Looking for feedback on my first DIPA (almost) SMASH

First of all, I wouldn’t call this even an almost smash, but if a smash is what you’re going for, Nelson can be used very well on its own.

As far as your question, in my opinion there isn’t really a thing as “too dry”, but with the large amount of hops being used during the boil it could very well be too bitter.

You didn’t specify what style you’re trying to brew, but this looks like a solid (but possibly overly bitter) west coast ipa, even if it’s not a smash

 

I guess it’s a DIPA but definitely not a Smash.
And I doubt the Amarillo and Columbus are gonna show anything with all that Nelson.
But go for it man. You know what you’re looking for. See if you can make it happen.

 

Mash around 152 so it's not dry. We'll call your version of "smash", several malts and several hops.

 

2 quarts of diluted starter (2 x 16 ounces Propper, plus 2 x 16 ounces H2O) is going to blow right out of a 2L flask, unless that flask has a bunch of extra headroom. Most of the "2L" flasks I've seen are not much more than 2L.

ETA: Why are you crushing your single malts 4 days before?

 

Don't worry. Science would have kept a beer brewed to the original recipe far short of 260 IBUs. By my estimate, it would have landed (probably) short of 90.

 

The standard Tinseth formula (and other standard IBU formulae) aren't very good above about 65 IBUs. Real life utilization curves become very flat there, but the standard formulae don't know that.

 

I wouldn't even bother with anything before 15 minutes.

 

How do you figure? Maybe not 260, but this does look like a very bitter recipe... are you of the belief that a beer can only get so bitter?

 

The maximum that can be achieved is about 110 IBUs. And as I mentioned, the curve starts to seriously flatten out above 65. Each additional IBU takes more incremental AA input than the previous one.

 

At the end of the day that depends on how bitter you like your beer... you say that you’ve read that Nelson isn’t a bittering hop, so if you want high bitterness, an early Columbus addition is fine as far as I’m concerned. If bitterness isn’t a high priority, then Nelson additions in the last 10 minutes, at whirlpool and dry hop are all you need.

 

Interesting... I have heard about a possible maximum IBU threshold but I thought it was closer to 150. And I have never heard of it leveling off at 65... as far as I’m concerned 65 IBUs is not a terribly bitter beer. To be fair though, I don’t perceive bitterness very well, which I think is true for a lot of people

 

I recently brewed the AHA Pliny recipe. The IBU's are 254. After speaking with people here and reading the reviews of the recipe, I brewed it as is. It is delicious and NOT overly bitter.

 

Back in 2009 in Zymurgy, Vinnie C. provided a recipe for Pliny. IBUs were listed thusly:
"IBUs: 90-95 (actual/not calculated)"

I don't know if that version of the recipe is the same one you brewed, but if you take the standard Tinseth answer of 254 IBUs and apply a "modified tinseth" formula, you get 87 IBUs.

Kudos to Vinnie for being honest and not hyping the "theoretical" IBUs as some commercial brewers do.

 

Yeah. You will have plenty of bitterness from all the other additions. I'm a fan of hopstands whirlpool additions, but most software doesn't accurately calculate the ibu additions from post boil hop additions.

 

So are you saying on brewcipher that you should only go by the modified number? Is there a situation when you would go by the standard number?

 

Personally, I usually only really pay attention to the modified number. But the standard model number is there for reference too, which can be handy when trying to translate, for example, a recipe (i.e. a non-BrewCipher recipe) that specifies IBUs using the standard formula.

ETA: Keep in mind that below 65 IBUs, with no post-boil hops, the two numbers will be the same.