Beer Stats

[Mark Beck]

Hi all,

At Midwinter Madness I won a free beer analysis from Oregon BrewLab in Eugene. I sent in the Belgian Golden Strong that we all tried at the last meeting. I've shared the results, and the link is below. Most of these were part of the "ABV & Brewer's stats" package. I then paid extra for the IBU analysis.

None of these are surprising, with the exception of the IBU #. It's common wisdom that homebrewers don't go a good job of calculating IBU, but I was off by more than a factor of 2. I calculated 29, and the measured is 13. I'll need to ponder that as I formulate future recipes. Simplest thing would just be to say that my brew house IBU efficiency is 50% of my calculation. But that doesn't separate out early and late additions (My calculations were 19 IBU at 60 min and 10 IBU at 10 minutes). 

I'm curious if any of you have thoughts.

Cheers,

Mark

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZs0cLyk304otibnKEHrwokftUecZ6g2/view?usp=sharing

[Russell Berger]

Hi Mark,

I'm sure you will proceed with due caution, but I'll state anyway that the most important question should be "Does my beer taste like it isn't bitter enough?" You might double your bitterness and be correct on paper and way overboard on perceived bitterness.

Russell

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[Scott Nieradka]

Some ibus are lost in lagering and percipitate out with yeast etc. The german brewing/lodo people assume 10 ibu will fall off in a pils from 40 to 30 etc. From some paper. 

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[Mark Beck]

There was a lot of stuff (yeast, polyphenols, ...) in suspension in this beer. It took several doses of clarifiers, and 2 months, for it to drop clear.

There was a second batch from the same wort that used a different yeast. It fermented faster and dropped clear right away. It did not seem as sweet.

I was thinking that it was mainly the different ester profiles from the two yeasts that lead to the difference in perceived sweetness. But what you describe could be an important factor as well.

Thanks.

[Jordan Folks]

I got a few of my beers tested for Brulosophy and turns out I was undershooting IBUs by about a third. This was true for both simple lager hop bills and IPAs with massive WP additions. I now set my BrewFather IBU utilization factor to 70% and target the actual IBU of the style (eg: if I want “45” I build my recipe to hit 45, given 70% utilization setting). I believe my beers are much better as a result now. I think the firmer bitterness supports them better - especially lagers (which I believe my prior ones -before my testing / software recalibration- were underbittered). 

I will note that I stretch my IBUs out across the boil on my higher IBU beers (eg: maybe equal IBUs from 60, 20/10, and 0 min additions) and won’t do more than 20-30 IBUs from my 60 min bittering addition. 

I really suggest adjusting your utilization assumptions and brew to the number you would want for the style - you might find your bitterness balance is improved.

On Fri, May 29, 2026 at 9:14 PM Mark Beck <mbe...@gmail.com> wrote:

There was a lot of stuff (yeast, polyphenols, ...) in suspension in this beer. It took several doses of clarifiers, and 2 months, for it to drop clear.

There was a second batch from the same wort that used a different yeast. It fermented faster and dropped clear right away. It did not seem as sweet.

I was thinking that it was mainly the different ester profiles from the two yeasts that lead to the difference in perceived sweetness. But what you describe could be an important factor as well. oh yeah, that makes sense No wait I think Mark’s bar is Goomba

Thanks.

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