shearclass said:
Punk IPa is quite bitter isn't it?
I'm know nothing about AG, but I assumed some bittering hops would be needed. it's 6%, so must use a lot of grain as well as a lot of hops. (i guess)
You get most efficient bittering if you boil your hops for 90 minutes . . .however you still get some bittering even with a short 15 minute boil . . .unfortunately to get the same amount of bittering (IBU's) you must use more hops for the shorter boil.
As an example if I was to bitter 23L of a beer using Nelson Sauvin at 10.8% Alpha to hit a target bitterness of 80IBU in a 90 minute boil I would use 63g of the hops. If I still boiled for 90 minutes but added the hops at 60 minutes I would need 67g of hops. Adding the hops at 30 minutes I'd use 87g, and if I added then at 15 minutes I would need a massive 136g!!
All the beers would have the same target bitterness but the hop presence would be markedly different. In order to be a bit less wasteful on hops in an insane hop beer I usually aim for 50% of the IBU's to come from the 90 Minute addition and 50% from the 15 minute addition. This can have some unexpected effects though. My German Pilsner turned out very much like Trashy Blonde . . .which was disappointing, as I didn't really want that. so I won't do it again