Hey mate
,
Can't write too much now which is probably good [Edit: Tis post didn't go to plan so put your seat belt on for a few random thoughts on this subject - lol.] as I don't have any solid answers atm. Still need to do a lot more investigating. For example, this morning I found a professional brewing thread on the subject. Have a read of this post
here by Scotty.
I haven't had a chance to read that thread slowly but you can see that Scotty has the same question as you. The other thing that struck me was if professional brewers all whirlpool hot for such a long time, why are no-chillers making any adjustments at all? Maybe all brewers should be letting their brews sit before even turning on the chiller?
When I get a chance, I'll probably write to Scotty as he's really helpful and probably I'll speak to some other professional brewers as well (hopefully on Saturday) re this whole area.
Does the above make you see this whole area from a different perspective though rather than just a chill versus no-chill thing?
...
As for smoothing out the hop bitterness, the FWH is definitely one thing to try. (Or maybe just use less bittering hops???). Crusty also wrote here in the last week or so about using a hop tea instead of dry hopping. I'm not sure how this compares to cube hopping though?
Personally I think many home-brewed beers in the APA and IPA category are over-hopped and lack balance. I suspect that this might be the result of judges being asked to taste so many beers at once. One judge told me that palate fatigue is very common so in categories like this, throwing in a few extra hops can often 'interest' the palate at that stage and the over-hopped beer wins the day. Who knows?
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Another hop management technique not to be ignored is to use your BIABbag as a hop sock and then pull it say 5 minutes after the boil end. I've done this on my last 8 brews and have chilled 4 and 'no-chilled' 4. A few of us are meeting up at my place on Sat to triangle test one of these side by sides. Keep an eye on
this thread for the results.
...
I think until we gather some more knowledge from professional brewers and do some more experiments, we shouldn't be going too overboard on over-thinking and adjusting hop formulas. The hop formulas in many programs are incorrect anyway. For example, at time of writing, three of the most commonly used brewing programs have one or both of the following errors in their Tinseth formulas...
1. They use Volume into Fermentor instead of End of Boil Volume at Ambient in their calcs.
2. They use Pre-Boil Gravity instead of End of Boil Gravity in their calcs.
So it's important to not give too much respect to brewing numbers especially in the IBU area.
Even though the BIABAcus will use formulas with no errors, the estimates will only be estimates. The base formulas used in the home brewing world for things like colour and bitterness, even when written correctly, are extremely primitive and cannot replace your senses, let alone common sense. The best they can do is get you playing ball safely.
I think that considering the number of posts I write in the style above I should be called PontificatingPatch instead of PistolPatch.
PP
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. While FWH measure higher in IBU's in the laboratory, they are generally not perceived as more bitter on the tongue. In the BIABacus we will be using the middle ground of no change in bitterness. In other words, the FWH will be show the same bitterness number as the same hop added at the start of the boil.
,
. Will let you know though what I can find out on this area.
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