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Ok, so many of you have been asking about the Experimental IPA moniker on Hop Henge. I’m sitting here with Larry Sidor, our brewmaster and we have a bit of a story to tell you.
Whoops!
We have been experimenting with different hops and hop addition techniques. Some new, some old and some quite unique. Through all of this, our quest has been to produce a teeth staining, mouth numbing, tongue scraping IPA that would impress the most iron-lipped hop head. We have come a long way and, judging by the reviews I’ve read on BeerAdvocate.com many of you also think we’re doing pretty well with that.
But, here’s the story:
We have always stated the IBU’s on the Hop Henge label (International Bitterness Units) and listed them as 95 IBU’s. We thought that was pretty acurate as we, like most other small brewers, calculated on paper what we added and how many IBUs that would produce and that was good enough. And, we were adding as many hops in as many different ways as we could think of, so we were pretty confident. This year, with the experimental moniker, we gave ourselves ample license to really blow the lid off (so-to-speak). And, quite literally, that’s exactly what happened (more on that later).
But 95 IBU’s turned out to be so much wishing. Our first brewing of Hop Henge this year produced the following result. The very vigorous ferment, with a fermenter at capacity, blew our precious dry hops all over the floor depriving us of all the goodness therein. The result was a beer we calculated to, on paper, 243 IBUs! In the bottle, we only got 80 IBUs. Still, as I mentioned earlier, you apparently loved it. So, what did we do? We made another batch, added more hops, only filled the fermenter half-full and thought we would blow the doors off the beer (and your taste buds). The original calc’s on batch #2 were the same as batch #1, but without the blow-off on the floor we ended up with a massive 117 IBUs in the fermenter, as determined in our lab this time. We were excited at the possibilities and fastened our seat belts for the ride. The beer has now been centrifuged and removed from the dry hops (which then took our guys and gals 4 hours to remove from the fermenter!) and we sent it back to the lab for analysis looking to tell you of our herculean feat. Meanwhile we tasted the two batches side by side today and were impressed by the huge pucker-factor in the new Henge, much greater than batch #1. So, we sent it off to the lab to await the results. 87 IBUs! We still did not even hit our promised 95 IBUs.
Second Batch
Nonetheless, we feel strong enough about this beer to tell you this story and to place a separate designation on the label in the vicinity of the Julian date and the best by consumer dating window. It will say Batch #2. Compare the two side-by-side and see which you prefer, then let us know. We watch BeerAdvocate.com and Ratebeer.com, or you can reply on this blog with your feeback. Remember, you are already telling us you are digging batch #1. Maybe batch #2 will not be as good, or maybe better. The moral of the story for us is we will not again put 95 IBUs on the label. The moral of the story for you might be a wink next time someone tells you their beer has 120 IBUs in it (or even 95 for that matter).
Gary and Larry
February 17th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Love this information.
It sounds like, for batch #2, you estimated 243 IBU on paper, your lab measured 117, and then the external lab said the finished product was 87IBU. Does this mean that a full 20IBU “mellowed out” in the conditioning process?
What do you attribute the loss of bitterness to? AAU saturation in the liquid? Lack of alcohol to strip the hops of the acids effectively? Increased degredation speed because of some consequence of high saturation? The only reference I can find to this is Ray Daniels in Designing Great Beers talking about how high-IBU brews typically can’t be estimated as effectively.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:32 am
As a probrewer it’s great to read your results of the process. As brewers what we calculate on paper to be and what the lab actually tells us can end up being very different things. Thanks for putting those educational numbers out there. Cool to see the increase in ibu’s when the krausen stayed contained. As well as the post filtration number’s. Always so interesting to see how each process downstream strips the precious and pricey hops away. Awesome blog. Visited your brewpub in Bend years ago when I was still a homebrewer with a twinkle in his eye. Thanks for making stellar beer! and congrats on the recent organic certification at the pub!
HopfenTreader
March 15th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Hi,
Just wanted to comment on your Hop Henge IPA. I just sampled it at the Beachcomber in Florence, OR. I’m very impressed!!! What a fantastic IPA. Right up there with my favorites. I started my micro brew experience in Hopland , CA. Home of Red Tail Ale and the Mendocino Brewing Company. Which I believe was only the second micro pub in the country, and first in CA. Anyway, this is where I learned all about micro brews. At that time Red Tail Ale was a fantastic beer. No cold filtering and really alive. At first you could only get it in magnums. Sad to say it has changed a lot and no longer resembles the fantastic brew it once was. Such is the case with all there beers these days. But that was expected when they were bought out by United Brewers. The White Hawk IPA was another exceptional beer. I was three at the release party, and it was great to taste those first batches. With the ORIGINAL recipe. Oh well, that beer is now gone also.
So upon moving up to Oregon I was please to discover the micro brew world was alive and well in Oregon. Deschutes, Rogue, Terminal (gotta love that Terminal Gravity).
So, wanted to compliment you on Hop Henge. And I feel fortunate to be able to have it on tap at my local pub. The Beachcomber even has it to go in 22oz
This beer is so good it should be produced in six-paks and available all year!!!
Doug
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I am a fanatic beer geek and beer taster. I am rkuhnel on BeerAdvocate and Hayduke on Ratebeer. I am also Hayduke on The Beer in Me, a one year old start-up web site on craft beer where I serve sa the Review Moderator. I love your Experimental Hop Henge and picked up a bottle n Bend yesterday at Newport Market that I intend to trade to someone in the Midwest who loves your beers.
The night before I visited the brewpub. I went though all the Pub Exclusive Brews, some in samplers, and had to add seven of them to Ratebeer so I could rate them. Hope I got all the details right. I loved the TOPAZ IPA, and the Twin Pillars. Good work on both.
Ron
June 5th, 2009 at 6:38 am
Terrific post! Informative. Honest. Forthright. Like your beers! I’m in Arizona and love every one of your beers that I’ve tried so far. Will be heading up to Klamath Falls for the weekend – any hard-to-find Deschutes products available in that area that I might not find in Arizona? I’ll be looking!