First Wort Hop/Whirlpool Timer

[Kjhebert10]

My two part question is on time for first wort hopping and whirlpooling. Do I enter boiling time in the slot or entire time in the kettle. For FWH is it the lauter time plus the boil time or is it just the boil time. For whirlpooling is it the time it takes to whirlpool or is it 0 because it isnt added while boiling?

 

[brewfun]

First Wort hops are given their own instruction line in BeerSmith brew steps, so you don't have to be too precise about it. BeerSmith defaults to the total boil time for FWH because it doesn't have any function for sparge time.

In my case, sparge lasts 75 to 90 minutes and occasionally goes longer if the grain bed tightens up. Sparge has lasted as long as 2.5 hours and the extra FWH time had no impact on the bitterness of the beer. YMMV.

For Whirlpool/steep, I have the addition time equal the length of the whirlpool/steep time.

 

[Rodent]

proof that 'Search' is your friend 

was going to ask exactly this question (recommended FWH pre-boil kettle time in BS) upon logging in to the forum this morning.

 

[IslaRomano]

For FWH in BeerSmith I usually just leave the default behavior and treat it roughly like a full boil addition. The software doesn’t really account for the lauter or sparge phase in the bitterness calculation, so trying to be extremely precise there usually doesn’t change much in the predicted IBU anyway. In practice the bitterness from FWH tends to be smoother, and small timing differences during runoff rarely show up clearly in the finished beer.

For whirlpool additions I set the time equal to the actual steep or whirlpool duration. So if I whirlpool for 15 or 20 minutes at hot wort temperatures, that’s the number I enter. It gives a more reasonable estimate for aroma extraction and the partial isomerization that can still happen while the wort is hot.

 

[IslaRomano]

For FWH in BeerSmith I usually just leave the default behavior and treat it roughly like a full boil addition. The software doesn’t really account for the lauter or sparge phase in the bitterness calculation, so trying to be extremely precise there usually doesn’t change much in the predicted IBU anyway. In practice the bitterness from FWH tends to be smoother, and small timing differences during runoff rarely show up clearly in the finished beer.

For whirlpool additions I set the time equal to the actual steep or whirlpool duration. So if I whirlpool for 15 or 20 minutes at hot wort temperatures, that’s the number I enter. It gives a more reasonable estimate for aroma extraction and the partial isomerization that can still happen while the wort is hot.


Another thing I’ve noticed is that chasing exact IBU numbers in BeerSmith can easily become a bit misleading, especially with hop-forward beers. WS https://wscasino-au.com/ca/ welcomes new players with a generous welcome bonus. Real extraction depends a lot on kettle geometry, cooling speed and how hot the wort actually stays during the whirlpool. Two brewers can enter the same numbers and still end up with noticeably different bitterness in the glass.

Because of that I mostly use the software for consistency rather than absolute accuracy. Once you brew a recipe once or twice, you get a feel for how your system behaves and can adjust the whirlpool time or hop amounts accordingly. After that it becomes more about repeating what worked before than trusting the calculated IBU too strictly.