New England Style IPA IBUs?

Someone will chime in with the exact IBUs on those beers I'm sure, but there is a difference between perceived bitterness and IBUs. Mouthfeel and probably some flavor and/or aroma compounds affect the perceived bitterness. Without having ever tried either of those breweries, I can guess with some certainty that the IBUs are within the style guidelines for IPAs. There is flexibilty, and the lines are being blurred more and more these days certainly. The focus, as I understand it, will be dry-hopped and late hopped to hell on those IPAs, but without the bitterness (perceived or not) I don't think they would be very balanced.

 

I can give you an example of a recent homebrew I did, in the NE IPA style.

I used 1 oz of Bittering hops for 10 gallons (12.7% AA)
Then used 6 oz with 5 minutes left (various AA)
6 oz at flameout (varius AA) - No contribution to IBU calculation
6 oz of dry hop - No contribution to IBU calculation.

It calculated at 43 IBU. American IPA style guideline is 40-70 IBU.

It's certainly not what I would consider a bitter beer, by any means. However, it bursts with flavor and aroma from Galaxy, Citra, and Mosaic hops.

I would assume that they are probably within style, but they aren't necessarily legal obligated to do so.

 

Did you conduct a hop stand? If you did then this hop addition did contribute IBUs.

Cheers!

 

Yes, it can. Those who make can call it darn near anything they want.

 

Yep, people seem to forget this sometimes. Hops isomerize above about 170, so any hop additions above that temp will contribute some bitterness. It's not much but it's something

 

It actually can contribute a fair bit of IBUs depending on the length of the hop stand and the temperatures maintained.

Cheers!

 

With the 6oz that the above poster added, I'd guess it contributed a good amount.

 

That's good to know. BeerSmith didn't show it as contributing any IBU, which is interesting.

I did do a Hop Stand, but it was at 160F for 20 minutes.

Thanks for the info!

 

I personally do not use Beersmith but it is my understanding that it does have the ability to consider a hopstand additions contribution to IBUs:

“BS now has IBUs being attributed to steeping but at 50% of the equivalent boil time.”

http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=10097.0

I have no idea which version this update was applied.

Cheers!

 

http://homebrewmanual.com/media/IBUS.jpg

IBU listings by style.

IF you use untapped they tell you the IBUs but I dont know how accurate those are.

 

The 50% is a good range assuming your doing the hop stand above 190. The problem is once you go lower. To me beer smith is a great tool and has lots of valuable calculations but nothing beats figuring it all out by hand, this is an instance where your personal calcualtions me end up being more accurate than the software

 

Yup: "It actually can contribute a fair bit of IBUs depending on the length of the hop stand and the temperatures maintained."

Cheers!

 

Not disagreeing, just piggy backing off your post

 

What calculations would you suggest?

 

pun intended?

 

Some hops even increase the IBUs when added cold as dry hops.

 

If you look up the beers on untappd many times the IBUs are listed but not always. They have Julius at 72 and Galaxy FPPA at 45.

 

IPAs have been round for a couple of centuries and during that time have existed in a variety of forms.
The ones which began it all would have been incredibly and intensely bitter, they were fermented to dryness as well as being highly hopped.
Since WW1 IPA has been widely used as an alias for Bitter. Two of the biggest selling cask ales in the UK are Greene King IPA and Deuchars IPA , neither of which is heavily hopped. I believe that GK IPA is around 36 IBU. There are writers who say they are not IPA but they are in fact just 20th century IPA.As unlike the Victorian examples as current so called IPA s.Beers evolve as do most artefacts.