# Hop stand utilisation



## Skillz (11/12/20)

Hello brains trust.
Please see attached pictures.
I'm planning a 3c's pale ale and when I move the recipe over to my profile on brewfather the hopstand give a very different amount of ibu and compensates by upping the 60min boil addition.
I have checked the hopstand utilisation and it is 23%.

Any ideas as the the varying IBU's?


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## MHB (11/12/20)

Different assumptions made by whoever wrote the software. Personally I think the odds of getting 23% utilisation in a hop stand are vanishingly small (like me willing lotto).
I haven't been able to find an IBU calculator that works for late hops. A big part of the problem is that a lot of brewers (and drinkers) cant tell the difference between Hop Bitterness (dissolved Iso-Alpha) and Hop Taste.
A lot of people think because a beer has a lot of hop taste its bitter, which isn't in fact the case. On a side note, I know you get the most hop taste from a 20 minute stand, question is do you get the best hop taste, there is a fair amount of evidence based on trials with trained tasting panels that the flavour from 10 minute stands is better, more elegant and refined. Same for IBU's you will get more bitterness at a higher pH but its harsh and unpleasant and the higher pH has other effects on the beer.
I suspect some software writer is overcompensating.
Mark


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## Danscraftbeer (11/12/20)

My hack at it and it seems to be accurate in the finished product. I use Beersmith 2.
I will do a hop stand at 70c for 25 minutes. I set that in the software as a Steep/whirlpool of 2 minutes.


Eg: 40lt NEIPA brew. OG = 1.065.
200g Cascade hop stand = 2.1 IBU
Loads of hop flavor with very little isomerization/bitterness.
Hope that helps. Basically a big hop stand can have an insignificant amount of IBU.


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## Meddo (11/12/20)

I think in brewfather it would be your hopstand hop utilisation setting in the equipment profile. Disclaimer, I've only tinkered in brewfather and could be talking out of my arse. Go looking for Lyrebird Cycles' IBU calculator thread on here for a better option.


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## Skillz (11/12/20)

Thanks.
I personally wouldn't have thought the recipe IBU's were accurate as I have brewed a few recipes of my own using this software with large 80c hopstands and have not noticed large bitterness levels.
Will go for the extra 60min addition and assume the lower levels predicted are close enough.


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