Looks like a great AE recipe.
pixelboy wrote:If I boil ~600gms of the LDME with the above schedule I should hit 40 IBU ? (im using QBrew and Im not sure how acurate it is)
It's all down to the method you use. By default qbrew uses the Rager method, but an arguably more popular one is Tinseth's. There's a checkbox in the options to switch to the Tinseth equation.
http://www.realbeer.com/hops/FAQ.html#units
Hops FAQ wrote:The equations are commonly quoted from Jackie Rager's article in the "Zymurgy" Hops and Beer Special Edition published in 1990. Revised numbers and formulae have recently been presented by Glenn Tinseth and Mark Garetz, in separate works. Rager has been taken to task for not supplying enough background references, and not fully explaining how he got his numbers. In general, his utilization estimates are believed to be optimistic. Garetz has been accused of extrapolating scant laboratory information, and overgeneralizing because of it. His numbers have been labelled unrealistic on the pessimistic side. Tinseth has just presented a revised method and set of tables, and though they are thought to be quite accurate, they have not stood the test of time. The calculated numbers tend to fall in between Rager's and Garetz's. Note also that these are all estimates. Actual IBUs can be measured in a laboratory, but the average homebrewer has no access to such equipment.
There was a podcast on basic brewer that compared the methods, but I can't remember which is more accurate:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrew ... butest.mp3
pixelboy wrote:One other question, Is there any point racking to a secondary and lagering if I dont have a freezer? Its about 12-17c here atm. Will 3 weeks in primary and a month in the bottle achieve a similar result?
You're better off lagering in bulk (there's a thread around somewhere with the reasons). Just watch out for oxygen in the headspace; I tend to put in a tablespoon of dex boiled in a bit of water to ensure the headspace is purged. Otherwise you'll come back to a nice happy colony of acetobacter. Extended periods of lagering are only really useful if you can get the temp low. Otherwise limit yourself to a month max in secondary (again, because oxygen can diffuse slowly though plastic fermenters).
