In the show, see if the brewer will discuss the use of the Firestone Union method of fermentation.

I couldn't help but notice the difficulty you and everyone will have duplicating Firestone Walker's DBA based on trying to hit a certain IBU level with the bulk of the IBUs coming from an addition AFTER flame out. All most folks have is a rough estimate of the IBUs that such an addition will provide to the beer, which is highly dependent on the time it spends at a specified temperature. As far as I know, none of the formulas do a very good job of estimating IBUs for such an addition, and I'm certain that they will vary hugely among the various formulas.

It is my guess that FIrestone actually knows how much IBUs is coming from this (and the earlier additions) and accurately reported the values as requested by the interviewers, but the values reported were not based on some formulas for predicting IBUs. Rather they were based on actual measurements of the IBU level at various steps in the process. A better question for the brewer or additional question for the brewer would have been how much hops are you putting in at X time, Y time, and at flameout, rather than asking in terms of IBUs. From that information we could have gotten a better since of the brewer's actual utilization.

What will you conclude if you attempt the 5 IBU at 60 minutes, 5 IBU at 30 minutes and 20 IBUs at flameout and get a beer that is too bitter or not bitter enough? I would conclude that my formula doesn't accurately predict IBU levels, in which case I'd rather hear from the brewer the actual amount of hops (with alpha acid levels of the hop) he added at which times, so that I could compare what actually produces the IBU levels he gets with what my formulas predict.

(Jamil has heard this rant from me before, so I apologize, Jamil, for harping on this again.)

Nevertheless, I always look forward to the great content of each of the shows. (I don't care much for the eighth grade boy's humor.)

end of rant

I, on the other hand, never tire of the eighth grade boys humor. Great show! Even podcasted after 4 months in the barrel.

The problem wasn't with the information provided or the formulas used. The problem was with the timing of the show. Mike had to hurry to get the beer brewed for the show and the interview was not done by then. He used a recipe from another source, not the brewery, and that was the fundamental problem. Goes to show, you can't trust many clone recipes out there.