I was actually thinking of moving my 20 minute hop addition to FWH and then doing the bittering as well.
You’ll get high IBUs from doing that. Some people think it will be a “smoother” bitterness. I doubt it. It will be quite bitter if you don’t reduce the total amount. Personally I would treat FWH like a 70-minute addition.
You’re right Denny would disagree. He compares FWH to a 20 minute addition I believe.
The only beers I FWH are IPAs and Denny’s Amber Ale. I don’t particularly care for super bitter beers and I haven’t found FWH doing that. Considering the amount of hops, the IBU and lack of DH in Denny’s Amber there’s a ton of flavor and aroma to the beer and a very smooth bitterness. Maybe there are other factors than the FWH at play.
My understanding of the theory of FWH is that like whirlpool hops you release different oils at different temperatures and some get “locked in” to the wort at lower temps, providing flavor and a rounder smoother bitterness because they won’t be isomerized in the same manner as 60 minute hops once the boil begins.
That’s a nice theory.
Just doesn’t seem rational to me. But I’ve been wrong before.
It is a nice theory, and seems to match what I’ve seen too. But in a few weeks I should have a definite answer to this. I brewed a low gravity beer this past weekend using 1.4 oz of magnum FWH as the only bittering charge. If the theory is correct, it should taste like it has it has 32 IBUs. If the theory is wrong, the beer should taste like it has 85 IBUs (and I’ll likely end up dumping the beer because it will be WAY over bittered to be enjoyable). There should be no ambiguity for this one; I’ll let people know after the lagering time is done.
Subscribing to this thread. Definitely interested in this. I’ve never done a FWH just because I’m always afraid it will be more bitter than expected.
Please do post on your experiment RC, It seems like theory rather than proven and I would like to know. I believe I taste the difference when I have done it, and don’t think it’s my imagination.
I went with magnum for bittering and tradition at 20 mins. Such a great recipe why futz with it? Especially since I was brewing a double batch. Good news is I got to full carboys for about the price of one normal brew day! Took a little longer for strike and boil, and of course longer for the chilling process but pretty much a normal day.
Well, I have my first preliminary results, with the caveat that the fermentation is not totally done yet. But to me it currently tastes more bitter than I was trying for, but certainly nowhere near 85 IBUs. Somewhere in the 40-50 range perhaps. I suspect the bitterness will mellow more as the fermentation goes those last few points and the beer drops clear, but we’ll see.
I kegged my beer last night. Conclusion: FWHs add less apparent bitterness than hops added at the start of the boil.
However, there is some weirdness involved and as I didn’t do a side-by-side comparison using the other method, I can’t claim the test is as good as I’d hoped it would be.
I should describe the beer, as some of the weirdness is probably from that. It is my first attempt at a Grodziskie. 100% oak-smoked wheat malt, 29 IBUs FWH (1.4 oz Magnum), 0.5 oz Hallertauer Mittelfruh at 15 min (3 IBUs). OG = 1.028, FG = 1.007. Fermented with Danish lager yeast (I had a strong yeast cake available, so I used it even though European Ale yeast would have been more in-keeping with the style). “Bitter Yellow” water profile AKA Brun Water. I’ve got ProMash set so that it calculates bitterness for FWH as equivalent to a 20 min addition, so I didn’t intend to make this test, it just happened. And as it was late the night before brewing when I weighed out my hops, it didn’t cross my mind that that was an awful lot of magnum until I tasted the post-boil sample. That was so over-the-top bitter that I couldn’t taste anything else.
That said, there is zero apparent bitterness as you first taste the finished beer, just smoke, malt and a hint of floral from the flavor hops. The bitterness comes in and builds as the smokiness fades, and stays on the palette for a long time. It should be pointed out that this beer is suppose to be overly bitter. The IBU:OG ratio is higher than for most IPAs, but without the crystal malt sweetness or intense flavoring hops to balance the bitterness. So it might be possible that the novel-aspects of the beer are messing up my taste buds, and makes it hard for me to really quantify the bitterness. But not messed up enough to mix up 86 vs 32 IBUs in a 1.028 OG beer. If it tasted like 86, I’m pretty sure it would be undrinkable.
Just spent some time at a local microbrewery hanging out and trading tastes of our beers. I asked him to guess how many IBUs in my Grodziskie (he had never tasted or in fact heard of the style before). His answer: 35.
Blew him away when i told him the background.
RC I have always had good results from FWH. I’m from the camp that believes the bitterness provided is less harsh.
