Full boil: Adjust bittering hops only?

[JWest]

I'm getting ready to brew the Dead Ringer IPA from NB (formerly Three Hearted Ale, a tribute to Bell's Two Hearted Ale). I just ran through all the math (from Palmer's book) to convert to a full boil. With the 60 minute and 20 minute hop additions, I should add just a little over half of the hops from the recipe, and with the 5 minute addition, I got about 2/3 of the hops.

For those of you who have done this before, did you only adjust the bittering hop additions, or did you adjust them all? It seems like the bittering hop adjustment would be the most important, but I didn't want the flavor and aroma hops to go too crazy either.

What do you think?

 

[Yooper]

I'm getting ready to brew the Dead Ringer IPA from NB (formerly Three Hearted Ale, a tribute to Bell's Two Hearted Ale). I just ran through all the math (from Palmer's book) to convert to a full boil. With the 60 minute and 20 minute hop additions, I should add just a little over half of the hops from the recipe, and with the 5 minute addition, I got about 2/3 of the hops.

For those of you who have done this before, did you only adjust the bittering hop additions, or did you adjust them all? It seems like the bittering hop adjustment would be the most important, but I didn't want the flavor and aroma hops to go too crazy either.

What do you think?

Well, the new thoughts from John Palmer are that hops utilization is much less impacted then he initially thought, and the reasons have changed on his theory of why it may be impacted.

I wouldn't adjust anything in that kit, but if you feel that you absolutely must, you could reduce the bittering hops (ONLY!) by 15% and leave the flavor and aroma hops (and dryhops) all the same. An ounce of hops at 15 minutes is an ounce of hops- IBUs aren't even an issue because you want the flavor of the full ounce of hops.

If it was my beer, I'd just brew it as written and not adjust.

 

[JWest]

Well, the new thoughts from John Palmer are that hops utilization is much less impacted then he initially thought, and the reasons have changed on his theory of why it may be impacted.

I wouldn't adjust anything in that kit, but if you feel that you absolutely must, you could reduce the bittering hops (ONLY!) by 15% and leave the flavor and aroma hops (and dryhops) all the same. An ounce of hops at 15 minutes is an ounce of hops- IBUs aren't even an issue because you want the flavor of the full ounce of hops.

If it was my beer, I'd just brew it as written and not adjust.

Thanks for the answer...not at all what I expected to hear. I'm unaware of these new thoughts from Palmer...do you have any links? I'd love to read them. The flavor/aroma answer definitely makes sense.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the answer...not at all what I expected to hear. I'm unaware of these new thoughts from Palmer...do you have any links? I'd love to read them. The flavor/aroma answer definitely makes sense.

I don't have the exact links marked. One is from Basic Brewing Radio, and the title is "What is an IBU, REALLY? with John Palmer, and we spoke about it quite a bit at the 2009 and 2010 National Homebrew Conference.

There are some other podcasts, too, that talk about how he now believes that hops utilization is independent of gravity, but instead a function of the break material and thus less impacted than he originally thought and wrote about.

Another little thought (of mine, not mr. Palmer's!) is that in a low IBU beer, the hops impact is more noticeable than a higher IBU beer. For example, the first time I did a full boil, I noticed one of my 15 IBU beers was much more bitter- and I thought to myself, "This is twice as bitter!" When I used software to calculate it, it did indeed show a difference- the new calculated IBUs was 27 IBUs! That's a huge difference. BUT the bitterness faded, and within 6 weeks I couldn't tell the difference in the beer.

In a 50 IBU beer, a change of 5-10 IBUs (if it even happens, which is debatable according to the new thoughts) is barely discernable.

In an IPA, I'd go ahead and hop like it as the comparable AG batch, regardless of boil size. In a blonde ale, I might reduce the bittering hops 15%. Maybe.

 

[wowzers]

I'm brewing that kit this weekend too. I looked at the all grain version and they only have .75 oz for the bittering addition. I ran it on beer alchemy and it only results in a 7 IBU difference if you use the full ounce.

 

[deadlee]

Thanks for the info above.

I was really confused prior to brewing this kit as my first batch. I received my starter set with a broken carboy so I had some time to research while I waited for the replacement and was surprised what I found. In entering the ingredients into several software solutions (Brewtarget, qbrew, recipator, etc.) with the recommended 2.5 gallon water and approx .75 gal of LME resulting in 3.25 for wort boil volume. My issue is that the calculated IBU's were 30-35 where from what I understand the IBU's should be around 50.

I decided to start with 3 gallons of water resulting in 3.75 gallons with the LME since that at least got me to 42 ibu's with the calculators.

I went back and read several of the reviews on their site and everyone says to just follow the directions on the sheet and you will end up with a hoppy prize in 8-10 weeks.

What am I missing??

 

[grace1760]

I wouldn't adjust anything in that kit, but if you feel that you absolutely must, you could reduce the bittering hops (ONLY!) by 15% and leave the flavor and aroma hops (and dryhops) all the same. If it was my beer, I'd just brew it as written and not adjust.

I did a full-boil Kolsch-style kit a couple weeks ago, and following similar advice given to me on HBT, I did not adjust the hops. I tasted my hydro sample a couple days ago, and was pleased to find that the bitterness seems to be where it should be for the style.