I am a new subscriber to the BYO online magazine. I found an interesting recipe for a double IPA (Mike McDole’s Double IPA) and plugged it into my Brewsmith software. The BYO recipe shows an IBU of 100, but the same recipe came up at 218 IBU tinseth and garetz (and 269 IBU Rager) in Brewsmith. I’ve always had positive results from Brewsmith’s IBU calculations… Anyone have any thoughts on why there’s such a radical difference?
Anything over 100 IBU is basically physically impossible. Calculations may show higher numbers, but that won’t show up in the beer. There is a saturation point, beyond which adding more hops actually results in less bitterness. I’d say BYO is telling you what you’ll realistically get.