Which IBU formula does the BJCP use?

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I'll give you the quick skinny as I see it.

IBUs are a value measured in a laboratory. The truth is, they are what they are, and the formulae are all just an approximation.

That being said, Rager is the most popular (dammit) largely because (dammit) Jamil uses it and advocates it.

HOWEVER, Tinseth is the most accurate of them all, and is the one I have always used for that simple fact.

All the others like Garetz, HBU, etc., are all subpar and I don't know a ton of people that use those.

The very best thing a homebrewer can do is to pick one formula, and stick with it for life. You might not be able to know the real IBUs that would be measured in a laboratory, but as a measuring stick and frame of reference for you, and ONLY you, it will be extremely helpful, and you must stay consistent.

All that being said, if you pick anything other than Tinseth, you are just plain less than as accurate as possible.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you want to get as close as reasonably possible to real values specified by the BJCP, then you really need to get the values measured in a lab first of all, but otherwise, Tinseth is the way to go. And I have done a LOT of looking into this.

Don't beat around the bush. Tell us how you really feel.

[gordonstrong]

The IBUs in the guidelines were established primarily based on published sources (books, articles, brewery web sites) that list classic examples. We were looking for clusters of data points that showed a range for a style. So we decided what examples best represented the style and then found the statistics for them. We didn't send anything out for lab analysis, but we assume that most breweries do that kind of analysis, so we are getting those measurements indirectly.

Formulas don't really come into play since we aren't using them to estimate the statistics based on recipes. If you want to be as accurate as possible using an estimation method, I'd recommend Tinseth. When I had beers analyzed at Sierra Nevada, that formula was the most accurate predictor (but it isn't exact). But as long as you always use the same formula, you'll be able to compare your beers. You might have a problem comparing them with others who use different formulas, or with commercial beers that are more accurately measured.

[maxpower2078]

This is a simple answer.

Add more hops