Beer Forum

As I try to dial in some recipes to brew to BJCP style, I notice that the IBU's of the style do not change accordingly when I switch between Reiger and Tinseth in my brewing software. However, depending on which I select, the expected IBU bitterness of a recipe does change, and I could be dialed in or 5-10 IBU off with the same hop addition. Does anyone know if the BJCP guidelines use the Reiger or TInseth formula?

Wild Knight wrote:As I try to dial in some recipes to brew to BJCP style, I notice that the IBU's of the style do not change accordingly when I switch between Reiger and Tinseth in my brewing software. However, depending on which I select, the expected IBU bitterness of a recipe does change, and I could be dialed in or 5-10 IBU off with the same hop addition. Does anyone know if the BJCP guidelines use the Reiger or TInseth formula?

Rager and Tinseth are models that predict IBUs, neither are a calculation of the actual IBUs which require lab methods.

The BJCP guidelines are referring to actual IBUs and as such are not modeling anything and are using neither model.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=22994&start=8 second page has a post from Gordon Strong that sums it up pretty well.

So how do you dial in your recipes to the appropriate BJCP IBU values? I have to tell the software to use either Rager or Tinseth.

Disregard my previous question. I posted it before the Gordon Strong post came up. Thanks everyone!

The numerical values aren't nearly as important as the descriptions and experience.

Take american pale ale. You've probably had half to all of the listed classical examples. Is the beer about as bitter as those? Does it have a similar bitter/sweet balance? Yes? Then it is to style.

So you dial in by trying to get your beer to taste like it belongs to the style as described and represented by the listed classic examples.