The Great Whirlpool Hopping Experiment

My plan is to ferment ~4 gal of each variant in 4 cornies. One at a time I'll transfer half of each into a small 2.5 gal corny (I only have one of these right now), add priming sugar and bottle from there. The remaining beer I will either leave in their primaries with the yeast and dry hop there (I'll make sure the hops are purged to minimize O2 introduction). Or I can transfer each of these into a secondary corny and DH there. The pro of that is I'll get the beer off of the yeast, but the downside is I have to transfer and the secondary won't be full, so O2 could be an issue. Right now I'm leaning toward doing the DH in the primary.

Alternately I can move all four from primaries to secondaries (I have enough cornies for that), and the start my process of bottling half of each, then DH the balance in the secondary. In this plan I think all of the beer sees the same handling.

I also plan to ratio the DH qtys by the volume of beer, to try to be consistent with other brewers.

 

That's interesting. Let me know if you decide to get the IBU's measured. My arm might be able to be twisted to do the same.

 

Well the price certainly looks great! Did you see anything indicating the IBU test method? I couldn't find it.

 

Dave,

I wouldn’t think the IBU test would be via Gas chromatography. The agreed upon beer industry assay is ASBC Beer-23a where a spectrophotometer is used to measure light absorbance at 275 nm.

More information here: http://byo.com/stories/item/199-behind-the-ibu-advanced-brewing

Cheers!

 

I don't know that I've heard of a GC test for IBUs. Not saying there isn't one, but I don't know. In addition to what JackHorzempa mentioned, there's also High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method that's more accurate, but IIRC it's also very expensive.

 

I have a problem with IBUs extraction, according Beersmith program adding at FO 2oz Cascades 5 %AA and 2 oz Centennial 9% AA whirlpooling during 30 mins I only get 32 IBUs instead 42 . Is there any parameter I should tweak in my Beersmith program settings?


Edit : Steep/Whirlpool Util Factor is set to 50% related to 90 C / 194 F

 

The avg (mean) may have been a little bit lower than 203, because the rate of temperature reduction (in say, degrees per minute) is fastest at first and slower later, as you get closer to the ambient temp. But over the range of 212 down to 195, the difference is probably almost negligible.

 

Let's try a double blind. I think I'll need 6 samples, mark them x, y, z or 1, 2, 3. for example....
x - type 1
y - type 2
z - type 2
i - type 3
j - type 4
k - type 4
I plan to pour 4 oz samples so I'll be able to get three tastings from on bottle. Just let me know which way to group them in the triangle since I won't know which are which.

I'll end up with 8 varieties, I'll send you samples after my first panel.

Also, I'll send you an updated tasting plan that I've been working on. I tried to make it more manageable.

 

So it is not possible to have such a big difference 32 to 42 ,something is wrong.

 

I don't know where Beersmith got its 50% at 90C rule. That sounds low to me, given the formula I derived from Mark G. Malowicki's paper...

0.6^((212-T)/18)
Where T = Degrees F

But again, I don't know what data/model the Beersmith author used. You could try adjusting that 50% parameter until the answer hits the number you're expecting. I don't know what that would do to the rest of the Beersmith model (i.e. different average temperatures), but it should probably work for 90C/194F whirlpools anyway.

 

I brewed four batches yesterday at four different holding temps using my 'whirl pool sous vide' set up.

Looking into the whirlpool vessel. Screen to help block debris, I also used a large hop bag (not shown), copper tube is the inlet (creates a nice whirlpool), heating element and thermocouple. It worked surprisingly well.


PID controller at lower right on stand.



All temps, 200, 180, 150 and 120 all held within -2/+1 degrees F for 30 min.

 

So when are you gonna build a real setup?

 

Ha! I'm the type of guy that builds a prototype with the intent of putting together a nice pretty system once I have all of the bugs worked out, but then ends up using the prototype forever.

 

Heh. You know I was kidding, right? You had me at "PID."

 

Oh yeah, I got it. You should see my glycol chillers...

 

Very interested in this experiment/results.

I generally add hops a different temps as I chill. My last batch of IPA received 2 ounces @FO, immediately chilled to 170 degrees and added 2 more ounces ounces then steeped/whirpooled for 30 mins. I have zero reasoning for the times or temps besides random articles and books. This batch will also get a split dry hop of 6 ounces total, so it is hard to know exactly what dose of hops contributed the most.

 

translation: the confounding variables were such that I had to consider them. Dangit.

Seriously tho... interesting experiment. Please do elaborate in great detail along the way.