Bittering With Low Aa Hops

[kungy]

I have read that unless i have an exact AA of a bittering hop and a very accurate scale, it is better to use a low AA hop to bitter ( i have the latter problem with scales that are slightly off). I am a bit confused as to which low AA hop i should use to give bittering yet a clean taste.

Is any noble hop fine to use for such a purpose?

Cheers

Will

 

[pint of lager]

Your reading is correct.

To give a IBU of the beer, you need the correct amount of hops, AA%, boil gravity, volume of the boil and time.

Any decent homebrew book will give you the formula. Also, all the brewing software makes these calcs a snack.

Say your scales are 4 gms off. If you weigh out 17 gms of 12%AA POR instead of 13 gms, your beer will be way off. If you weigh out 43 gms of 4%AA Goldings instead of 39 gms your bitterness calcs will be out but not as much.

Bitterness can be affected by many things. Hops AA% degrades during storage. Different hops degrade quicker than others. Yeast selection. Brewing techniques. The beer balance of bitterness to maltiness.

Most people cannot detect a change of 3-5 IBU in a beer.

As a starting point, brew middle of the range IBU beers, around 25, so if your setup is too far out, you still will brew a decent drop rather than a sweet brew or a bitter brew.

Then, as your brewing skills improve and your beers show up the IBU's you are achieving, then start experimenting with the IBU.

 

[kungy]

Thanks Pint. What Low AA hop would you then reccomend for bittering that has a clean bittterness to it?

Will

 

[pint of lager]

Even bittering hops will contribute some flavour to your beer.

Depending on style, use a decent hops for bittering.

For instance, pale ales and stouts, a good starting point is Goldings or Fuggles.

For lagers, use any of the noble hops, Hallertau, Saaz, Tettnang, their AA% is usually lower, but they do contribute a cleaner noble flavour to your beer.

Yes, this does push the price of the beer up as you need alot of them, but the beers will reflect your choice of better ingredients.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

My big spiced lager I used 200gm of 2% Hallertau pellets for bittering. Got good hop flavor, believe you me!

Jovial Monk