I am trying to duplicate a pale ale that I brewed a few months back. It had a bitterness ratio of .700. When brewing this I am pretty sure my efficiency will be lower than it was that time due to location changes. I would actually prefer a lower OG so I am okay with that.
My question is should I adapt the recipe to matching the bitterness ratio or just try to match the IBUs? With my estimate efficiency the new attempt would be .745. I am kind of afraid to drop the IBUs in case my efficiency is higher than I expected.
Should I even worry about it? Will a change in .050 even be noticeable? Trying to be able to duplicate recipes to the tee which is the only reason I am even worried about it…
It’s probably a difference of less than 3-4 IBU. You won’t be able to tell the difference. If you want, you can always calculate your bittering addition after you take a pre-boil gravity reading to keep the ratio the same.
not not only that, but even that small of a change or exactness i think would require very specific and accurate knowledge of the hops you are using from one harvest to the next
Thanks guys…yeah I was just adjusting from the difference in AA%. I didn’t think about taking my preboil gravity as a way around it even though I try to do that regularly. That is the perfect solution!
Update: Brewed this yesterday and had my lowest efficiency ever but I don’t know why. My IBUs were very close to the original estimate but my bitterness ratio was about .780 compared to .700 due to a lower than desired OG. This one should end up about 5% ABV compared to 5.7% of the original both had about 37 calculated IBUs
One thing you should realize is that you have a significantly different beer with that much difference in OG. It’s probably a good bet it will also turn out drier than normal as well. For this reason, your bitterness may seem much higher than normal. I learned this with brewing German pilsners where you are striving for a very dry finish. The required bitterness ratio is actually much lower in this kind of a brew than you would expect for the apparent bitterness you taste. The FG and dryness of the beer play a big part in this. So while normally 5 IBU difference is not noticeably different, everything else being equal, in your case everything else is not equal.
I am pretty sure it won’t end up drier because I have recently moved operation back to my house. When using US05 at my friends we would average about 87% attenuation and at my house I get about 78%. The last time I brewed the beer it finished at 1.009 and I suspecting this one will finish at 1.010/1.011 even with the lower OG.
I understand this will most likely be a different beer but that was to be expected from the beginning. I was purposely trying to drop the ABV but not as much as will probably occur. That was the main reason I was trying to match the bitterness ratio. I was assuming OG and FG would be different from the start so was trying to keep one thing consistent.