Lagunitas Brown Shugga Clone : Can You Brew It (05/11)

[NHBrewer]

Also go back thru and listen to the interview with Matt Brynildson from Firestone Walker especially paying attention to the part where he describes the amount of utilization that he calculates their getting in the whirlpool. Lagunitas is a different system, that may have a different whirlpool geometry, giving them a slightly different utilization rate, but that rate is not 0. Paying attention to Mike McDole's self admitted conversion to whirlpooling the same period as the pros; I am convinced that these extended hot rests increase finished beer IBUs, especially where applying heavy loads of high oil/high acid hops to the whirlpool. On another note is has never gone as smoothly thru the chiller as it has now waiting to get the wort to the fermenter. Pumping boiling liquids can lead to cavitation and letting everything settle really well has eliminated this altogether.

NHB

[TastyMcD]

Hop utilization in the whirlpool is not accounted for in any existing formula that I’ve been able to find. Larger breweries like Lagunitas and Firestone have full labs and are able to measure the IBU contribution of whirlpool additions. Matt Brynildson’s statements on the CYBI interview were very enlightening and at the same time provocative. Many of the top brewing science people I’ve communicated with since then disagree with Matt despite the fact that they are measured IBUs.

On one of the most recent CYBI shows, Jamil stated that his Heretic Brewing Company Evil Twin amber has only one hop addition and that’s at flameout (whirlpool). Interestingly, the beer was a little hoppier than they liked so they introduced a cold liquor tank to decrease the knockout time, and thus the IBUs.

I’m considering proposing a project to my homebrew club where we would ask breweries (or possibly homebrewers) give us two samples of wort. One before the whirlpool addition and one at the end of the whirlpool. Those samples would be sent to labs for analysis (FW, White Labs, and Lagunitas have said they would do the lab work for me.) Those results along with relevant parameters like whirlpool length, vessel shape, gravity of the wort, hop alpha, and hop beta would then be analyzed to come up with a formula for whirlpool IBUs.

Tasty

[NHBrewer]

That is truly some data that I would be most interested in seeing. Keep up the good work for all of us Mike.

NHB

[Broners&Brewbies]

Hop utilization in the whirlpool is not accounted for in any existing formula that I’ve been able to find. Larger breweries like Lagunitas and Firestone have full labs and are able to measure the IBU contribution of whirlpool additions. Matt Brynildson’s statements on the CYBI interview were very enlightening and at the same time provocative. Many of the top brewing science people I’ve communicated with since then disagree with Matt despite the fact that they are measured IBUs.

On one of the most recent CYBI shows, Jamil stated that his Heretic Brewing Company Evil Twin amber has only one hop addition and that’s at flameout (whirlpool). Interestingly, the beer was a little hoppier than they liked so they introduced a cold liquor tank to decrease the knockout time, and thus the IBUs.

I’m considering proposing a project to my homebrew club where we would ask breweries (or possibly homebrewers) give us two samples of wort. One before the whirlpool addition and one at the end of the whirlpool. Those samples would be sent to labs for analysis (FW, White Labs, and Lagunitas have said they would do the lab work for me.) Those results along with relevant parameters like whirlpool length, vessel shape, gravity of the wort, hop alpha, and hop beta would then be analyzed to come up with a formula for whirlpool IBUs.

Tasty

As far as the hop alpha/beta is that fair to assume the #'s given from any LHBS are accurate enough or should we send in an example of an unused hop pellet as well? I'm planning on doing a single hop beer that I wouldn't mind pulling out a sample or two from to help this experiment because the answers would be extremely useful. Perhaps someday we can have a more educated guess on how many IBU's we're pulling out at whirlpool!