Measuring Bitterness

[Uncle Fester]

All,
Is the bitterness of a beer simply calculated when the ingredients are added, or is there an actual test that can be performed on a fermented beer to calculate the IBU rating?

Thanks in advance,



M

 

[Ross]

All,
Is the bitterness of a beer simply calculated when the ingredients are added, or is there an actual test that can be performed on a fermented beer to calculate the IBU rating?

Thanks in advance,
M

[post="104719"][/post]​

As far as I'm aware, the only measure available to the homebrewer is the tongue . Bitterness is calculated on the added ingedients...

 

[Trent]

Mandrakar
I am pretty sure that there is an actual test you can get done on your beer to determine IBU (my LHBS was talking about offering it as a service eventually) but I dont think it is all that cheap, and I dont know alot about it. Basically, you need to calculate your own IBU from your hop additions, if you dont have promash, then look up www.howtobrew.com and do all the calcs by hand (I do, it is actually quite simple with the chart Palmer gives you). If you wanna know the exact IBU of your beer, send it away to get that, and then compare the answer to your calcs, and you can start to tweak your system from there to give a more accurate showing of IBU's.
That said, Ross is right in saying the tongue is best. If yer beer tastes too bitter, then lower the hops, not bitter enough, add more. Too easy! Hope that helps, and if ya wanna know more about the machine, PM me and I will send ya the number for my LHBS, ya can talk to the owner there, he knows alot more about it than I
Trent

 

[Andyd]

I don't have the episode on me, and can't remember the details, but one of the recent Basic Brewing Radio podcasts has an interview with Ray Daniels about hops and bitterness, where he gives a great discussion of how IBUs are calcualted.

Andy

 

[Josh]

I used the information in Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels to come up with an excel spreadsheet. I can now put in the target BU and OG and formulate my recipe based on % of each grain and the flavour and aroma additions of hops. Still thinking about colour, but the rest seems to be working alright. And if I stick close to the % used in the book, the colour should generally be okay.

Going to brew a Wit on Saturday using my spreadsheet.

Of course, you could also use promash, beertools etc.