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ludomonster · 06-21-2012, 03:47 PM

Carbonation will affect how you perceive bitterness. Ambers are generally carbed at around 2.5 volumes, which is typical for many American style light and medium color beers. This will make these beers more bitter; however, it will not be hop bitterness. Ambers are also more malty than pale ales and most IPA's. This means that you need more hop bitterness to balance the maltiness. You can continue to increase the IBU's higher than many Pale Ales until you get a bitterness that blends well with the biscuit and toasty character of an amber.

If your beer tastes more bitter than you like, even though you brewed to style (or from a kit), you might want to warm your beer to 50-55 degrees before drinking it. I find that the malt character really comes out at this temperature range.

EndlessPurple · 06-21-2012, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homebrewdad

This is technically correct - but if you are a new brewer, green beer "tartness" might well be described as bitterness.

Green beer can be watery, bland, bitter, have a harsh alcohol taste, or be funky in several interesting (often unpleasant) ways. Subtle flavors are often muted or completely nonexistent in a green beer.

For some documentation on how a recent beer of mine progressed with age, check these two links to my blog - tasting at four and six weeks, then at eight weeks. It's like a totally different beer.

Your beer probably won't take as long as mine did to mature, as mine was 8.4% ABV, but you get the idea.

And yeah, you do have enough IBU there to make the finished beer have noticeable bitterness. That's not a bad thing, it's just the way that beer might be. I'm a malty guy, so I personally prefer beers with minimal noticeable bitterness, but to each their own (no hop bombs for me!).

Wanted to add a thanks on the green beer description. Also thought your post was informative. I have a golden ale sitting in a batch going on 6 weeks - need to bottle soon and free up fermentor - it also has a strong alcohol bite I am hoping mellows (around 8%abv).

mmarty1 · 06-22-2012, 01:46 AM

Thanks all for such an informative response to my original post. I was so curious what a green beer might taste like and after reading all the responses plus tasting my own green beer I have a much better idea. In fact, there is way more information in here than i could have ever expected. I'll certainly be referring back to this thread.

I'll be on my way to looking up some threads on proper beer tasting and notation!