James,

1a. Horizon Pedigree A diploid high alpha, low co-humulone selection. Cross made in Oregon in 1970, half-sister of Nugget. Typical Beer Styles All Ales and Lagers.

1b. Magnum A West Coast hop with high Alpha Acid. Excellent bittering hop.

2a. Cascade Spicy with citrus notes. Slightly grapefruity.

2b.Centennial Aromatic but acceptable for bittering. Medium aroma with floral and citrus tones. Good in medium to dark ales.

2c You need Cascade and or Centennial. That's what makes a American ale (Grapefruit)

3. Does the grain bill look about right?

3a. Every recipe looks good to me? But I have been told that I have low integrity so someone with high integrity will have to answer that question.

4. Despite using exactly the same details for the hops (AA%, times, etc) the original recipe stated 35IBU but in mine it's come out as 26.5 - Why is that? Any pointers?

4a. Personally I don't bother with anything other than the hop name. Trying to get the numbers on the packet of hops to match someones recipe is not worth the time. Most of us taste everything differently anyway. The perception of bitterness and the aroma subtleties is so different that we cannot even describe properly what we are tasting.

There are many ways to measure IBU's. Different methods completely. Measuring IBU's with the same method twice, will give you slightly different readings? Don't worry about it. Enjoy the beer not the numbers.

Group hysteria at a beer meeting has shown to me that when the best brewer in the meeting say's "I get a mango aroma off this beer" The followers will say "Oh yeah I smell that now" They don't smell mango. They don't know what a mango is? They just say that so that they are a member in good club standing.

Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder! Enjoy.

BobBrews wrote: Enjoy the beer not the numbers.

I like that Bob,
Well said

That is a good quote for sure

but...

Good numbers/terminology are essential when you want to transmit a recipe correctly to another brewer and also if you want to answer questions correctly. This thread is a good example.

This site is the only site that takes on teaching brewers when and which numbers/terminolgy to respect and disrespect. Few brewers have access to this knowledge and even some members here are a little lazy/dismissive of it which is unfortunate as it costs time and causes confusion.

For example, in this thread James, you have asked, "Does everything look right?" I love Bob's answer above on the hops but, no one has addressed the most basic question of all...

How much beer do you want to brew (into your bottles or keg)? Without knowing that, there is no way that Q 3 or 4 of yours can be answered. As a ridiculous example, if you wanted to brew 10 gallons then your grain bill is at least half way out if we worked on the weights but if you are working on percentages then all is okay. (The hop bill requires a lot more detail. For example 9.5 grams of any AA% hop at 0 minutes is actually meaningless unless we know the original VAW, see here.)

...

We also need to know where your original recipe's numbers come from (ie the 35 IBU) and where your numbers come from (ie the 26.5 IBU). Did they come from The Calculator, BIABacus, BeerSmith or something else? Post the files if you have them.

When you ignore the numbers, what can happen when you are trying to copy a recipe, is you can miss your targets by a long way so...

If you want to be clever/intelligent about your brewing, learn the numbers you need to respect and disrespect before you dismiss them all.

If you are happy to copy a beer you like and risk it being way less/more bitter or stronger than you aim for, then just type in whatever numbers make sense to you, in any program, and see if you get lucky.

If you don't want to rely on luck, IMO you must respect/understand numbers before you disrespect/ignore/convey advice on them. If you dismiss/ignore numbers, it is a sure sign that you are just making the erroneous assumption that every brewer has the same equipment as you, lives in the same environment and brews the same beer styles of the same 'batch' size as you.

That assumption really leads to a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation.

...

Anyway, answer those questions above and we'll get your Q's 3 and 4 sorted.

Also, boil for 90 minutes - this will help explain why .


PP