A Note on IBUs

Ben and I have brewed our first beer together called Devolver. It’s an American Pale Ale. We tried to make a beer that would be appealing to both Chinese and US drinkers. According to the formula many brewers use, the IBUs calculated out to 60, which is fine, but for whatever reason, it tasted far more bitter than I thought it would taste. This made me come to the realization that IBUs are bullshit.

It’s not about the IBUs, it’s about it’s relation to the malts in your beer. You may notice this when you drink two different IPAs (if not, try this next time you’re drinking, preferably from the same brewery). One IPA could be a double or triple with IBUs on or near 100 and one can be a single with 40-60. You’ll immediately notice when you pour them, the double will be darker than the single. This is because they double up the amount of malts and hops in a double IPA. More malts will yield a darker beer. More hops? Of course your IBUs will be higher as well. But that doesn’t account for the taste.

I believe 90% of the time, the single IPA would be more hoppy and more bitter. Why? Malts greatly cover up bitterness in beer. It requires more hops to over power malt than it takes for malt to over power hops.

TL;DR: I over-hopped our first jointly made pale ale and it changed by perspective on IBUs.