• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

No boil / raw ale hop tea IBU calculations

MarcGuay

Apprentice
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Hi everyone.  I'm trying to create a recipe for a 10L batch of no boil / raw ale.  I plan to boil some hops in 500ml of water during the mash and add that to the wort afterwards.  In Beersmith I have gone to the Hop Bitterness Tool and entered 10L batch size and 500ml boil volume and 1.000 SG boil volume for the water, then added some hops to achieve the bitterness I want.  Then in my equipment profile for the recipe I've adjusted my usual setup to include 500ml of 'Top-up water'.  Does this make sense?  I feel like I'm missing something - like maybe how much hop tea I'll actually have after boiling to add to the wort since some of that 500ml will evapourate.  If I use the Boil Off Tool to estimate at a 10% rate it says I'll lose 50ml, so left with 450ml but that doesn't seem like much at all for an hour of boiling.  Any help would be appreciated.

Marc
 
Don't think there have been a lot of "no boil" entries here. Might want to check the other forum titles and see if maybe there is something on one of them.
I have heard of people trying the process, but after the initial entry, there is no followup, which leads me to believe that the process didn't turn out for them.
Let us know how yours goes, you may be a new guru...
 
No boil beer is noted more for slight to moderate sourness than hoppiness. The farther you stray from known techniques, the less you can trust the calculations or predict the outcome. You're going on a flavor adventure.

One of the reasons that you won't be able to get an accurate prediction from the boil tool is the small volume you're boiling. IBU's are mg/L and there is a generally accepted limit of saturation at about 100 (maybe 110). However, saturation in water is not the same as in wort because pH and malt composition play important parts in both conversion and breakdown of isomers. In general, water tends to make the bittering perceived as more harsh than in wort. That's probably not a consideration since you're just trying out a whole new flavor adventure. The really important thing is that you're taking that 100 IBU saturation and diluting it into your main wort. Based on the volumes you provided, you could be at merely 4.5 IBU in the finished beer.

I would recommend using one of the Hopshot (isomerized hop extract) products that will give you a known, predictable amount of bittering.

 
Back
Top