1.050 would be.

I was just looking through some clone recipes for IPAs in Brew Your Own magazine and such clones such as Lagunitas IPA, Stone IPA, Brew Dog Punk IPA, Bell's Two Hearted Ale, etc all fall to the right when using this chart for the GU:BU. I know these are very hoppy beers, but they even fall outside the "extra hoppy" shade on the graph, so I don't know if the chart's definition of "extra hoppy" is everyone's definition.

I'm new to designing original recipes and I'm designing a beer that is about 1.058 and would be about 55.6 IBUs. I'm shooting for a mid gravity (just above sessionable), but very hoppy IPA, so I think my ratio will be closer to .96. Is that too much even for a hop head?

 

[iambeer]

Just pitching in here. What I would have been missing from "ex: 60/50 BU:GU = 1.2"

is that BU = IBU (International Bitterness Units)
and that GU is Original Gravity Units?

 

[beergolf]

Getting a grasp on BU:GU ratio is a big part of understanding brews. Once I got that my recipes really improved.

Here is a good resource on BU:GU ratios.

It gives you a good starting point for all styles.

http://www.madalchemist.com/chart_bitterness_ratio.html

 

[beergolf]

Just pitching in here. What I would have been missing from "ex: 60/50 BU:GU = 1.2"

is that BU = IBU (International Bitterness Units)
and that GU is Original Gravity Units?

Exactly... that is it.

so a brew withh 60 IBUs and an OG of 1.050 would have a ratio of 1.2

 

[Progfan2010]

wrong entry

 

[Progfan2010]

I've used the BU:GU on all of my beers (I've always created my own recipes from the start, excepting the Mr. Beer batches). I aim for less than 0.50 for beers my wife will drink, and higher than 0.7 for beers that I'm planning to enjoy myself.

Hi khiddy:

I read you create your beers from the start. I understand you can estimate the bitterness and IBUs of your future beers before you brew. Am I right?. I have a very specific question. Well, 2.

When you are calculating the IBUs, you need to also get the Utilization which includes the gravity of the boil at different times during the boil. Am I right?. So, how do you predict the gravity of the boil before you even start brewing?. This question has been in my mind since I read about it on Palmer´s How to Brew.

If you don´t share his point of view. What is your method for estimating beforehand the IBUs in your beer, and therefore, the BU:GU rations?.

Also, do I actually have to take gravity readings of the wort everytime I am about to drop hops into the kettle?

 

[sputnam]

I was just looking through some clone recipes for IPAs in Brew Your Own magazine and such clones such as Lagunitas IPA, Stone IPA, Brew Dog Punk IPA, Bell's Two Hearted Ale, etc all fall to the right when using this chart for the GU:BU. I know these are very hoppy beers, but they even fall outside the "extra hoppy" shade on the graph, so I don't know if the chart's definition of "extra hoppy" is everyone's definition.

I'm new to designing original recipes and I'm designing a beer that is about 1.058 and would be about 55.6 IBUs. I'm shooting for a mid gravity (just above sessionable), but very hoppy IPA, so I think my ratio will be closer to .96. Is that too much even for a hop head?

I discovered that I needed to learn about bu:gu as well, and found this thread. I went back and looked at my recipes and this is auto calculated by Brewmate. I am NOT a hop head, I do like hops but commercially prefer Pale ales over IPA's. Anyway, the beers I liked most were 1.3 - 1.7. I didn't find them overly bitter at all. Got me kinda wondering about a hundred reasons as to why this could be.