perceived bitterness experiment

Hey guys, great meeting tonight. Here are the results from the experiment we did tonight -

Beer A - IBU's(0)
1.5 # maris otter
1 oz. C40
1 oz. white wheat
1 oz. light munich
.5 oz. cascade (mash hop)
.25 oz. cascade (flame-out)
.25 oz. cascade (dry hop/7 days)
US-05

Beer B - IBU's(30.2)
Same grain bill
.5 oz. cascade (15 min)
.25 oz. cascade (5 min)
.25 oz. cascade (1 oz)
US-05

Beer C - IBU's(15.1)
Blend of beer A & Beer B

Here's what everyone thought/guessed -

Most IBU's = A-6 / B-0 / C-4

Average guess of IBU's for Beer...
A - 22 IBU's
B - 15 IBU's
C - 27 IBU's

Best beer of the 3 -
A - 6
B - 0
C - 4

Worst beer of the 3 -
A - 3
B - 6
C - 1


Here are my thoughts -
It seems as though as long as hops are present in the beer in one way or another our palate/tongue will perceive some sort of bitterness. Beer A had the least IBU's and 60% of the people thought it actually had the most. Why this is I'm not exactly sure. All of brewing science says that when adding hop additions at mash, flame-out and dry hop no IBU's should be contributed to the beer. Maybe a little at flame out but not enough to notice a whole lot, especailly at this small of a scale. Isomerization happens between 212 and 175 degrees F. The bittering oils never had a chance to come out of the hop therefore there should be low to no actual IBU's in beer A thus making the beer very unbalanced. However, this was not the case in this study. Beer A, which was the most unbalanced beer of the 3 was the most liked by people (60%) and beer B which was the most balanced was the most disliked by people.

So what do we take away from this? I don't truly know! I thought that Beer A was going to be some sort of gross sweet tea...but it wasn't. Is that because there were hops scattered throughout the beer and our palate/tongue picked up on their presence and mistook that for actual IBU's?

This was fun and thanks to everyone who took part in this exeriment. What are some of your thoughts?

Cheers!

Once again great to see everybody and try the GREAT BEERS!!!

The beer that really stuck out with me was Howie's Vienna Lager - Just Excellent Great Job.

Kevin thanks again for doing that experiment it was kinda mind blowing -

Really have an incredibly talented dedicated group of brewers.

BD