The Beer Thread • Page 229

They not popular anymore? I’m out of the trendy brewery game so I don’t know.

Haha no worries. It’s a measurement of bitterness but the style of that beer is very hard to calculate the bitterness because how the hops are utilized is unlike how we have used hops for decades previous. Yadda yadda not important and I hope it tasted great!

 

Thank you for explaining. I used to not like beer, then when I started drinking it I couldn't do bitter beer, and now I'm interested in trying pretty much anything. This beer was pretty good but for almost $30 for 4 cans idk if I can justify the price. It definitely fucked me up though at 8.2% abv since I have a non-existent tolerance.

So do you think it's not a genuine calculation of the IBU on the can?

 

Fuck I’m on my way to work and then heading to a beer festival for work for the weekend. Quote me again by Sunday if I don’t respond before then. In short: I think IBU calculations on cans and menus are misleading as hell but I get why they’re used.

 

Haha alright thanks!!

 

This right here? One of the best beers I’ve ever had. So glad it’s back.

 

Think I might go get some Dragon's Milk for the weekend. Anyone have any good Vanilla Porters they recommend too?

 

Perrin has Kingdom of Tonga which is a pretty good one.

 

Nice, I'll check it out

 

I got some time (also sorry for anyone who reads all this nonsense, I’ve thought way too much about this subject):

So IBU is the calculated bitterness of a beer but our perceived bitterness doesn’t follow along with calculated. It used to be a very good rule of thumb but for NEIPA’s I think it’s pretty useless now.

For decades (centuries?) IPA’s we’re hopped largely the same way: a dosage of hops added right at the start of the boil (60 minutes), added about halfway through (30 minutes), and something close to the end (5 minutes). The first dosage gives the bitterness — because boiling hops extracts more of the bitterness and less of the flavor — and the others give a combo of hop flavor and hop bitterness depending on when they’re added (later in boil = flavor, aroma).

NEIPA like the singlecut one you had have changed the IPA game forever. The sheer amount of hops has increased (some up to like 5-6 pounds per 31 gallons of beer where it used to be like 1.5 pounds per 31 gallons). Also, almost all of the NEIPA’s have late-boil hops. So these beers are designed to be lower bitterness, high fruity hop character.

To calculate bitterness every brewery I’ve been in use Beer Smith, a brewing and recipe program. There, it calculates the IBU for you based on the recipe. However we know more about hops than we ever have before and we now know that dry hopping — adding hops during or post fermentation of the beer — can add bitterness to beers. NEIPA’s are MASSIVELY dry hopped. The way we calculate IBU’s these days don’t accurately calculate IBUs because we are brewing differently then ever before. I’m kinda rambling, sorry.

Also there’s the discussion to be had that we can’t taste bitterness above like 70-75 IBU’s. So putting 125 ibu on a can means nothing because that IBU total will taste similar to most people as a 95 IBU beer despite being functionally different. Many imperial stouts also have higher IBU totals than the consumer is aware of but they don’t think about it because imperial stouts are on the sweeter end because of the shit ton of malt used in the beer and the alcojol content.

I fight my boss on this because he often lists our IBU’s down to the decimal and it drives me CRAZY! No one needs to know something is 63.7 IBU, just call it 63 or 64 IBU. If I had a brewery I’d just put things on a scale like “not hoppy to very hoppy.” It’s also slightly isolating to non beer nerd customers because they’re put off by nerdy brewing bullshit like IBU calculations. It also puts the bar staff in a tougher spot because some customers know enough to be difficult but not enough to actually know the subject. Too many customers learn about IBU’s and refuse to try a beer with an IBU above a certain number when really I know they would like a higher IBU because there’s more malt or alcohol in this other one.

Rambling rant over I’m sorry.

tl;dr we can’t accurately calculate IBU totals because we use hops differently now then ever before and also we can’t taste bitterness above a certain IBU threshold anyways.

 

KoT is a good beer. You in Michigan? I always forget this.

 

Oh dope! My buddy lives in traverse city and brews at Shorts in Elk Rapids.

What’re you looking for? Vanilla porters? If you can find the Bavarian cream vanilla java porter (only seen it on draft) it was surprisingly good, IMO. But that might be because I don’t particularly like VJP.

 

Oh sweet, Shorts is legit! Oh that sounds good. I've only had the regular vanilla java porter a few years ago, but bavarian cream sounds good so I'll check this out too

 

Yeah calculating IBUs is no exact science. I'm no prob but in my homebrewing experience building recipes things seems to be more bitter than I'm expecting and I'm guessing it's from the 5 oz of hops I'm adding at 5 mins or flameout that are suppose to account for zero IBUs. Or maybe I just suck.

 

They bottle the bavarian cream one now, I just can't remember if it's in 6 packs on it's own or if it's in a variety pack.

 

Wow @bigmike that was very helpful thank you.

As someone who goes into a beer store and looks for the prettiest packaging I'd have to agree with you on the labeling lol.

 

Nice write-up @bigmike. IBU’s are pretty pointless as marketing thing since it’s reliant on other things to know what it’s impact is. And BeerSmith is so far off on that calculation for NEIPA’s. Supposedly the latest update will let you change around some percentages to try and more accurately calculate it but I don’t think it works too great and is kinda pointless. Most of what I’ve seen is brewers using it to calculate the amount from a bittering charge and then that’s it understanding that you’ll get more from the whirlpool/dry hops. Some beers, like the last 2 I made, don’t have any bittering hops and only use flameout/whirlpool and dry hop and there is still a decent amount of bitterness to them

 

Station 26 Tangerine Cream

This is probably the largest difference between initial taste and aftertaste I have ever encountered in a beer before. Initial taste is GREAT. Aftertaste is not. The key is to keep drinking.

 

Shout out to the NE peeps in here that recommended Night Shift in Boston. My lady and I are cracking this tonight for our podcast.

 

Hell yeah

 

I’m at Bissell Brothers for the first time and they’re blasting Coheed. I like this place already.

Edit: Also played Thrice, ETID, Sleigh Bells, and Washed Out. This place rules

 

Bissell Brothers rules. Portland is a great beer city. If you have time, check out Foundation.

 

Didn’t get the chance go to there but I live 45 minutes away so I’ll check it out soon. I went to Novare Res before this Charly Bliss show and absolutely loved it. Wonderful beer bar with a great atmosphere.

 

Picked up a 4 of this on Saturday, really great stuff

 

Peach. Mango. Vanilla.

Yes, yes, and YES. That sounds delish.