[klickitat jim]

Watched Master and Commander the other night, again. There's a scene where a kid is measuring speed with a knotted rope. 5 knots slip through your hand in X time equals 5 knots. Now imagine using someone else's knotted rope, tied at different intervals. Holy crap, now we're doing 8 knots! Or the anchor at the end is different, or your hour glass is smaller... As long as you use the same knotted rope with the same Anchor and same hour glass you will eventually going to be able to roughly predict your time to destination

[Joe Sr.]

I would bet the British Navy was pretty exact about the size/type of rope, the interval between knots, and the weight of the anchor.  I'm sure there was margin of error and all that, but these guys also navigated with sextants and pretty much got where they planned to go.

[klickitat jim]

I would bet the British Navy was pretty exact about the size/type of rope, the interval between knots, and the weight of the anchor.  I'm sure there was margin of error and all that, but these guys also navigated with sextants and pretty much got where they planned to go.

Totally, and all analogies are only good to a point. In this case, the hop computers, our individual brewing systems, variations in alphas, etc... way more variables than the knotted rope analogy. That's why I said imagine grabbing a rope with a different... blah blah blah

[Joe Sr.]

Just giving you the business...  I get your point about brewing software.  For me, it's really just a guide and a convenient way to record my recipes.  If my results are different from anticipated, I adjust the recipe to get what I want next time.

That would be harder to do with a knoted rope in the middle of the ocean...

[klickitat jim]

Ha! Awesome

I think if the OP perceives whirlpool hops as more bitter than others do, then he's not wrong about what he perceives. Adjusting the % of isomerization to reflect what he's perceiving would totally be the thing he should do. Adjust the knotted rope till the measured speed seems to fit what you are seeing, then stick with that for planning future voyages.

[HoosierBrew]

If my results are different from anticipated, I adjust the recipe to get what I want next time.

Yep, not so hard. No cool naval analogies to offer, though.