Hops Hops Hops

[suffer78]

Ok, so I've created my first recipe, a barleywine, and I'm a little confused on the total hops to use. I'm wanting to get an IBU value of around 55 - 60. I've added my partial mash recipe for review. Based on BeerAlchemy's numbers after adding the recipe it looks like I'll be in the black, but after checking the bitterness calculator, just one addition of my primary bittering hop shows an IBU of 55.

Recipe Overview
Wort Volume Before Boil: 13.00 qts Wort Volume After Boil: 8.00 qts
Volume Transferred: 8.00 qts Water Added To Fermenter: 12.00 qts
Volume At Pitching: 20.00 qts Volume Of Finished Beer: 20.00 qts
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.032 SG Expected OG: 1.123 SG
Expected FG: 1.027 SG Apparent Attenuation: 76.5 %
Expected ABV: 13.2 % Expected ABW: 10.2 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 54.5 IBU Expected Color (using Morey): 18.7 SRM
BU:GU ratio: 0.44 Approx Color:
Mash Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Duration: 60.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 71 degF


Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
US Pale Ale Malt 3.00 lb 17.4 % 1.2 In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 60L Malt 1.00 lb 5.8 % 12.0 In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Special B 0.25 lb 1.4 % 9.0 In Mash/Steeped
Extract - Light Liquid Malt Extract 10.00 lb 58.0 % 16.0 Start Of Boil
Extract - Light Dried Malt Extract 3.00 lb 17.4 % 1.8 Start Of Boil


Hops
Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
US Nugget 13.0 % 3.00 oz 42.4 Loose Pellet Hops 60 Min From End
NZ Cascade 5.5 % 2.00 oz 9.2 Loose Pellet Hops 30 Min From End
NZ Cascade 5.5 % 1.00 oz 3.0 Loose Pellet Hops 15 Min From End

Thanks for any input you guys can give.

 

[Phil]

3 oz of Nugget is a fair bit of bittering for any beer. I'd double check yoiur numbers in your software though - sometimes partial boils dont calculate right. Your recipe says you're starting with a 13 qt boil, and you're gonna boil it down to 8 qts. Thats about 40% boiloff - most people estimate around 15%. Boil value will affect hop utilization.

Also - 55 IBUs on a 13.2% ABV beer is not going to be very bitter!

 

[kanzimonson]

It also sounds like you're doing something wacky with how you select your hops. You should work backward from the end of the boil. The hops in the last 30min of the boil should be measured in quantity, while I'd say anything greater than 30min should only be considered in terms of IBUs.

So for example, you're making a pale ale. You want to add 1oz at 10min and 1oz at 0min because you like the flavor that amount of hops gives. Run the calculation on these numbers and let's say you'll get 10 IBUs. You want this beer to have 40, so THEN you run your calculator to figure out how much to add at 60min to get 30 more IBUs.

 

[suffer78]

I took my hops and put them into the calculator in BeerAlchemy. So 2oz of hops with a 5.5% AAU for 30 min. gives me an IBU of 26. 1oz of hops with 5.5 AAU for 15 min. gives me 10. Then 3 oz of hops with 13%AAU for 60 min. gives me an IBU of 121. So that would be a total of 157 IBU. I'm confused as to why the final IBU in the recipe says on 55 then?

For the 60 min. add, the wort volume is 13 qts. and the SG is estimated at 1.12. So which numbers do I go by to determine my proper hops usage?

I plugged in the recipe to Beer Tools Pro and it gave me an estimated IBU of 181. Now I'm really confused!

 

[kanzimonson]

Every IBU calculator will tell you something different. There are multiple formulas used in hop calculation, but I find that even if two calcs are set to the same formula, they still will spit out different IBU numbers. You really just have to pick one calculator and use it every time. In this way you'll get to know your own system and your calculations. Then when someone gives you a recipe for a 55IBU beer, you'll be able to sense if the hops look right.

And also, I'm thinking you need more than 55IBUs in a huge beer like this, especially if you expect to age it.