Why do brewers not list IBUs?

Aged IPAs - new trend coming soon

 

It’s a current trend as it is at your local Total Wine.

 

I never worried about IBUs alone; but I'll admit that I like my ABV in-line with IBUs as a gauge of determining "will I like this beer?"
As an example, if a 5% pale ale, has a listed IBU of 50 or above, I'll probably like it more than if it's lower than 35 for example. Not always true, but often true... for my taste.
But the IBU wars of the early millenium are pretty much done.
And only a few hard-core brewers/breweries care about this.
Cheers!

 

I think the first few posts in this thread answered this questions succinctly. No further questions or comments.

 

Not important???

Lagunitas must think it's important. After all, they list the IBU out to the tenth of an IBU on some of their products, and for several, to the hundredth!

(Well, either they think it is important or they are having fun with it... )

 

Age them long enough and you'll end up with a Barleywine

 

If we're gonna wish for things that aren't gonna happen, why not go big? I wish brewers would put the exact recipe on the label, and a phone number we can call for questions/help brewing it. Unlike IBU info, that would be very useful.

 

Mountain Hops Brewing in Casper lists the IBUs for every beer he brews. Needed? Certainly not but he's the kind of guy that likes putting out all the info that he can. It doesn't hurt. Shrugs.

 

I may be the odd one out, but I do like to see a bu:gu ratio of 0.5 to 0.7 on my pale ales, 1.0 on my ipas. What does that mean? Starting gravity of 1.055 on a pale ale should have 30to 40ish ibus. Ipa with og of 1.070 should have 70 ibus. It's easy math and keep them to style. That being said ten fidy has 80 to 100 calculated ibus IIRC but it's not a bitter beer. Why? The starting gravity is way higher. Residual sugars and booze don't allow your taste buds to PERCEIVE the bitterness which brings us to .....

I promise you that if the ibus and original gravity are the same on two beers, one a wcipa and the other a neipa, the neipa will have less perceivable bitterness. Why? Esters from the yeast, lower attenuation yeast etc tend to sweeten the beer and make the ibus less abrasive.

Also a friendly reminder that ibus are calculated isomerization of the alpha acids in the hops during the boil. Most neipas feature hop bursting, whirlpooling, and dry hopping. Late additions and cold side additions don't offer a way for the alpha acids to be isomerized. This doesn't mean the resulting beer can't be bitter. Eat a hop, they're really damned bitter. So are overly hopped neipa even though the beer has little to no ibus. Hop burn is excessively bitter.

 

I would have liked to be around during the IBU wars, can we have another one? When tens of IBUs was the thing, not tenths.

 

A return to the authentic historical meaning of IPA, maybe???? I'm waiting for the first brewery to send a ship filled with wooden kegs out to sea in warm weather for a month or so before bottling.

 

Can I introduce you to Toronto’s Halo Brewery? They post the recipe for every beer they make on their website. It is the only place I know that does this. Not on the label, but perhaps close enough?

For example, their New Wave IPA:

https://halobrewery.com/beer/new-wave

They note the changes as well and archive each iteration of the beer.

 

I doubt very many people aside from actual brewers care about IBU's.

 

That's pretty fantastic. I love that they provide update notes as the iterate batches. I suspect this is a pretty time-consuming process for them that unfortunately few will appreciate, but I think it's awesome nonetheless.

 

That is awesome! Some of the greats like Mr. Kimmich are closed mouthed, others like Mr. Cilurzo love to share the good info.

 

You're short by a month or 6 (depending on whether by sea around Africa or via a land crossing of Egypt).

 

Professional brewer here who brews about 50 different IPAs a year and does not list IBUs. A lot of great stuff has been said here and I'll piggy back off of some of it.

We don't list IBUs because we don't believe it tells the whole story with the beer. Perceived bitterness is different than calculated IBUs. Most of our IPAs are under 10 calculated IBUs because we add our first hop edition in a whirlpool at exactly 180 degrees. But with multiple dry hops, our perceived bitterness is higher than the IBU calculation would imply.

Calculating IBUs is as simple as a math equation. It doesn't cost us more money nor do we "hide" our calculations. If a homebrewer were to ask me what our IBUs were for a clone beer, I would 100% tell them. I do believe there are more important things a homebrewer could ask for a clone, but they never do.

Edit: The only IPA we list IBUs is our west coast because those that drink it seem to care more than others. It's 69 IBUs btw.