[merrickne]

I haven't brewed an extract kit in more than 3 years but my local homebrew shop had a sale so picked up a Brewer's Best Imperial Pale Ale extract kit. My issue is that the recipe sheet lists the OG at 1.081-1.085 and the IBUs being between 65-69 but the bittering hops included in the kit are 2oz of 13.9% Columbus hops. Doesn't matter what hop utilization method (Rager etc) you use, the IBU is gonna be WAY over what they say. When I include the flavor and aroma hops, the IBUs end up being 114-143 depending on the utilization method.

Bit long winded but anyone brewed this kit? Or does anyone have any thoughts? Even if the recipe sheet heavily underestimated the IBUs, I don't think I can get myself to add that many IBUs.

Side note- also annoying, after plugging it into BeerTools Pro, the malt/dry extract included also only add up to a OG of about 1.069. Unless my calcs are off- it came with 6.6lbs of liquid and 3lbs of dry malt extract.

Should I just adjust it myself or make a Pliny style beer even though that's not what the kit is supposed to be? A 1.069 OG with a IBU of around 140? Yikes. Thoughts?

[tschmidlin]

I don't know, I haven't used these kits.  Is it possible that they are telling you the measured IBUs instead of calculated?

[merrickne]

Thanx for the response but that seems like a really big gap between measured and anticipated. I'm really not very experienced with making hoppy beers but I just can't imagine an IPA with the OG of 1.069 getting dosed with 115-140 IBUs being very palatable. I'm really leaning toward just saving some hops and cutting the IBUs to about 70 or so.

[tschmidlin]

It might be a big gap, but considering it is not normally possible to exceed ~100 IBUs it might be why there is the difference.  So the calculated 114-140 just isn't going to happen in reality.  It would be weird if they were reporting measured IBUs, it is rare to see that reported, but it happens with some commercial beer clone recipes.  I think the Pliny the Elder recipe reports measured, but I'm not sure which version in which magazine.

Anyway, it could also be because they are expecting you to do a concentrated boil, since most extract brewers do. 

If it were me, I would go off of some of my own recipes to figure out my utilization and then if necessary cut down the 60 minute hops to match the target IBUs.  You could also contact them and ask how they calculate IBUs for their kits.

[dshepard]

Isn't hop utilization much lower when doing a concentrated boil? Maybe as it is a kit, the kit builders are assuming a concentrated boil on a stove top.

[beersk]

Isn't hop utilization much lower when doing a concentrated boil? Maybe as it is a kit, the kit builders are assuming a concentrated boil on a stove top.

This is what I was thinking...

[jeepinjeepin]

I recently picked up the same kit and am getting my equipment together to make it. I think it calls for a 2.5 gallon boil for the specialty grains and hops. I haven't tried any math on it yet. What would happen with a 5 gallon steep on the grains? If I boil the hops in 5 gals and get that big IBU how much more dme would I need to make an honest DIPA?

[weazletoe]

IIRC, they give you hops by the ounces. So, look at you kit recipe. Sounds like you don't want to use all the hops they gave you. Recipe may be calling for something like .5 oz, at --- time. You'll need to weigh these out, as opposed to just tossing the whole oz package in. I remember my first couple kits, I just assumed you tossed the whole pack in. Oops!