Beer Forum

I have been reading a fair amount about whirlpool hops on this forum, but I have some questions and the forum search has not been terribly helpful on them.

- those of you using whirlpool hops, how long are you whirlpooling?

- how are you calculating IBU contribution from a whirlpool addition? I saw somewhere that Tasty treats them like a 20 minute addition. This seems unusually high for IBU contribution, but I may have misunderstood. If so, how do you treat a 5 min addition before the end of the boil? It doesn't seem right that a 5 min addition would add less IBU then the whirlpool addition. I just brewed a hoppy red ale (along the lines of JZ's Evil Dead Red or Westcoast blaster) with only a whirlpool addition, no boil hops - I figure this is the extreme of "hop bursting" or late hopping, so maybe I will be answering my own question soon. Hopefully there will be at least some bittering from this. If not, is it worth trying to get some iso-alpha extract?

- What about DMS considerations? For ages I have heard that you really need to cool as quickly as possible after the boil - it's been like homebrewing gospel. Now lots of people are letting their hot wort sit for 20 - 30 min (or longer) while doing a whirlpool. Were pervious concerns about DMS exaggerated, or am I misunderstanding something fundamental about DMS and/or whirlpooling?

Thanks for any input on these questions.

JG

JasonG wrote:I have been reading a fair amount about whirlpool hops on this forum, but I have some questions and the forum search has not been terribly helpful on them.

- those of you using whirlpool hops, how long are you whirlpooling?

15-30 minutes depending on how long I forget about it.

JasonG wrote:- how are you calculating IBU contribution from a whirlpool addition? I saw somewhere that Tasty treats them like a 20 minute addition. This seems unusually high for IBU contribution, but I may have misunderstood. If so, how do you treat a 5 min addition before the end of the boil? It doesn't seem right that a 5 min addition would add less IBU then the whirlpool addition. I just brewed a hoppy red ale (along the lines of JZ's Evil Dead Red or Westcoast blaster) with only a whirlpool addition, no boil hops - I figure this is the extreme of "hop bursting" or late hopping, so maybe I will be answering my own question soon. Hopefully there will be at least some bittering from this. If not, is it worth trying to get some iso-alpha extract?

I've been lazily calculating them as 0 minute additions (0 IBUs) and dialing it in by taste. For Halloween I did something very similar the Evil Dead Red and it had a beautiful hop aroma (Amarillo and CTZ) and almost no bitterness. My palette would have me believe it was in the 10-20 IBU range but the nose on it said more like 30 IBUs; and the swill drinking goons who drank it were delighted.

JasonG wrote:- What about DMS considerations? For ages I have heard that you really need to cool as quickly as possible after the boil - it's been like homebrewing gospel. Now lots of people are letting their hot wort sit for 20 - 30 min (or longer) while doing a whirlpool. Were pervious concerns about DMS exaggerated, or am I misunderstanding something fundamental about DMS and/or whirlpooling?

I think the idea is that a 90 minute boil is going to sufficiently drive off the DMS that the whirlpool part is not going to be an issue. So far I haven't had any DMS in the finished beers.