Nice work. I haven’t gotten into acidifying with Phosphoric yet, I probably should; I only use Bru’n water for salt additions. I used my tap water for a long time with good results here and there, but I’m thinking of switching to RO so I know what’s in the water instead of guessing. I guess the higher pH thing would explain why once in a while I get poor efficiency and am scratching my head wondering why.
We went Fatheads and I got their Headhunter IPA and with the sample’s taste fresh in my mind I compared and am thinking that one might need a small bittering charge to get a real bracing bitterness if you want it in your IPA. That said, my 2nd beer was Stone’s Ruination and the bitterness was much smoother and similar to what is achieved by the hop stand only. Interesting to note IBU’s listed for both beers were similar. I suppose it worth reposting that I am trying to achieve an extreme hop FLAVOR with my IPA’s. Sure I want bitterness and there is plenty with the hop stand but it might be subdued to some and for those guys a FWH or 60 minute is justifiable.
Beersk, maybe try and locate your water assessment via government channels. Even my small muni posts some alkalinity and hardness data and I think these are the critical. Also, maybe try and find a local fish shop. Those guys know everything about the water. From Ken Lenards work on RO I would never buy RO. He actually had Ward run numbers on RO and it was WORSE than his at home! Apparently, the RO machines are hit or miss in terms of service… As for phosphoric acid, I think acidifying my sparge is one technique that makes my beers better than the average brewer. Think taking a good beer to a great beer. But as I am learning, moderation with the acid or lowering pH is the key.
I tried this method out myself, so I though I’d reboot this thread a bit with my results. I upped the ante a bit. For a 3-gallon batch I used 10.5 ounces of hops at flameout with a 90-minute hop stand, and 6.5 ounces of dry hops (for a total of a 17 oz of hops in a 3-gallon batch). In the past I’ve had good results approximating IBU’s using 1/3 the hop stand time, so calculating these as a 30-minute addition I got a calculated 475 IBU’s.
Here’s my hop bill:
HOPS:
2 oz - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 14.8, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 104.49
2 oz - Apollo, Type: Pellet, AA: 18, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 139.79
2 oz - Meridian, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.7, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 52.03
2 oz - Motueka, Type: Pellet, AA: 7.2, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 55.92
2.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 123.29
1.5 oz - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 14.8, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
2 oz - Meridian, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.7, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
2 oz - Motueka, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 7.2, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
1 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
Hop flavor is just off the charts. The beer literally tastes like grapefruit juice with a splash of pineapple. Bitterness is there, but not enamel-stripping. It tastes like a 60 IBU FWH addition with no 60-minute bittering addition - notable but smooth. I actually sent a sample off for analysis, so it will be cool to see what it measures out at. Hop aroma was pretty good, but my bottle wasn’t fully carbonated yet so i expect that to improve over the next week or two.
I will definitely be using this process again in the future. I think I’d want about 20-30 IBU from a firm bittering hop like Columbus or Chinook at 60 minutes to get a bit more bite. The citrus was also a bit overwhelming, so I’ll probably swap out the Citra for something like Galaxy that is more straight-up tropical instead of citrusy/tropical.
Didn’t use the same hops but I had a similar result in that I felt like I needed a touch of bitterness to balance things out. My usual pale ale is becoming a bit of FWH, around 15 IBU @ 60 min and then a pile of hop stand hops with a generous dry hopping.
[quote=“erockrph”]I tried this method out myself, so I though I’d reboot this thread a bit with my results. I upped the ante a bit. For a 3-gallon batch I used 10.5 ounces of hops at flameout with a 90-minute hop stand, and 6.5 ounces of dry hops (for a total of a 17 oz of hops in a 3-gallon batch). In the past I’ve had good results approximating IBU’s using 1/3 the hop stand time, so calculating these as a 30-minute addition I got a calculated 475 IBU’s.
Here’s my hop bill:
HOPS:
2 oz - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 14.8, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 104.49
2 oz - Apollo, Type: Pellet, AA: 18, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 139.79
2 oz - Meridian, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.7, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 52.03
2 oz - Motueka, Type: Pellet, AA: 7.2, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 55.92
2.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 123.29
1.5 oz - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 14.8, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
2 oz - Meridian, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.7, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
2 oz - Motueka, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 7.2, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
1 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
Hop flavor is just off the charts. The beer literally tastes like grapefruit juice with a splash of pineapple. Bitterness is there, but not enamel-stripping. It tastes like a 60 IBU FWH addition with no 60-minute bittering addition - notable but smooth. I actually sent a sample off for analysis, so it will be cool to see what it measures out at. Hop aroma was pretty good, but my bottle wasn’t fully carbonated yet so i expect that to improve over the next week or two.
I will definitely be using this process again in the future. I think I’d want about 20-30 IBU from a firm bittering hop like Columbus or Chinook at 60 minutes to get a bit more bite. The citrus was also a bit overwhelming, so I’ll probably swap out the Citra for something like Galaxy that is more straight-up tropical instead of citrusy/tropical.[/quote]
Just a quick update. The lab result came back at 97.8 IBU. I’ve had 70 IBU beers that tasted a lot more bitter than thjs one. But it obviously comes nowhere close to the 475 calculated IBUs. It does seem to fit with the idea that 100 IBU’s is pretty much the upper limit in a beer.
