buying hops

[beerhunter]

I`m thinking of buying some hops, and have noted that they have a "alpha acid %" on them. what does this mean?

 

[Fil]

the alpha acid is the factor that contributes to bitterness and with a given alpha acid % and a good guestimate of your hop utilisation as a percentage you can target a specific IBU or bitterness for your beer..
http://www.brewersfriend.com/ibu-calculator/
http://www.probrewer.com/tools/hop-bitterness-calculator/


determin you hop utilisateion http://realbeer.com/hops/research.html

of course this all refers to boil hops if added as a dry hop or post flame out hop where the aroma extraction is desired its basically irrelevant