Wort Dilution and IBU's....

[pilgrimhudd]

Hello everyone, I feel like I already know the answer to this but just want to double check... I have 2x 23l fermenters, I usually brew up 17 ish litres of wort in which to pitch the yeast because that seems to be the maximum my Klarstein will do. This does seem like a bit of a waste of space though and I do have another urn in which I could boil and cool water to liquor back with.

I have found a wort dilution calculator so the abv issue is ok, but do you just add hops to the boil as normal (to a 23l recipe? I tend to go scale down the malt/hop other ingredients to 17l as I know thats roughly what i'll end up with.

Glad I found a calculator because looking at the maths I was getting awful school flashbacks!

Cheers

 

[MyQul]

Yes. So if your wanting to end up with 23L in the FV but you've only got room to do a 17L boil in your klarstein. You would follow the 23L recipe as is and not say only add enough hops for 17L. Hope thats clear

However this will work for styles that dont have big hop amounts. For styles like IPA's this may not work as you get a lower hop utilisation in concentrated wort (doesnt seem to matter in lower hopped styles). I dont make IPA's and highly hopped styles so couldnt tell you if the same holds for these stlyes

 

[matt76]

Not quite.....

When the wort gravity is higher the utilization from the hops is reduced so you need to add a bit more hops to compensate. If you only liquor back a little it doesn't make enough difference to bother about it, but as you start to liquor back with more water then the effect becomes more pronounced.

1) Way back in AG#13 I had a go at calculating it - depends how much you like calculations or care (someone did comment at the time though that they'd be copying my maths, just saying )
2) Or you could just add, say, 10% more hops to compensate and be done with it



(FWIW, after yesterday's experimental brew I ended up with 15L in the FV's and I'd agree, there really wasn't much space left in the Klarstein! )

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Thanks for the replies both, yes matt I thought it was a familiar discussion! I am certainly not going to get into the maths, to many bad memories (or not) so I shall attempt an easy pale ale with an extra 10% hops and see what it ends up like.

Cheers both!