Color Control?

[Pirate Ale]

Ok, I do extract/steep and PM, and for the most part never really worry about color. I do full boils and accept that there will be some darkening of the wort, and it never really affects the taste I am after, so RDWHAHB is the motto. That being said, I really want to hit a light blonde ale for summer time sessions, and want the color to match the recipe. Therefore I expect that I need to do a late addition to the boil of the DME. How do you calculate the hop schedule to accomodate the thinner wort boil? I know the hop utilization will be stronger in thinner wort, but I'm not sure how to calculate it. I would really hate to have a super light blonde ale the comes in at 100 IBU's......or maybe not, since I love IPA, but thats .

Anyone give some insight here?


Oh, the recipe is posted below;

03A. Light Ale, Blond Ale Extract

Color

Stats
OG 1.062
FG 1.016
IBU 19
ABV 5.9 %
SRM 5

Specifics
Boil Volume 5.75 gallons
Batch Size 5 gallons
Yeast 75% AA

Style Comparison
Low High
OG 1.045 1.062 1.060
FG 1.008 1.016 1.015
IBU 15 19 33
SRM 2 5 8
ABV 4 5.9 6



Fermentables
% Weight Weight (lbs) Grain Gravity Points Color
11.1 % 1.00 American Crystal 10L 2.3 2.0
16.7 % 1.50 CaraPils 3.3 0.5
61.1 % 5.50 Light Dry Malt Extract 49.5 2.2
11.1 % 1.00 Honey 7.0 0.3
9.00 62.1

Hops
% Wt Weight (oz) Hop Form AA% AAU Boil Time Utilization IBU
25.0 % 1.00 Saaz Pellet 3.5 3.5 60 0.245 12.8
12.5 % 0.50 Saaz Pellet 3.5 1.8 20 0.148 3.9
12.5 % 0.50 Saaz Pellet 3.5 1.8 10 0.089 2.3
12.5 % 0.50 Saaz Pellet 3.5 1.8 0 0.000 0.0
37.5 % 1.50 Saaz Pellet 3.5 5.3 DH 0.000 0.0
4.00 19.1

 

[Moonpile]

Therefore I expect that I need to do a late addition to the boil of the DME. How do you calculate the hop schedule to accomodate the thinner wort boil? I know the hop utilization will be stronger in thinner wort, but I'm not sure how to calculate it.

Some of the software does handle late additions. I'm using ProMash, so what I do is just set it all up the way I want it to be, then zero out the *ME that I'm adding late, make note of the new IBUs and then set the *ME back to whatever amount I originally had. Make note of the corrected IBUs in the notes.

Sure, it's a hack.

Just waiting for the next version of ProMash which I hear will be handling late additions.

I just started doing late additions since my buddies and I started brewing again recently. When I brewed before, no one even mentioned it, that I knew of, and I never was able to do a light colored beer satisfactorily. Late additions are the way to go for light color and/or better hop utilization in concentrated boils (such as I am currently forced to do).

 

[Brewer3401]

Yep, ProMash.
Add grain until you have your OG (before adding the DME), then play with the hop additions until you get the IBU's you want.

 

[Brewsmith]

Just calculate the recipe using less extract. I'd say boil with only 2-3 lbs of extract, and add the rest and the honey at the end. Re calculate the recipe only using the half of the extract to get the hop bitterness right.

 

[Southwood]

I use the speadsheet on The Beer Recipator: http://www.hbd.org/recipator/ I'm pretty sure it accounts for wort density when figuring hop utilization.

When entering my fermentables, I only enter my full-boil extract additions, leaving out my extract-late addintions. I figure this "tricks" the program into giving me my actual my IBUs using the extract-late method (just be sure to enter your actual boil volume, for me it's 3.5 gal).