Glibbidy

Recipes 

Have you bottled it yet? You could brew a higher gravity beer with less hops, and blend the two at bottling time.

calman

Recipes 

The beer is three weeks old. I forced carbonated it last week in a keg and is in my refrigerator now. The hop I used was 3/4 oz Targer @60 min and 1/2 oz East Kent Golding @15 min. For the total of 1.25 oz of hop is not that much to make that kind of bitter, unless the East Kent Golding is super bitter one (first time using it).

I am tempted to make a second batch with one oz hop, but only at 5 min boil, and mix the two.

RichBrewer

Recipes 

If I remember correctly, Target can be pretty bitter but you didn't use that much. The ECG is more of a flavor hop and at 15 minutes it won't give your beer much bitterness at all. I wouldn't think that your beer should be all that bitter. Can you post the recipe and do you know the alpha acid percent of the hops?

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Cheers,
Rich

mysterio

Recipes 

Target is usually 11 AA and 3/4 ounce really isn't a huge amount... Of course it depends on the rest of your recipe though.

Do you mean 3 weeks from pitching or 3 weeks in the keg? Don't make a flavour only beer. You'll be left with a very sweet ale if the other one mellows out (which it will).

McCall St. Brewer

Recipes 

Two options:

1. Let it sit for about 3-4 months and try it again.

2. Mix it with another beer and drink it now.

I have had at least two batches of beer that I wasn't happy with at first, but drank anyway. Later, as I was down to less than one case left I was p*ssed to find out that my beer had suddenly transformed from the ugly ducking in to a swan. So there I was with some excellent brew but only a few bottles left.

calman

Recipes 

I found out the culprit!!

I made a second batch last week with only aroma hop. Racked it to secondary last night, I took a glass and tasted it. Holly cr*p, it was the same bitterness level as the first batch. It's not the "soft" bitter of hop, it is a "sharp" bitter.

I took all my brewing equipment and place them on a table, I took my notes out and following the process as if I am brewing a new batch (you can guess how mad was I). Only hop or grain should gives bitter taste. Hop was fuggle whole leaf and added only at last minute. Grain soaked in 155F for 20 minutes, and my eyes were on the thermometer all the time making sure it didn't pass the 155 mark. I got the thermometer out and re-checked the scale , but wait, how come it showed 120F while it was 65F outside? Couple more tests and found out that it was a defected one. Put it in boiling water and it showed 160F, in freezer and it showed 100F How could it be? I think it was defected on a purpose of causing some damages. A closer looked at it and seemed like the inner tube got leak causing the wrong reading.

So on both batches, the grains got soaked in a too hot water, I am not sure what but I guess about ~200F! Well now, I'll go with david_42's advise, adding Gelatine to reduce the bitterness. I won't have enough keg to age the beer for long though. Hard lesson for me.

P.S. Anyone knows any good quality thermometer in $200 range?

Kaiser

Recipes 

Why spend that much. I got mine for $10 at Walmart. Just check it with ice water and boiling water before you use it.

Kai

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Walker

Recipes 

Is this one of those probe thermometers? If you get the braided probe lead wet, it totally f's up the readings, much like you describe.

If this is the case for you , you can 'fix' it by baking it at the lowest temp setting of your oven for an hour or two. Test it in boiling water and in ice water to make sure it is reading correct. If not, bake it longer.

Just be sure to not get the braided lead wet and it should be OK.

-walker

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