Breweing right now - Have a question

[ssashton]

I have not used an IBU calculator before, I have mainly just followed or tweaked existing recipes. However, I would like to start aiming for particular figures and today I am risking it with my own recipe.

Today I am brewing a session IPA. I thought to myself 'how many IBU is Punk IPA, as I like that?' and on the Brewdog recipes website it says 40 IBU. https://brewdogrecipes.com/recipes/punk-ipa-2010-current

Here is the weird thing, when I use any online IBU calculator and enter the info from that recipe, it results in well over 100 IBU!

So what gives?

Is it just the result of Brewdog trying to extrapolate from a large volume recipe?

Or might it be that the quoted figure is a real life measurement of the final conditioned beer and the bitterness reduces compared to the unfermented wort?

Do you have a preferred calculator and what would you aim for to get a session IPA similar to Punk or maybe Neck Oil (or my guilty pleasure Hobgoblin IPA)?

 

[Richie_asg1]

I was told at Brewdog that everything changes when they went large volume, one of the major changes was hop utilisation. It takes them about 2 hours to drain the kettle and filter the hops out and here's us worrying about taking too long. They may have adjusted down to our scale and fluffed it up.
I would go with a calculated result to reach 40 IBU's and see how it turns out. Don't think I could drink something at 100 IBU's. You can always increase it in a later recipe.

 

[ssashton]

So I used:

15L Mash @ 66C:

3.5Kg Dingemans Pilsen Malt
0.5Kg Dingemans Wheat Malt
0.5Kg Crisp Caramalt

6L Sparge = 21L Boil Volume

60mins Boil:
10g Fuggles, 10g Challenger @ 60mins remaining
20g Fuggles, 20g Challenger @ 30mins remaining
30g Fuggles, 30g Challenger @ 10mins remaining

Should be about 40 IBU according to the calculator at Brewers Friend.

Added 3L cold water. Final Volume 20L @ 1050.

I intend to use the remaining 40g Fuggles and 40g Challenger to dry hop.

Yeast Gervin.

Any thoughts about this?!

 

[An Ankoù]

I have not used an IBU calculator before, I have mainly just followed or tweaked existing recipes. However, I would like to start aiming for particular figures and today I am risking it with my own recipe.

Today I am brewing a session IPA. I thought to myself 'how many IBU is Punk IPA, as I like that?' and on the Brewdog recipes website it says 40 IBU. https://brewdogrecipes.com/recipes/punk-ipa-2010-current

Here is the weird thing, when I use any online IBU calculator and enter the info from that recipe, it results in well over 100 IBU!

So what gives?

Is it just the result of Brewdog trying to extrapolate from a large volume recipe?

Or might it be that the quoted figure is a real life measurement of the final conditioned beer and the bitterness reduces compared to the unfermented wort?

Do you have a preferred calculator and what would you aim for to get a session IPA similar to Punk or maybe Neck Oil (or my guilty pleasure Hobgoblin IPA)?

My thoughts exactly. I made some comments on my own thread and reformulated a recipe:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/an-ankoù-brewday.84797/
Post #18.
I'm sure that pile of dry hops will add some bitterness, too, but I haven't accounted for it.

 

[An Ankoù]

Any thoughts about this?!

It looks a pale ale. Should be nice, but I think you might be overdoing the dray hops, but that's only a guess. In any case don't leave the dry hops in there for more than a couple of days would be my advice.

 

[ssashton]

It looks a pale ale. Should be nice, but I think you might be overdoing the dray hops, but that's only a guess. In any case don't leave the dry hops in there for more than a couple of days would be my advice.

Well, I finished this brew - conditioning now. I did use the full remaining 40g Fuggles, 40g Challenger dry hops for 2 days at 14C. When I kegged it, I felt like it could do with even stronger aroma so I actually added 10mL of Citra hop aroma oil (perhaps too much!).

The IBU calc said this beer should be about 40IBU which is also what BrewDog say their current Punk is, but when I tasted the beer before conditioning it didn't seem as hoppy as punk.

I suppose it takes a bit of experience to know how IBU calculations relate to your personal perception of bitterness. I work in audio engineering and it's similar in that examining acoustic measurements; only experience tells you how it will likely sound in practice.

However, I'm finishing off the last of 'Rob's Stout' a recipe I brewed from The Malt Miller. It's fooking brilliant! I had to share that :)

 

[RichardM]

Well, I finished this brew - conditioning now. I did use the full remaining 40g Fuggles, 40g Challenger dry hops for 2 days at 14C. When I kegged it, I felt like it could do with even stronger aroma so I actually added 10mL of Citra hop aroma oil (perhaps too much!).

The IBU calc said this beer should be about 40IBU which is also what BrewDog say their current Punk is, but when I tasted the beer before conditioning it didn't seem as hoppy as punk.

I suppose it takes a bit of experience to know how IBU calculations relate to your personal perception of bitterness. I work in audio engineering and it's similar in that examining acoustic measurements; only experience tells you how it will likely sound in practice.

However, I'm finishing off the last of 'Rob's Stout' a recipe I brewed from The Malt Miller. It's fooking brilliant! I had to share that :)

"Seeming hoppy" will be related to aroma and flavour as much, if not more than bitterness. You can have very "hoppy" beers with relatively low IBUs

 

[Tom IPA]

Hi everyone I've just moved from doing kits to brewing one UK gallon batches (biab) I've made myself a recipe and would be grateful for some feedback for how it looks. 1kg pale malt. 100g wheat malt mashing/steep 75mins between 67-65c last 10 mins at 75c. Boil 60 mins. 4g centennial@60min. 3g Simcoe@10 min. 3g Chinook@10min. 3g Simcoe@5min. 3g Chinook@5min. 4g each of centennial, Simcoe, Chinook -dry hopped 5 days. I love IPA Beers so that is what I'm aiming for, cheers

 

[terrym]

@Tom IPA
As you are moving into AG and apparently making up your own recipes I suggest you learn how to put your brew make up into a calculator like the one below which will help you juggle stuff to get OG, bitterness etc etc more or less right.
Try this from the Calculators link above
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator
Apologies if you already know this.

 

[The Baron]

Hi @Tom IPA as Terry as said using a brew calculator will minimise the chances of making bad mistakes with your beers and also as you get used to using it open up a world of possibilities to your recipe making. There is nothing worse than putting in all those lovely juicy hops (and expensive some of them) then drinking it to find it is as bitter as grapefruit pith. Good Luck

 

[Ghillie]

I have not used an IBU calculator before, I have mainly just followed or tweaked existing recipes. However, I would like to start aiming for particular figures and today I am risking it with my own recipe.

Today I am brewing a session IPA. I thought to myself 'how many IBU is Punk IPA, as I like that?' and on the Brewdog recipes website it says 40 IBU. https://brewdogrecipes.com/recipes/punk-ipa-2010-current

Here is the weird thing, when I use any online IBU calculator and enter the info from that recipe, it results in well over 100 IBU!

So what gives?

Is it just the result of Brewdog trying to extrapolate from a large volume recipe?

Or might it be that the quoted figure is a real life measurement of the final conditioned beer and the bitterness reduces compared to the unfermented wort?

Do you have a preferred calculator and what would you aim for to get a session IPA similar to Punk or maybe Neck Oil (or my guilty pleasure Hobgoblin IPA)?

Brewdog are sneaky and don't give correct hop schedules for all their recipes, specifically flagship beers like Punk IPA.

I messed around with that for ages and it's simply wrong. This is what I came up with in the end and it comes pretty close to the real deal. Can't fault Beersmith really, the recipe builder is excellent.

https://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/2381894?&doid=5e612ac82c454

 

[ssashton]

I would suggest trying a single hop IPA for a first attempt. You don't necessarily need to add an expensive mix of hops to get a nice session IPA and it helps you understand the ingrediants you are working with. They can be very nice, try Oakham Citra from Tesco >here<. As others have said you should at least calculate the IBUs (something I just started) and get familiar with your preferred use of dry hopping.

You can also make very nice american style IPA using Kentish hops for bittering (not so expensive, support local) and american hops just for the aroma, that is what Hobgoblin IPA do. "Brewed with Fuggles, Golding & Styrian hops and then amped up by the addition of some mighty American hops."

Then again, I recently found the 'Recipe Generator' on The Malt Miller site lets you specify small exact quantities of hops and malt without additional charges, so you could try that. Before I knew this I was buying whole packs of hops and trying to store them if I didn't use the entire lot, but they don't store well in oxygen.

 

[Bencronin]

I have done Brewdog ipa based on this guy with great results.

 

[An Ankoù]

Brewdog recipes are complete nuts. I think think they just pluck them out of thin air. Having said that, I modified the malt profile for Dead Pony a bit, substituted Fuggles and Goldings at Best Bitter levels and, fingers crossed, it might be the best, best bitter I've ever made.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Brewdog are sneaky and don't give correct hop schedules for all their recipes, specifically flagship beers like Punk IPA.

I wouldn't say sneaky but just plain wrong would be ok.
I've seen their set up and because it is huge the timings are all off anyway. You can scale the quantity fairly easily, but not the timings.
When they say flameout hop addition then transfer to FV - that takes them over an hour and a half just to transfer it. It's filtered on the way out but until then all those hops are sitting at a high temperature because the kettle is insulated. So flameout addition to them is about a 1 hour steep.

 

[Clint]

If that's the case not all the wort is sitting on the hops as some is being transferred..

 

[AlDaviz]

The only one I tried to Copy from Brewdog was Paradox Islay imperial stout recipe
I used a re-iterated mash and the results were wonderful. Ended around 10% abv before I added half a bottle of glenfarclas 105 !
The other half is in a Tupperware bowl with oak chunks I used for ageing, ready to go again.

 

[ssashton]

Thanks for the confirmations I'm not nuts! I don't think the recipes are bonkers, they just don't come out like their products do.

I messed around with that for ages and it's simply wrong. This is what I came up with in the end and it comes pretty close to the real deal.

Beer Recipe Cloud by BeerSmith - Homebrew Beer Recipes

I have now brewed 3 kegs of this recipy, with a few tweaks here and there just to see what it does. The results are excellent!

I would say the dry hopping is spot on, but the bitterness is a little low. Maybe I would add the end hops in the middle instead next time. It still isn't exactly Punk IPA, but I'm beginning to think that can't be done without certain pro equipment. Mine always comes out cloudy regardless of cold crashing and finings etc.. more like a Punk NEIPA!

 

[Ghillie]

Thanks for the confirmations I'm not nuts! I don't think the recipes are bonkers, they just don't come out like their products do.



I have now brewed 3 kegs of this recipy, with a few tweaks here and there just to see what it does. The results are excellent!

I would say the dry hopping is spot on, but the bitterness is a little low. Maybe I would add the end hops in the middle instead next time. It still isn't exactly Punk IPA, but I'm beginning to think that can't be done without certain pro equipment. Mine always comes out cloudy regardless of cold crashing and finings etc.. more like a Punk NEIPA!

3 kegs of my recipe?