Obsidian Stout clone recipe unbalanced?

[Moonlighter]

Hi, I downloaded this recipe from my LHBS. If I brew this it will be my fourth batch, so I'm pretty new still.

I plugged the recipe into hopville and it came back at 21.8 IBU (using a 3 gallon boil, then topping off to 5 gallons). That seems excessively sweet. Any opinions, and/or suggestions? I seem to remember Obsidian Stout as having a well defined hop character.

7 lbs Amber Malt Extract
1 lbs Amber Dry Malt Extract
1 lb Flaked Oats
1/2 lb Munich Malt
1/2 lb Roasted Barley
1/4 lb Chocolate Malt
1 oz Centennial Hops 12 HBUs (Boiling)
1/2 oz Fuggles Hops (15 min)
1/2 oz Fuggles Hops (2 min)
Wyeast Irish Ale Yeast

 

[Jbear]

Yours sounds pretty low. Deschutes website lists Obsidian at 55 ibus. A couple of things for you to consider:

- Partial boils are denser so you need to use extra hops to get the same bitterness as you would in a full boil. I believe Hopville takes that into account.

- Are you doing a 90 minute boil? Both the official "Can You Brew It" clone and Deschutes home brew web page list 90 minutes which gives a better utilization %.

- Consider upping in your 15 and 2 min additions for a more distinctive hop flavor if you want to get close to the original; and you'll get a few ibus.


edit - just realized the date on this. I was searching for Obsidian and answered before I looked. I imagine you've already made this.

 

[arkowa]

Yeah, old thread. For the record, anyone else searching for this recipe, see the brewing network's " jamil show: can you brew it" for a tested successful clone.