Defying the Numbers: Our Zero IBU Hopbomb

This Friday, we’re tapping our latest beer, Zed – a wild IPA with loads of citra and nelson sauvin hops and theoretically 0 IBUs. That’s not a typo. Theoretically there are ZERO IBUs. Zip. Nada. Zed.

IBUs (or International Bittering Units) is often considered to be a measurement of how bitter a beer will be. However, a beers IBU number isn’t really indicative of the flavor of the beer. Instead, it’s a measure of the amount of iso-alpha acids from the hops that made their way into the beer.

While you can still generalize and say lower IBU beers are likely to be less bitter, that’s not what the measurement actually means. And Zed is here to prove that.

All hop additions were added post whirlpool at 175 degrees which theoretically adds zero IBUs. To add another punch of flavor, we dry-hopped the beer with another round of 5 pounds per barrel of citra and nelson sauvin hops. Studies have also shown that dry hopping does add a layer of bitterness.

The result is a beer that defies what you thought you knew, with notes of tropical citrus, gooseberries, white wine, and herbal pine.