BeerBorg

Here is what I did today. I really enjoyed my brew day. It go to be 62 degrees out, slightly overcast, no wind so I had great control of the boil. It was perfect. My beer ended up 1.068
You will notice I hop bursted. That means no FWH, no 60 minute additions of any kind. My flavoring and aroma hops will do the bittering. I like hop bursted IPAs as I love hop flavor but I just don't care for the bitter bite most IPAs have. Also I am still experimenting with hop stands. I used the chiller to get my beer to 170F then turned the faucet off so it would quit chilling. The wort was approx 165F when I dropped the 2 oz of Centinial hops in. That way I can extract flavor and aroma during the half hour hop stand without adding bitterness. Beersmith caculates this at 111.9 IBUs but I seriously doubt it will be that high. Hop stands are still an unexact science so I really don't think IBUs can be calculated from them accurately. Plus there is no way in input into beersmith that I cooled the wort to 165 before adding the hops for steeping. So it is going on the assumption they were added at flame out, which I did discover does add a lot of percieved bitterness.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Ralph's Serendipity IPA
Brewer: Roger Broeg
Asst Brewer: Ralph the Wonderdog
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.067 SG
Estimated Color: 8.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 111.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 73.5 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 16.3 %
12.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.1 %
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 4 4.1 %
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 34.8 IBUs
2.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 30.5 IBUs
2.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 7 19.6 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool Hop 8 27.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 9 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 4.0 oz

Looks like a really tasty recipe. I'll be watching this one closely. I've always done a bittering addition in my IPA's, so I'm interested in the hopstand only technique. Can't wait to hear the final results and your opinions on this when your finally drinking it.

Gymrat,

While BB2 is the 'puter/BeerSmith guy and I'm generally the kitchen slavey as far as brew chores go I agree 100% about your interpretation of how BeerSmith chose to treat hop stands in the upgrade.

In a pod cast at one point he said he couldn't "find the science" for hop stands to do the math a while back. If I understand correctly what he decided to do with the upgrade is put it in as a whirlpool/hop stand addition and the IBUs he gives is assuming a higher temp as this is assumed to start right after the boil ends so the temps would be higher.

He did allow the users to adjust as I understand it so BB2 was able to set our hop stand method to zero IBUs because we don't add ours until the temp is at or below 140 F since we do not seek IBUs from it. We based our hop stands on the flashpoint temps of the hop oils with, as we understand Myrcene flashing off above 140 F, but I see you've had success at 170 F?

Also I've seen comments about the TIME of the hop stand i.e. 20 minutes and wonder if you and others actually remove the hops.

We use ice bath cooling and just leave the hops in right up until transferring to the fermenter as the wort is only getting cooler it doesn't seem like removing the kettle lid and fishing the hops out makes much sense for the few extra minutes they will be in there.

Thoughts?

At 30 minutes I turn the chiller back on. I leave the hops in until transferring. I strain them out on their way into the buckets I carry my wort downstairs in. I am going to find out in a couple of weeks how adding at 165 works. That is when I will be pouring my Amarillo/2 row SMaSH.

I got the idea of starting under 170 from a guy who has been doing hop stands for a while on the AHA forum. He says he gets flavor without the bitterness that way. I am still in my experimental stages with this.

I don't believe it is possible to come up with an exact science for determining bitterness. How much the wort cools over the given time a hop stand is performed will vary with the environment. And it's rate of cooling will certainly determine the rate of bittering achieved.

Sounds like a great beer Roger.

BB - For what it's worth I've been doing my hopstands at 170 for 30 minutes based on previous readings from BYO about them. I've been very happy with the results. I go commando with my hops so they are in it for the long haul (until I siphon from the pot to the fermenter anyway). I can't say that it wouldn't be better at a lower temp or for a longer period of time but I can say I like the results so far.