I’ve got a DIPA recipe I’m noodling over and thought I’d use some of the DIPA recipes in the members area as guidelines. Pliny the Elder seems like a nice choice so I scaled it down from the 24 gallon recipe to 5.75.
When I plug in most of the scaled hop additions though, the IBU seems way off. I havent’ added the 0 min additions yet, but it’s already off the hook.
I’m pretty sure I’ve scaled the hops correctly but I’m not using whole hops, only pellet. Also, I have CTZ (not Columbus) in Brewfather so that’s a little different, but the AA isn’t too wildly different between them. What’s going on here? Do “Whole hops” weight differently than “Pellet” hops or something?
Pliny does have a CALCULATED IBU level of close to 200, that’s normal for this beer. But in REALITY, it is rare to end up with more than about 80 or 90 IBUs because there is a physical chemistry limit to how much isomerized alpha acid will actually dissolve into the wort, and then a lot of it drops out with the yeast and hop matter during and at the end of fermentation. You’ll end up with about 85 IBUs from this beer, guaranteed. So, other than the fact that the recipe arguably uses more bittering hop additions than are necessary to achieve the final ceiling of 80-90 IBUs, there’s not a real problem to be concerned about and it will turn out good the way it is.
Some say that the bitterness from whole hops is 10% less than pellet hops. I’m not so sure that’s true. Again, I wouldn’t worry about that part of it either.
That is really interesting, I didn’t know about the physical chemical limit.
In general, do you want a higher IBU with a DIPA since the ABV is so much higher?
I have a 6.7% IPA (on paper) that is around 54 IBU and bitterness is right about where I like it. The DIPA I’m working on is at 10% ABV and IBU of 74. That seems quite high, but I guess bitterness is perceived differently with higher ABV (https://thegrowlerguys.com/understanding-abv-and-ibu/)
Anyone seen this chart before? 74 seems a little low for a DIPA.
What is your OG? Let me assume it’s 1.090, based on that I like to match my IBU’s to the last 2 gravity numbers, so 90 IBU’s. You decide how you get there on hop/time additions.
I’ve also heard the claim that the human palate maxes out around 60-70 IBU as far as perception goes. I wouldn’t worry so much about what IBU calculators give you as a result beyond a certain point. It should just read “MAX” after like 90 or so. FWIW, I had a beer come back at 98 IBU from a lab, but it tasted like 60 IBU to me. There is a lot more impacting the bitterness of a beer than just IBU’s. Yeast choice, water chemistry, attenuation, and hop variety all factor in.
Oh, that’s a pretty neet method. OG is 1.084 So yeah, maybe I’ll but the bittering up a bit. Haha… this is all a little easier to do when it’s a beer I’m familiar with brewing.
