Recipe critique - Blonde Ale

[blueberry]

So I'm shooting for a light blonde ale with some up front hop presence. An approachable beer for new comers. In a recent BYO issue they asked for 15 tips from 15 brewers. There was one tip from the brewer at pelican brewing co. taking about their hop timing for their cream ale. All hops were added only during the whirlpool. about 2 oz. of Mt. Hood scaled down to the homebrew level for about 25-30 min. resulting in about 25 IBUs. I'm still a little cautious about adding all my hops in the whirlpool and getting the IBUs. So here is what I came up with, its kind of a mix between hop bursting and whirlpooling.
1.050 - 1.012
95% 2-row
5% crystal 20L

Mt. Hood 28g @ 20 min - 8 IBU
Crystal 28g @ 10 min - 4 IBU
Mt. Hood/Crystal 21g each whirlpool for 30

shootin for around 25 IBU

Mash @ 152

1056

Can't I just do a 20 min boil as well?

Let me know what you think!

[Mills]

If you were doing extract I would say go for it in regard to the 20 min boil. However, I am not sure you will get the profile you want, not allowing the wort to go through boil. Remember that melanoidens are formed, as well as other flavor compounds during the boil. You could easily do it with extract as that has already been put thought the complete wort making process before it is dried.

I am interested to see how this works out for you. Please report back.

Mills

[TheTodd]

If you were doing extract I would say go for it in regard to the 20 min boil. However, I am not sure you will get the profile you want, not allowing the wort to go through boil. Remember that melanoidens are formed, as well as other flavor compounds during the boil. You could easily do it with extract as that has already been put thought the complete wort making process before it is dried.

+1 on Mills' comments, although it seems like the perfect opportunity to split the wort and experiment with the taste differences between a 20 min. vs. full boil. A light blonde ale should be a great chance to taste even minor differences in malt profile.

[BDawg]

+1, I agree that you should do the full boil, just add the hops as you have them scheduled.
There are 6 "-ations" that you get from the boil:

1) Sanitization - the boil kills bad things
2) Caramelization - Mailliard reaction contributes color & flavor
3) Volatization - bad things vaporize out (ie, SMM, which is the precursor to DMS)
4) Coagulation - Hot and cold break pull unstable proteins and polyphenols out
5) Concentration - water boils off providing more concentrated wort
6) Isomerization - hop alpha acids convert to iso-alpha acids, providing bitterness.

All 6 are necessary for a good stable, tasty beer. Don't cut your boil short.

HTH-

[blueberry]

Alright I can see the need for the full boil time.
How does the recipe look to you guys? Do you think I can get half of those IBUs from the whirlpool with these hops?

[Mills]

Absolutely. As long as the wort is still hot, you will still isomerize.

Mills

[blueberry]

Alright so this is what I decided on for the recipe.

OG 1.052
2-row 85%
Vienna 11%
Crystal 20L 4%

Hops
Mt Hood 28g @ 20 - 4.7% AA - 6 IBU
Mt Hood 28g @ 10 - 4.7% AA - 4 IBU
Mt Hood 28g @ 0 - 4.7% AA- ? whirl pooled for about 30 min.

Mash @ 152

Yeast: 1056

LHBS didn't have crystal so I figured one variety would be fine in this style. I'll let you know the results! hoping to get at least 15 IBU from that whirlpool.

[BDawg]

Looks good, but I really don't think you'll get 15 IBUs out of 28g of 4.75% Mt. Hood --

According to Matt Brynildson in this article by Jamil:

http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.htm:

Brynildson goes on to say, “American Craft Brewers practice a number of different methods of late hopping, with one very popular method being whirlpool hopping. This is a bit of a fusion between traditional late hopping and hopback methods. Adding hops late in the whirlpool results in lower isomerization of alpha acids and good uptake of hop oils and flavor components (especially with pellet hops). The fact that there is some isomerization (about 15% in whirlpool versus 35% in the kettle) of alpha acid means that not only hop aroma and hop flavor can be achieved, but also some bittering.”

so, using the Rager formula:

IBUs = (7489 * Woz * %AA * %ut) / (Vol * 1+GA) where GA = 0 for worts less than 1.050 or (1.050-OG)/.2

IBUs = (7489 * 1 * 0.0475 * .15) / (5 * 1 + .002/.2)
IBUs = 10.56

42g should be closer intead.

HTH-