Hop Utilization Adjustment at High Altitudes

dulrich3d

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Hello,

Is there a way to adjust for hop utilization at elevation, say Denver at 5,280? I know you can adjust for FWH and whirlpool. It would be nice if there was a way to set it for my profile.

Thoughts?
 
I'm at about 4,000ft. elev. and set my hop utilization to 90% rather than the default 100%. Nothing scientific about this, just that I feel the bitterness of my beers more closely match similar commercial beers with this adjustment.
 
I'm at about 4,000ft. elev. and set my hop utilization to 90% rather than the default 100%. Nothing scientific about this, just that I feel the bitterness of my beers more closely match similar commercial beers with this adjustment.
Where do you do that in the program?
 
I know I can change it for whirlpool and FWH but the option goes away when you select boil, would be cool if we had the option there too
 
Sorry! Forgot I was responding to a post on BF. I use Beersmith and it's in the equipment profile. Not sure about BF. I looked through the profiles and couldn't find a place to do it in BF. I suppose you could adjust the AA% down in the hops as you add them to your invertory.
 
Based on what you are doing in beersmith, what percent reduction would you use? Thanks for your input. Hopefully, the developers are looking at this too :)
 
I found this on another forum posted by IowaStateFan

"Okay here is the formula that I use to adjust the hops utilization for altitude. I found it here: http://www.realbeer.com/hops/FAQ.html

Divide the utilization by ((altitude in feet/550)*.02)+1) so at 5000' you would divide your utilization by 1.18 which is a reduces your utilization by approx 15%.

For me at 9100' I get 25% less utilization."
 
Based on what you are doing in beersmith, what percent reduction would you use? Thanks for your input. Hopefully, the developers are looking at this too :)

I use 90% instead of 100%, so you'd just reduce by 10%. Works well for me.
 
I found this on another forum posted by IowaStateFan

"Okay here is the formula that I use to adjust the hops utilization for altitude. I found it here: http://www.realbeer.com/hops/FAQ.html

Divide the utilization by ((altitude in feet/550)*.02)+1) so at 5000' you would divide your utilization by 1.18 which is a reduces your utilization by approx 15%.

For me at 9100' I get 25% less utilization."

Looks like my WAG is almost spot on then. Ya gotta get lucky once in awhile :)
 
Hello,

Is there a way to adjust for hop utilization at elevation, say Denver at 5,280? I know you can adjust for FWH and whirlpool. It would be nice if there was a way to set it for my profile.

Thoughts?
I'm in Aurora at 6,000. Just go for the high end of the range for the style and you'll be fine.
 
This is something I've never heard of or even considered? I'm a little over 5,000 here and the only adjustment I ever compensate for is keg carbing.
 
This is something I've never heard of or even considered? I'm a little over 5,000 here and the only adjustment I ever compensate for is keg carbing.
Water boils at about 200 degrees. Theoretically we should see a decrease in utilization. But they brew in Leadville at 10,200 feet so I don't worry about it here, I just use experience and it tells me to use the high end of the scale.
 
This is something I've never heard of or even considered? I'm a little over 5,000 here and the only adjustment I ever compensate for is keg carbing.
Lower carbonation, too.
 
You should look at some of the purists post on home brew talk, say one word wrong and they pounce all over you with exact facts

I get a little sick of the LODO purists there. If I don't drink my home brew fast enough to circumvent the negative effects of O2, I'm probably ailing .
 
They're a big part of how I thought it was super complicated to get started. I look there occasionally but mostly to try and calm people down.
 

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