First time brew.....imperial red I think.....

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PaddyFrankie

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So on Saturday I started.my first brew. I went about this a little differently than most. I used a kit (The Brewhouse Red Ale kit) which essentially consists of pre-made wort that you simply put in your fermenter and mix in water, yeast, and bicarbonate. I hacked this before I put it in the fermenter. After reading a description of a few possible hacks decided to reboil the wort and add some honey and hops. At 90 minutes I threw in an ounce of Warrior and the followed that with an ounce of nugget and pacifica. I also added btwn a quarter and a half cup of honey. It has been in the primary for about 3 days at this point and the airlock appears to be slowing down. It was VERY active for about 36 hours. My OG came in at 1.054. I am not sure whether I am going to rack to a secondary to dry hop or if I should keep it in the primary to avoid possible exposure to contaminants. The original IBU of the kit was 16. I know that this is going to have over 120 IBU. Any thoughts on the dry hopping? In the primary? Move to a secondary to do it? Did I murder the wort? Or just make a SUPER bitter beer?
 
Ummm...well.... Its going to be bitter for an OG of 1.054. The honey you added will add a few points to the gravity, but not enough to offset all of the extra hops you used. If you have that much bittering hops, you usually want to balance it out with a big malt bill, say an OG of 1.070-1.085.

I would dry hop after racking to a secondary, let it go a week then bottle. But first let the primary ride for 2 weeks before racking over.

But it'll defnitiely make beer. And hopefully you like it. Cheers!
 
Ummm...well.... Its going to be bitter for an OG of 1.054. The honey you added will add a few points to the gravity, but not enough to offset all of the extra hops you used. If you have that much bittering hops, you usually want to balance it out with a big malt bill, say an OG of 1.070-1.085.

I would dry hop after racking to a secondary, let it go a week then bottle. But first let the primary ride for 2 weeks before racking over.


But it'll defnitiely make beer. And hopefully you like it. Cheers!

You wouldn't just dry hop in the primary? How about adding a non-fermentable to combat the bitterness with the dry hops?
 
Dry hopping might further increase the perception of bitterness though. That is a lot of high alpha hops for the gravity, especially with a 90 min boil.
In the future, you should use brewing software to calculate the IBU for your recipes based on the Alpha Acid levels of your hops.
 
I definitely plan on that with the next batch which I will be doing the day I bottle this. I am just trying to figure out if this will be drinkable. Any beers out there that may compare to this level of bitterness?
 
I definitely plan on using that software with all future brews. I am just trying to figure out whether this will be drinkable. Anyone know of a beer out there that this profile may compare to? Or suggest something to add thay may combat the bitterness?
 
Brew a low IBU, malty beer and blend the two together. I'm a hop head, but a beer with over 100 IBU that's only 1.054 is going to be tough to get down. Either blend another beer with this one or let the bottles sit for a good long time so the bitterness fades.
 
Sure you could dry hop in primary. Give it the last 7 days in a 3 week total primary period, then bottle.

I think just about any beer is drinkable, but of course some you may enjoy a lot more than others. There are lots of beers out there commercially that are as bitter, but as I said before they have more malt put into it to balance it out. Balance is important in brewing.

Attaching a graph I found awhile back that helps determine this. Brewing software does something similar. BTW, some of the more recent IIPA's likely push past the green "extra hoppy". Also many believe around 100 IBU to be a bitterness threshold for taste buds, so going past may not show any differences.

The blending idea above is a good one, but you will need a second fermenter for this, which you may not have.

RedHook_ESB_Ratio.jpg
 
So if I brewed the original kit wort I used and blended them together that should make it tolerable? That was 16 IBU. It would be pretty easy to do as well. It would essentially just double the yield.
 
So if the threshold is 100 which I have read in a few places would this actually be any more bitter than a higher gravity beer with 100 IBU? Obviously this was not my aim and will most definitely not be repeated, but if the palate can not identify the higher IBU how could it be more bitter. I have to say the stuff smells amazing.
 
I think it could be as simple as getting a 6 lb container of golden Liquid Malt Extract, adding maybe 1/10 an ounce of low alpha % hops (to prevent spoilage during fermentation), and boil with 3/4 gallon of water for 20 minutes. Chill to the temp your main batch is fermenting at, and add to primary.

Fermentation will start up again, so you may have to remove some of whats in primary to allow for enough headspace that the yeast doesn't blow the bucket lid. Let it complete fermentation again, allow the yeast to clean up for a few days, and then dry hop for 7 days. And go a little easy on the dry hops ;)
 
A 70 IBU beer could seem cloyingly sweet if it was a very high gravity malty wort mashed high and fermented with a low attenuating yeast. At the same time a 25 IBU beer might taste far too bitter in a low OG long and low mashed wort fermented with turbo yeast. It's all about balance. Your beer will likely be out of balance, skewed to the bitter side. Undrinkable? Maybe, maybe not. I'd proceed as normal and see. If you dont like it, you could always blend it with a more malt forward beer in the glass.
 
The more I read the more I think this may not be that bad. I love me some bitter, hoppy beer so that also helps. I forgot to mention that this called for adding 4 liters of water after the boil to the wort and then bicarb followed by yeast. I believe we took the OG reading after we did all of this but not definite. Messing around with an IBU calculator shows somewhere in the 120-140 range which is high and unbalanced but may be drinkable. If not I will likely mix with something less hoppy and drink. Maybe Breckenridge Avalanche or something of that ilk. Thanks.
 
So I took a sample with a wine thief while I opened up the primary for a gravity reading and it was actually pretty tasty. Hopefully it improves with the dry hops I threw in. 1 oz each of Citra and Pacifica. We shall see. It really was not even that bitter.
 
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