Hop tea to tweak IBU's

[bluehende]

My latest IPA is a remake of a good batch. I unfortunately got a lot higher efficiency form my BIAB (I am still learning my process). I added a bit of top off water. At this point I am 10 IBU units low and a bit higher in alcohol. I was hoping to make a hop tea to add at least ten and up to 15 IBU units to an expected 5.5 gallon batch. I get a ton of different IBU numbers from calculators.

Here are my best thoughts.

I was going to take 1 oz of columbus (17 au) and boil in a quart of water for 30 minutes or so.

One other option would be to take my dry hop bag containing 1 oz columbus, 1 oz summit, and 1.75 oz of cascade and boil it up for a while to get the alpha acid's out. This would be after the 7 day dry hop.

Do either of these two options sound promising? Any other ideas from those more experienced than me?

 

[daksin]

IBU calculators use different formulas and take into account a lot of different things (particularly wort strength) to make a guesstimate. If you're getting a lot of different answers, how do you even know you're 10IBU off?

My bet is you won't even be able to taste it and trying to fix it at this stage will do nothing (best case scenario) or mess up your beer (worst case). If you try the beer and would like it to be a bit more bitter, just make a note in your brew log and adjust next time around.

If you absolutely want to add IBU to a finished beer in a measured way, get yourself some iso-alpha hop extract (http://morebeer.com/products/isohop-bitterness-extract-1-oz.html) and measure it out CAREFULLY.

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

My opinion for what it's worth ( it is free), while I understand what you are trying to do (replicating a former recipe), until you get your process down, will always be these last minute "tweaks".

IBU calculators are all over the place, depending on what software/formula you use. Get your effiency and process(es) down first. Then you can truly dial in recipes. For now, add what you think will give you a drinkable beer, but don't fret about all the variables until you get everything else in check.

 

[JohnSand]

I agree, 10 IBU in an IPA won't make too much difference. But I have successfully used hop tea to adjust a batch.

 

[bluehende]

I am 10 IBU units off using the same calculator (brewers friend recipe builder) as my former batch that I loved. It also will be a bit maltier. My initial batch was nicely balanced (beginners luck) so was hoping to match it. I am sure it will still be nice beer. When trying to use the same IBU calculator to get a nice hop tea to get it back up is where I get real weird swinging numbers. I assume it throws the calculation off with small volumes and no malt. I would imagine adding boiled hop tea to my bottling bucket would pose little risk to the beer. Having said that seeing how it comes out without the tea is good advice.
To those who have made a hop tea, What volumes and hop amount did you use? Did you have any idea what the final IBU was in the tea. Splitting the batch may also be an option.

The original batch was my first grain BIAB. In the couple batches since I have learned much better ways for handling the grain bags and sparging. These better methods increased my efficiency from 70 to 85 percent. In general a good thing. I will assume this now will become reproducible. Consistency is hard. When dialing in your process it is impossible.

 

[GenIke]

I wouldnt do a thing. You'll have good beer, I guarantee it.

 

[bluehende]

LOL

I love guarantees.

 

[JohnSand]

Okay, last year's notes. Two extract batches had low hop utilization. One because I tried a half ounce of pellets in a two inch tea ball (swelled, only steeped outer hop layer), the other because I used hops for the two gallon volume of the recipe instead of the one quart volume of the boil. Both batches were two gallons. The first time I used half an ounce of Citra in two cups of water for 15. That batch didn't work out well, but it might have been the potluck recipe instead of the hop tea. The second batch I made a mini wort from 1qt water, .55lbs Light LME, 1.5oz Fuggles for 30 minutes. That worked well. I don't have my calculations on IBU of the tea, but I think it was 100.
For a batch of five gallons, I would try to make a wort of the same OG, and create the proper ratio for IBU. For instance, 1 quart is 1/20 of five gallons, so 210 IBU in the quart will add ten to each existing quart and keep ten for itself. You may find that the calculator settles down if the tea has malt in it. One other thought. When I did this I came up with different numbers from different calculators. You might average them, or use the lower. A little low on bitterness may be better than too high.
Let us know what you decide, and how it works out.

 

[bluehende]

I am bottling today and decided to just let it ride. The only thing I did differently was to squeeze the dry hop bag a bit more with sanitized tongs. I will let you know in a few weeks how it came out.