Question about adding hops to my wort.

[andrewk]

I have a stupid question. I did a Pliny clone yesterday and when I start adding the hops it says put the first hops in boil for 90 mins, the next hops boil for 60, after that the next bag boils for 45 min, then the next bag boil for 30 mins. Do I start the boil at 90 mintues and count down from there or do I boil the first hops for 90 mins then add the next hops and so on? It just seemed like an extremely long boil time.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

It is a count down. I really dislike how the timing is set up, it is not terribly intuitive in a lot of instructions.

90 min hops boil for a total of 90 minutes.
60 min hops boil for a total of 60 minutes.

So, at start of the boil, add the 90 minute hops. Start the timer. 30 minutes later, add the 60 min hops. 15 minutes later, add the 45 minute hops. What you have is a big countdown timer, and the hops are added when the appropriate time is remaining.

I have seen this mistake made too often; 60 minute hops boiled for a total of 60min, then after that the 30min hops added for an additional 30 minutes, and your 60 or 90 minute boil time is now several hours.

So long story short, just keep adding the hops so they all finish at the same time.

 

[chickypad]

The times are total time left in the boil - so for your recipe a 90 minute boil total.

 

[ATXweirdobrew]

Yeah, so when they say to add the hops at 90 minutes. Thats when there is 90 minutes left in the boil. If they say to add the hops at 5 minutes, that means to add the hops when there is only 5 minutes left in the boil and so on and so forth.

 

[andrewk]

soooo...is this batch ruined?

No wonder there wasnt a very hoppy smell...probably boiled them out of the beer.

 

[andrewk]

Wish they would just call it a countdown.

 

[ATXweirdobrew]

soooo...is this batch ruined?

No wonder there wasnt a very hoppy smell...probably boiled them out of the beer.

I would not say that your batch is ruined, it just might not taste right when it comes to the bitterness. Go ahead and finish it and start on your next batch. Taste it when it is done and enjoy the funky beer, everybody here has done that at least once to 20 times. :cross:

 

[HerbieHowells]

Let it ride and see what happens.

As an experiment, I created a hypothetical recipe in BeerCauculus, consisting of 4 lbs light malt extract, 2 lbs amber malt extract, and four ounces of Cascade hops. If you add one ounce of hops at 90, 60, 45, and 30 minutes, it estimates that you will get 69.6 IBUs. If you add one ounce of hops at 225, 135, 75, and 30 minutes, you get 74.2 IBUs. That suggests to me that each hop addition only has so much alpha acid to bring to the party, so your IBUs won't be too off the charts. What the long boiling time did to your extract might be another story, but who knows.

Regardless of how it turns out, you need to call this your 225 minute IPA. Post that on your profile, and hopheads from all corners of the internet will come begging for your recipe.

 

[andrewk]

Let it ride and see what happens.

As an experiment, I created a hypothetical recipe in BeerCauculus, consisting of 4 lbs light malt extract, 2 lbs amber malt extract, and four ounces of Cascade hops. If you add one ounce of hops at 90, 60, 45, and 30 minutes, it estimates that you will get 69.6 IBUs. If you add one ounce of hops at 225, 135, 75, and 30 minutes, you get 74.2 IBUs. That suggests to me that each hop addition only has so much alpha acid to bring to the party, so your IBUs won't be too off the charts. What the long boiling time did to your extract might be another story, but who knows.

Regardless of how it turns out, you need to call this your 225 minute IPA. Post that on your profile, and hopheads from all corners of the internet will come begging for your recipe.

Haha...love the positive attitude. This will be the first beer to go in my kegerator. I hope I dont scare too many people away.