Hop Utilization Rectification

[frazier]

Here’s my noob story: I brewed up a batch of Ed Wort’s Haus Pale Ale ten days ago. I didn’t sneeze into the wort, break a thermometer, leave out an ingredient, or siphon anything onto the floor (yet). What I did, was forget to take into account the effect of boil size on hop utilization. When I checked the gravity yesterday (1.014), the sample tasted rather bland; when I checked the numbers in Beer Calculus and reduced the boil size to 2.5 gallons, the IBUs dropped from 37 to 17! Not what I wanted, to say the least.

So here are the options that I see at this point:

1. Relax, it’s still beer.

2. Do a dry-hop, 7 days with about 1 oz of Cascade. This will add only aroma.

3. Make up some hop tea (this is ranging into territory that is not generally covered in the books) by boiling half an ounce for ten or fifteen minutes, in some small amount of water, and dumping this into the beer, either with or without the dry-hop.

4. Relax, it’s still beer.

Any thoughts?

 

[homebrewer_99]

You need to do a 60 minute boil to extract bittering qualities.

I opt for #3 followed with #2.



Where are you in IL?

 

[frazier]

I'm about 40 miles east of Rockford, just south of the Cheese Curtain.

Thanks for the suggestion, I was thinking along those lines - I see the point about 60 minutes though.

Has anyone ever tried this?

 

[TipsyDragon]

also you have to remember your beer is extremely green and uncarbonated at this point. your beer's taste will change quite a bit as it ages. wait another 4 to 11 more days then bottle. let it carb in the bottle for another 3 weeks. then taste it and decide if its still bland and uninteresting.

 

[RedGlass]

I'm not sure the hop tea idea would make a great addition since the beer has already fermented out. I think it would taste like beer with hop tea added, rather than one overall flavor.

I'd say drink it at 17 IBUs and try the recipe again knowing to make the adjustment.

 

[frazier]

So, no dry-hopping either?

 

[JetSmooth]

I'd say drink it at 17 IBUs and try the recipe again knowing to make the adjustment.

That's not actually a bad idea. Call this a learning beer.

I'm sort of in a counter-situation and trying to decide what to do with it. I got two gallons les than my expected post-boil amount. The OG seems to be correct, but I am concerned that my hops will over-bitter. I am tempted to boil up some DME and put it in to spread out the hops a little. But I think I am leaning toward drinking as-in and then tweaking the recipe so I can compare.

Heck, I'm splitting this between three friends who like hoppy beers, so if I don't like it, I won't be stuck with a whole five gallons anyhow.

 

[david_42]

Two quarts of hop tea can boost the IBUs by 10.

If you are stuck with partial boils for the time being, boil half of your bittering hops in your top-off water the day before.