Working out IBUs?

[Motorbikeman]

Have a question that has me a bit perplexed . 

It involves late hop additions and steeping hops. 

I find getting the correct bitterness difficult and a bit hit and miss TBH  when using steeping hops. 



I have beer smith set up to work out the IBU value of steeping hops   in wort  for about 20 mins in wort above 85c.  Which is fine. 

But what about the late boil additions?     I can imagine leaving a 0 min or 5min addition in the steeping process is going to drive your IBU value through the roof.   Now beer smith has a check box in the the equipment profile to compensate,  but the last time I used it,  it was miles too bitter.   

Last week I removed the boil additions 3 mins after the boil , added my steeping hops and let it sit.   for 10 mins  before chilling. 


Now. I sampled the unfinished beer out of the fermenter last night which still of 10 points off target and still sweet, which could be throwing me off, but, the beer is like a citra fruit  beer.     Lovely, but more like a NEIPA , not the  regular pale ale I wanted.   It should be 54IBU which I would think is quite bitter.

Has anyone any advise on how to nail IBUs. 

Thanks...

[braich]

I usually try to get my IBUS from my boil additions and I chill the wort down to 76 degrees before adding the steeping hops. That means you're not going to get much bitterness from the steeping hops, or the boil hops which are still in the wort. I let it steep for 30-60 min to compensate for the lower temp in terms of getting oils into the wort. I guess that makes things a little more predicable and my bitterness is never too far away from what I want.