How to Calculate EBU's

What are they?

EBU stands for european bittering unit ( IBU stands for international bittering unit and is the same thing) it is the standard measure of bitterness. Bitterness comes from the alpha acid in the hops and develops in the boil from approx. 15 mins. Onwards to approx. 75 mins. Different hops have different alpha acid values. We only calculate the EBU from the copper hops, that is the early hops, as the late hops are seldom left in long enough to contribute bitterness to the beer, their purpose is to give aroma and flavour.

How to use ebu’s

Check the EBU in the recipe then recalculate the weight of hops required, you will often find it is different. Use your own figure as the books are often out of date. Refer to the guide to beer styles above. It is important to get the ebu right especially when entering a competition. Keep a record of your beers recording such details as ebu, recipe, og etc.

You can build up a picture of the kind of beers you like. Check back over the beers you have made . If the bitterness was not as you liked alter it by following these calculations.

There are two useful calculations.

1/ Calculating number of grams required for a given EBU.

For an EBU of 32, a brew length of 25 lt. An alpha acid content of 5.0

(EBU * Lt.) / (A.A. * 2)

(32 * 25) / (5.0 * 2) = 80.00g

2/ Calculating EBU from hops used.

For 80g of hops, a brew length of 25Lt. and an Alph Acid of 5.0