Need more bitterness....

[devils4ever]

I brewed an Oktoberfest this weekend using Beersmith 3. It assumes a certain alpha content. When I went to add the hops, I realized the alpha content was vastly different than what the software assumed. 3.8% vs 5.0% and 1.8% vs 4.5%!!! I usually check this before brewing, but I messed up and forgot to do this.

In any case, I'm way under hopped in regards to IBUs.

Can I boil an ounce of hops in a quart of water, cool it, and add to fermenter now? Or, is it too late?

 

[IslandLizard]

Yes, you could. Will that give you your IBUs?
Not sure if it's better to boil in some low gravity (say 1.030-40) DME wort. Utilization will be a bit less that way though. Maybe the flavor will be better?

Next time, edit your hops data, either before adding to your recipe so they always pull in correctly (that's what I do), or after adding, inside the recipe.

What makes me wonder is the 1.8% vs 4.5%, that's a huge deviation.

 

[Miraculix]

Yes, you could. Will that give you your IBUs?
Not sure if it's better to boil in some low gravity (say 1.030-40) DME wort. Utilization will be a bit less that way though. Maybe the flavor will be better?

Next time, edit your hops data, either before adding to your recipe so they always pull in correctly (that's what I do), or after adding, inside the recipe.

What makes me wonder is the 1.8% vs 4.5%, that's a huge deviation.

Just brew hop tea with plain water, no problem with that. You can dissolve a lot of ibus in water whereas wort has a certain limit.

Some people tweak their water with a bit of vodka and acid to enhance the extraction of flavor but as you are just after the ibus, plain water should do.

Edit: quoted the wrong post

 

[brewbama]

I’ve made this mistake and corrected with a hop tea. It won’t make it a blue ribbon beer but it will salvage it to drink.

 

[devils4ever]

Next time, edit your hops data, either before adding to your recipe so they always pull in correctly (that's what I do), or after adding, inside the recipe.

What makes me wonder is the 1.8% vs 4.5%, that's a huge deviation.

I usually update the alpha before brew day, but this time I forgot.

Yeah, I've never seen such a huge difference in alpha--almost 3X!

 

[IslandLizard]

Some people tweak their water with a bit of vodka and acid to enhance the extraction of flavor

That's sort of what I was referring to. I've made hop teas with water, they were tasting awful, maybe just because of the lack of a sweet malt profile/background. Slightly acidifying the water should help with extraction, yes.

 

[Miraculix]

That's sort of what I was referring to. I've made hop teas with water, they were tasting awful, maybe just because of the lack of a sweet malt profile/background. Slightly acidifying the water should help with extraction, yes.

When I was brewing hop tea, it was so bitter it could melt your teeth. It literally created a bitter coating on my teeth, I am not supposed that you did not like it!

But the beer turned out very good with it, no weird hop off flavours or something.

 

[Miraculix]

Oh and before I forget, the vodka and acid idea came from a guy who uses tea instead of dry hop. The vodka dissolves more of the hop oils, I think the acid was supposed to protect from chlorophyll getting into solution (never experienced this myself on a scale that would be detectable in the end product). He uses 75c water, because he doesn't want ibus from this addition.

 

[IslandLizard]

OK, if the potion making all works flavorwise, aren't there serious limitations on how many IBUs can be added by it?
Say, you want to increase your IBUs in a 5 gallon batch by 20. One quart of hop tea added should contain 5.25 gallons * 4 quarts/gallon * 20 IBUs = 420 IBUs. Isn't it sheer impossible to cram that much bitterness, isomerized Alpha Acids, in a quart of water?

 

[Miraculix]

OK, if the potion making all works flavorwise, aren't there serious limitations on how many IBUs can be added by it?
Say, you want to increase your IBUs in a 5 gallon batch by 20. One quart of hop tea added should contain 5.25 gallons * 4 quarts/gallon * 20 IBUs = 420 IBUs. Isn't it sheer impossible to cram that much bitterness, isomerized Alpha Acids, in a quart of water?

I successfully overbittered 18l of final volume with 3l of hop tea, so yes, it is possible. I increased the calculated amounts of hops a bit to compensate for limitations but that wasn't necessary and my beer ended up being too bitter.

Wort can hold about 100ibus max. Plain water can hold much more. I cannot tell how much but I must have had about 300ibus in my tea to get the bitterness I tasted in the final beer.

 

[Steveruch]

What IBUs were you expecting with the higher AA%? And what did you get with the actual AA%?
Octoberfest is not a hop forward beer, you may be fine as is.

 

[IslandLizard]

What IBUs were you expecting with the higher AA%? And what did you get with the actual AA%?
Octoberfest is not a hop forward beer, you may be fine as is.

And there is that...
I wanted to mention that earlier, and got lost in the tea.

 

[Miraculix]

And there is that...
I wanted to mention that earlier, and got lost in the tea.

Tea can be tempting

 

[devils4ever]

According to Beersmith, the IBUs is 11.7. The range for this style is 18.0 to 24.0.

What do you all think? More IBUs or leave as is?

 

[Steveruch]

According to Beersmith, the IBUs is 11.7. The range for this style is 18.0 to 24.0.

What do you all think? More IBUs or leave as is?

I'd leave it.
you're only about six off and it would be easy to overdo it and I'd rather be a bit under then end up too hoppy in an o-fest

 

[Miraculix]

According to Beersmith, the IBUs is 11.7. The range for this style is 18.0 to 24.0.

What do you all think? More IBUs or leave as is?

Try it. If it tastes nice, think of it as a Helles and enjoy!

 

[devils4ever]

Try it. If it tastes nice, think of it as a Helles and enjoy!

I'll have to wait until fermentation is complete before tasting to get a good idea of the bitterness. I would assume it's too late to add hop tea at that point, correct?

 

[Miraculix]

I'll have to wait until fermentation is complete before tasting to get a good idea of the bitterness. I would assume it's too late to add hop tea at that point, correct?

No.
As long as it gets mixed in properly, no problem with that. You could even add it to the glass when drinking.

 

[Vale71]

That's sort of what I was referring to. I've made hop teas with water, they were tasting awful, maybe just because of the lack of a sweet malt profile/background. Slightly acidifying the water should help with extraction, yes.

Higher PH = greater extraction! Do not acidify!

 

[devils4ever]

I just did a hydrometer reading and the beer is at 1.020. This seems high to me. I have raised the temp over the last 1-1/2 weeks to 66F which is the max for this yeast (East Coast Yeast Kolsch #21). I hope it attenuates more.

 

[wepeeler]

Personally, I would leave it as is. What temp did you mash at? Residual sweetness is fine for this style.

 

[devils4ever]

I did a step mash at 122F, 149F, and 155F.

Personally, I would leave it as is. What temp did you mash at? Residual sweetness is fine for this style.

 

[wepeeler]

I did a step mash at 122F, 149F, and 155F.

Personally I think it'll be fine. Just adjust accordingly for the next recipe. That's the best way to learn.

The old RDWHAHB adage means more to me now than ever. I used to be so uptight about every little thing, but 9/10 times I make beer that I'm extremely proud to say I made.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

The alternative is to use isomerised hop extract, which typically adds 3 IBU with 1ml in 20 litres. Works really well - something similar is used as the main bittering charge by some of the top breweries. Me I prefer to use real hops for bittering in general, but it's handy to have up your sleeve in case something goes wrong (you're not the only one to have forgotten to adjust the aa in software, and found that hops in the real world were very different to the default value).

At least it shouldn't be a problem with the 2019 European hops, word is that the quality is pretty good, but quantities are down a bit thanks to the late spring and drought problems.

 

[LuckyBeagleBrewing]

Another option would be to brew identical batch if you have the spare fermenter and up the ibu on the new batch to hit the target when mixed 50/50 with the current batch.

 

[devils4ever]

I re-pitched with Nottingham yeast and the SG = 1.017. I guess is about as far as it can go.