A note on IBUs from the nerds in the lab

Bitterness quantification is a vital part of the QC program at Oskar Blues, but the traditional IBU metric tells an incomplete tale. The IBU test measures the total amount of multiple chemical compounds that cause a beer to taste bitter. However, it cannot differentiate between those compounds, which occur in varying amounts and are all perceived with varying levels of bitterness intensity and duration. Increased dry hopping levels, in particular, cause dramatic shifts in perceived bitterness without changing the IBU result by much, if any. For example, Dale’s Pale Ale and the Can-O-Bliss IPA series have nearly the same IBU measurement, but Can-O-Bliss uses nearly three times the amount of hops and presents a much lower perceived bitterness.