Calculations for adding bitterness at bottling

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by DrDj, Aug 25, 2012.

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  1. DrDj

    DrDj Aspirant (201) Jan 3, 2010 Canada (ON)

    Hi everybody-

    I've just brewed a gluten free stout for a friend and it's a little sweeter than I had intended. It was an experimental recipe, so I need to do a few adjustments before bottling--I have to dilute a bit with water and was going to boil about 1/2 a gallon to add to the carboy with priming sugar instead of just the usual pint (I did some experiments and this will be a suitable dilution given how much maltodextrine I used to add some body to the beer).

    I thought I'd add a bit of bitterness to ease a bit of the sweetness, which doesn't really work in this beer. But I know I will need to boil the hops in the water for an hour to get good iso alpha acids and bitterness.

    My thought is to boil the hops for about 45 minutes, add the priming sugar, boil another 15 minutes, then chill and strain into the bottling bucket.

    I'm not sure, however, how much bitterness I can expect to get when boiling hops only in water. I know that the gravity of the wort effects utilization. What about when the gravity is 1.000?
     
    #1 DrDj, Aug 25, 2012
  2. FarmerTed

    FarmerTed Pundit (928) May 31, 2011 Colorado

    You could just get a hopshot from Northern Brewer. I think it's your best bet. 1 mL gives 10 ibu's according to NB. I'm not sure how long you need to boil it, though (I'd go 30 minutes, I suppose). You need to make sure it all dissolves in the water and that you don't boil down too much. A half gallon of water could easily boil away in 30 min.

    I would also just make sure that the beer isn't too sweet due to low attenuation. Maybe you need to get the fermentation to finish out.
     
    #2 FarmerTed, Aug 26, 2012
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