As long as the current years harvest is used, the amount of alpha acid lost is acceptable. Freshops has each variety analyzed for alpha acid and this percentage is indicated on each package. When using hops for bittering, a boil of approximately one hour is recommended to incorporate the bitterness into the wort. Alpha acids are now the accepted method in the brewing industry for assessing the quality of the hops. Almost everywhere in the world the alpha acid content of each variety and each hop harvest and each individual consignment of hops is measured.
Alpha acids play a decisive role in determining prices and quantities bought in the hop trade today.
A measure of the total amount of bitterness in a given volume of beer. Homebrew Bittering Units can easily be calculated by multiplying the percent of alpha acid in the hops by the number of ounces. Bittering units per gallon would be 3.3 in a 10-gallon batch or 6.6 in a 5 gallon batch, so it is important to note volumes whenever expressing bittering units. MBUs are equal to the number of grams of hops multiplied by the percent alpha acid.