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beersmith alpha % or package %?

chumba22

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I just finished my first cream ale and it came out so bitter I will have to let it mellow for a year or more lol
first  i put the hop bill into the beersmith program then i changed the alpha% to what was on the package so i used a fair amount of hops, but it came out so bitter I went back and recalulated the hop bill with beersmiths alpha% and it showed my IBU to be almost twice what i wanted Who do you believe the package ot beersmith Im thinking beersmith Right now
any one else have this probelm  i was lookin for 17.8IBU with beersmith %s i got 27IBU way to bitter for lawnmower beer
below is recipe:
This will be my first all grain brew. Ive brewed more then enough extract to date
Im brewing a Cream ale and wanted to stay in the guidelines as per beersmtih
10 gallon batch
15 lbs marris otter
8 oz caraform
4 oz Biscuit Malt
4 oz Honey Malt
3 oz Spalter leaf hops 60 mins (Leaf hops becasue I got a good deal on them)
2.5 oz Saaz leaf hops  10 mins[/b]1TSP Irish Moss  10 mins[/u]2 pkgs Calif. ale White Labs WLP001
 
I let Beersmith calculate the IBU.  I adjust the hop amounts down for my water and system.  The water profile as a profound affect o the bitter.  Especially in lighter beers.  My system/water produces much more bitter so I dial back the bittering hops.

Here is an example of my Blonde Ale at 14.6 calculated IBU.  In reality the 0 minute "whirlpool" edition add a few IBU.  I know this so I dialed down the 60 minute to account for 3 or 4 IBU I'll get and end up with about 17.

http://web.jomebrew.com/jomebrew/jomebrew_0.htm

- Joe
 
Purchased BeerSmith today after the free trail, hello all.

As for the cream ale another factor in its harsh finish may be the chemistry of the water used to mash in addition to the resulting pH of mash. There's many factors and water chemistry is a complex subject but, if you have access to the profile of your brewing water.  Check out the concentrations (usually in ppm) of Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Chloride (Cl) and Sulfate (SO4), their numbers play a big part in a beer's taste and finish in addition to yeast health and performance.  If one or the other is way out of balance say, the ratio of SO4 to Cl, the resulting beer is gong have a harsh astringent finish, it's not the only reason, others may be sparging with water that's too hot or high fermentation temperatures, for such a finish but, its a big factor.  Really water chemistry is a interesting and fascinating subject more at: https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/
 
Would water  matter even if im filtering water thur charcoal filter system
 
chumba22 said:
Would water  matter even if im filtering water thur charcoal filter system

Yes.  Activated charcoal will reduce chlorine but not much else.  You should always filter through charcoal at a minimum.  I use a much better filter but that doe snot affect my chemistry so much as filter out metals and chlorine/chlorimine.
 
chumba22 said:
Would water  matter even if im filtering water thur charcoal filter system

As stated above water will still matter even after filtering, I use a portion of a campden tablet to take care of the water' chlorimine.  If you can gain access to your water' profile, you might be able figure out why the cream ale' came out so.
 
I just had a very quick look at the info you posted and you are adding almost 90gms of hops at 60 minutes which based on my current kilo purchased they are around 5.7% This gave me roughly 30 ibus just for the 60 minutes addition.

Always update or at least use the AA% supplied by the hop producer for the harvest you have.

90 gms [3 oz] is way too much for the type of beer you want to produce

About 40 gms plus your late addition should get you close to the figure you want, also pick a bitterness formula [Rager or tinseth] and stick with it until you understand how they work for the beer you brew. They will sometimes give different IBU numbers based on the same amount of hops in the boil.  The actual real bitterness in the beer will of course be the same no matter what formula is used, just that the numbers may vary. This is not a fault with BS2 - the formulas use different maths to arrive at their figures. Over time you will develop a preference for one formula over the other simply based on your perception of the bitterness of the beer you make.

Steve
 
Up date:
I tasted the beer when it was still very warm and the bitterness was off the charts
I let it sit in the secondary for about a month and bottled it two weeks ago
WOW what a difference it came out great,in fact even the wife likes it. Im now playing with another batch with different hops to get a comparison and find the prefect match for our tastebuds.
Also doing a red rye next week.
cant wait till I dont have to bottle any more thou
Thanks ALL
 
chumba22 said:
Up date:
I tasted the beer when it was still very warm and the bitterness was off the chart

The wort will always taste much more bitter than the final product or even after primary ferm.  You should always use the %AA from the supplier to calculate IBU's.  This way if you have a year with low %AA, additional hops are required to reach the IBU during the boil.
 
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