After some time brewing, IBU and ABV were lowered to my preference.
Out of curiosity popular beers were analyzed to see what the majority
of Americans were favoring, regarding ABV & IBU.
Coincidentally, it’s inline to what I’ve been brewing lately.
I do not brew many light beers, especially something like an American Light Lager…man it’s tough to overdue the hops easily. That’s the part I struggle with. Learning, but Cream Ales, American Lagers, Kolsch I have brewed…just too much hop character.
I generally make beers between 4.5 and 5% and my IBUs are generally low by homebrewing standards but not that low. I am concluding that IBUs is a very tough measuring stick. We have all of these calculators, we have FWH, WP and DH additions adding zero IBUs and when hops are older or have been mishandled they lose their punch so you may think you made a beer with 25 IBUs but it might really be 18. I have been using some Hop Heaven pellets lately and my beers seem ‘punchier’. That tells me that the hops I was getting from the LHBS or maybe MoreBeer, etc. were weaker or not as fresh. Also, it seems like “gold” beer is still very much a player in the US beer-drinking world. Many craft places I know still make a helles, blonde ale, kolsch, pilsner, low-IBU wheat beer, etc.
All over the place, I looked them up individually.
There could be some errors on ABV & IBU.
Correction, the year was 2018.
Saught any reference to what’s best selling to get an
idea on what people are drinking, regarding ABV & IBU.
The Bud and Bud Light don’t surprise me. I would have thought Corona would be higher (especially higher than Michelob Ultra) and Busch, Natural Light and Busch seem high although I shouldn’t pretend to know. I suppose some people guzzle this stuff.
That’s very likely, I found 2 IBU’s for the same beer online.
So I just winged it and chose one.
Goal was to get top selling beers, and average their ABV & IBU.
At the time, I used Coastal Science Labs, but the company that took them over doesn’t do beer analysis any more. It’s too bad, because they offered cheap a la carte tests instead of having to order a full panel.