Craft Beer Scene: ABV vs. IBUs – What is the difference?

Often times throughout a shift at The Wharf Pub, bartenders and servers are asked by customers – “what does ABV and IBU mean?”. More often than not the questions comes because we have ABV and IBU on our drink menu for every beer we carry.

Alcohol by Volume (ABV) is usually listed to give you an idea of how much alcohol is in each beer. ABV can range anywhere from 2%-18% How do you get an ABV? During the brewing process, yeast transfers sugar into alcohol giving it a higher ABV. Brewers usually taste as they brew to see how strong the beer is and if they want to make it stronger and tweak the batch.

International Bittering Units (IBUs) IBU’s are a measurement of beer that measures the bitterness from hops on a scale of o to 100. The higher the number, the more bitter the beer is! Beers such as Imperial IPA’s usually have an IBU of 65-100 depending on the amount of hops and sugars used in the brewing process.

When talking about beers such as Stouts/Porters are more affected by malts that cut the bitterness of and don’t taste very bitter because of the sweet malts (such as crystal or caramel malts). If your not an IPA drinking or want something a little more subtle look at the IBUs that are in the 25-40 range. Those beers will have way less of a bitter taste.

Come down and see what we have going on at The Wharf Pub this week!

For more information on what’s up at The Wharf Pub, visit www.thewharfpubnewport.com.