Big QC Day Open Thread

[Bainbridge]

Results are out for the Fall '14 White Labs Big QC Day. http://www.whitelabs.com/education/big-qc-day Thought it might be fun to chat about it.

Big things to me:

Had our IIPA tested and the IBUs were lower than expected. In that, I expected them to be about 30% lower than my calculated IBUs, due to yeast drop, etc.. But dayum, not by that much. Proves, I guess, how the IBU calculations kinda fly out the window for high gravity high hop beers. Now the question becomes, if my IIPA IBUs are actually 60% of what I'd calculated after the yeast and finings strip it all out, is that such a bad thing? Could be why everyone around here likes it so much.

The Level Of Microbial Contamination Is Too Damn High! Seriously, 44% of samples had wild yeast, 34% had aerobic bacteria and 11% had anaerobic bacteria? And the mean Overall VDK level was 118? Holy diacetyl Batman! Step up your games people, that's shameful.

The data is probably a bit skewed due to the sample sources I'd imagine. And the data crunch isn't out yet, but this year I wish they'd separate the commercial and homebrew samples, and I wish they'd separate any barrel-aged or intentionally soured beers.

[Inthelab]

I'd love to see a better breakdown of where the beers came from, how many beers, Homebrew vs Commercial, more about the data set so I can place the numbers in context.

[kbfreder]

Our Double IPA also tested well below expected IBU's -- about 25% lower, based on in-house testing. Our in-house results have matched other external lab results in the past, so I'm surprised they were this far off.

I wasn't aware homebrewers submitted to Big QC Day. In the past they've broken down results by geographic region. I too would like to see a breakdown by brewery size.

[a10t2]

Are the results online anywhere?

[kugeman]

Just some info to chew on...A few years back I accidentally sent double samples of a few of my beers to the Big QC day. 2 sample containers of each beer were filled from the tap at the same time. The IBU readings were all over the map for the same beers! My American Pale got IBU calcs that were 30 IBU's apart. And the Belgian Abbey I sent (which was VERY lightly hopped) was coming in at 35 IBU (as opposed to the calculated value of 10 IBU). So I would trust your palate when it comes to IBUs and take the tested values with a grain of salt.