Whirlpool Utilization Sanity Check

[anthonybaraff]

We're going to be brewing a 1800 L (15BBL) batch of beer with a local brewery. This is a huge jump from the 50L batches we have been testing with. It's more or less an American-style Pale Ale (1.053 OG) with a decent amount of late hopping. This brewery currently doesn't use much late hopping so they don't have much advice for us as far as adapting the recipe. We're looking to get around 30ish IBU.

We're going to do the late hopping in the whirlpool (20 minutes + some knock out period 40 mins?) with 1050g (2.3lbs) each of a 12.5% AA hop and a 9% AA hop for a total of 2.1kg. Most people seem to agree that we will get quite a bit of isomerization from these adds. If I set hop utilization in BeerSmith to 130% and specify both of these additions to be calculated as 20 minute boil, I get about 24 IBUs. Does that sound too high to you guys or too low? I'm worried that since these hops are going to be in nearly boiling wort for quite a bit longer than 20 minutes we're going to get more bitterness than even 24 IBUs.

We usually have a bittering addition of Magnum at the start of the boil that contributes half of our IBUs, but it looks like we should add almost nothing in the kettle. Obviously, having some hop material in the kettle does a lot for preventing boil-overs and bringing about hot break. It seems risky to add any more than about 250 g (.55lbs).

Does this roughly match with the way your APA recipes look?

Thanks,

Anthony

[brewmaster 2011]

I use a first wort addition of 40 oz of chinook that give me 27 ibu in 10 bbl batch of my apa. i also use beer smith to calculate me hop additions.

[jbs]

apa hop additions

15 bbl. batch of our Pale gets:
Palisade 4.5 lbs. 7.9 AA 60 min. boil
Crystal 4 lbs. 15 min. boil
Palisade 4 lbs. in the whirlpool

[anthonybaraff]

15 bbl. batch of our Pale gets:
Palisade 4.5 lbs. 7.9 AA 60 min. boil
Crystal 4 lbs. 15 min. boil
Palisade 4 lbs. in the whirlpool

What level of IBUs does that give you (by measurement or by taste)? Our beer is going to be sold over here in France and people are not accustomed to bitter beers. By the book the 60 minute addition comes to about 23 IBU. The 15 minute addition gives another 5-7 IBU. The whirlpool Palisade addition could be giving anywhere between 5-10 more? Weight-wise your whirlpool addition looks about like what ours is but your average AA% is 7.9 vs our 10.5. Our market isn't quite as hop hardened as the public is in the states.

Thanks,

Anthony

[anthonybaraff]

I use a first wort addition of 40 oz of chinook that give me 27 ibu in 10 bbl batch of my apa. i also use beer smith to calculate me hop additions.

Is that your total hop bill or do you have a late addition as well?

Thanks,

Anthony

[brewmaster 2011]

i also have a 30 15 and eob additons to about 45 ibu total plus a dry hop.

[jbs]

apa ibus

We do dry hop an additional 12lbs in the fv. Total beer IBUs 45. The beer is not very bitter as it is balanced by the malt flavor.