Beer Forum

So, I've neevr messed with the default Tinseth Setting in Beer Smith. I have listened to the Jamil show (The Saison one) twice now and I noticed he said calculate IBU's in Rager.

What is the standard? I noticed a shit ton of difference that way. Should I be using Rager instead?

Interesting article:
http://users.rcn.com/thor.dnai/dboard/dbnewsl/t9510d.htm

That IS interesting. So what do you do?

Sounds like for over 1.050, I may want to stick with Tinseth and for under 1.050, try Rager.

I use BeerSmith and I use Rager.

The reason I do is not real scientific - it is because when I first got BeerSmith I entered a known recipe and the IBU was wrong. I checked each hop entry but no luck. That's when I discovered the bitterness setting, and I used the one that put it closest to the recipe. If you're interested, it was Krotch's Rye Pale ale. Tinseth says 28.7 IBU, Rager says 33.4 IBU, and Garetz says 19.1

I changed it to Rager and never changed it after that. I always wanted to research it more, but never had the time, really.

Yeah, I've noticed that my BCS recipes do not have the same IBU's in Beer Smith as the book. That and the Saison show is what prompted the questioning.

Well, there it is on page 40 of BCS. Rager is what is used in those recipes.

It just doesn't make sense really. Either of them. Rager bases everything on OG not SG. Hops are boiled and utilized over the course of the entire boil which would make me think Tinseth is better. But.... The perceived bitterness would be based on OG because you're not drinking a beer's average gravity through the boil... AAAAAGGGGGHHH!!!

Anyway. Rager it is.

BigNastyBrew wrote:Well, there it is on page 40 of BCS. Rager is what is used in those recipes.

It just doesn't make sense really. Either of them. Rager bases everything on OG not SG. Hops are boiled and utilized over the course of the entire boil which would make me think Tinseth is better. But.... The perceived bitterness would be based on OG because you're not drinking a beer's average gravity through the boil... AAAAAGGGGGHHH!!!

Anyway. Rager it is.

RDWHAHB. I remember Jamil saying (ages ago) that they're all good formulas, just pick one and stick to it. Forget the number assigned to IBUs, treat it like a scale. So what if one gives 15 and the other 25? As long as you're consistent you'll be able to say "25 wasn't bitter enough for me. Time to aim for 35" if you change your formula you take away that option. That being said I use Rager because the Pope does.....what

I think there are way too many variables to make one or the other better. Your best bet is just pick one and stick with it. If you brew a beer that calculated out to 25 IBUs, get a few commercial beers at the same amount of IBUs to compare it to. If you perceive yours to be more or less bitter, you know that you will need to adjust recipes up or down in the future to hit what you want.