Beer bittering

[Agostino]

Hi everybody,
I have been brewing for quite some time in the past. I recently restarted after moving abroad and I am doing my brews using a Pinter.
Which is a pressurised keg where I do my fermentation, conditioning and tapping.
This system works best when using malt extract but is not heat resistant and I do not have a cooling loop so I was thinking of brewing in an alternative manner:

1) I want to boil approximately 2 lt with the hops for about 30-45 minutes
2) I want to mix this tea with cold water so drop the temperatures quickly
3) and eventually add the dry malt

I am however, having issues when calculating the IBU with this method. By boiling for 60 minutes the hops in 2 lt water I get a much lower IBU than boiling the same amount for the same time in the full amount of water.
Of course for me is desirable to boil less water and quickly drop the temperature by mixing with cold water, then add the dry malt to the lukewarm water, the yeast, and put in the keg.
Can someone explain to me what is correct? I was thinking by boiling the hops in 2lt of water (10g) for 60min I would get almost complete isomerisation, so I wouldn't expect significant differences in IBU, yet the calculator seems to disagree with me.
I am using pellets, and I do not expect significant efficiency change when boiling 2 or 5 lt of water...What do you think?

 

[J A]

First off, boiling hops in water only will not yield the proper isomerization. You should boil in a wort and the volume/gravity/time/ calculations will provide a prediction of the IBUs.
Use the "Late Addition" feature on the recipe calculator. By separating out the amount of your fermentables into the amount you will boil and the amount that you will add cold, the calculator will give you the proper numbers. This is very common in partial boil extract recipes. It can work with any volumes, small or large.

 

[Agostino]

Thanks a lot, I will try

 

[Craigerrr]

Welcome to the forum

When you have time give yourself a name!
We are a friendly, happy lot here.

 

[Donoroto]

Welcome to the forum
View attachment 33916

When you have time give yourself a name!
We are a friendly, happy lot here.

Or at least a hoppy lot.

Welcome @Agostino let us know how that works for you.

Assuming the stuff in malt (including extract) changes how hops isomerize, maybe a bit of extract (not all) in your 2 liter boil can make your plan work? I like the idea.

I will suggest to use previously-boiled, then chilled, water so it is sterile, as there can be a small chance of unwanted bacteria in clean tap water.

 

[Mallonee's Malt]

I have been working with a different "No Boil" method and getting the hops right is probably the hardest part.
The originators of my method steamed the hops for the prescribed boil period (e.g. 20 minutes) and then packaged those to be added. Those folks went out of business so we have to find our own methods.

I have had good luck steaming my bittering hops in an instant pot. Isomerization depends on temperature so I've only needed to go for 15 minutes to get fully converted on my bittering. I mostly brew beers where the bitterness is a balance, not the feature (e.g. not bitter IPAs) and this works.

I've also taken those steamed hops and added regular late addition hops and steeped this in boiling teakettle water (it's boiling at the start but then cools down). That method worked quite well to get an orange flavor into a Wit. I'm still mashing and I got different results adding in the hop tea after the mash and a different time mashing with the hop tea. Even though not boiling the mash temperature apparently affected the more delicate flavors.

You just have to think about what happens to the hops and what you are missing in your process. We are both outside the "tried and true" methods so it's a great time to experiment.

Hope you have a small scale for measuring the amounts of hops you need for a batch the size of a pinter...