First Beer Finished -- Some Questions

So normally I'm a wine/mead homebrewer, but I decided to try my hand at a batch of beer this winter, just to see what I could manage. I used a reliable recipe and followed everything to the letter. However, now that all is said and done and the beer is bottled and aging right now, I have a few questions:

1) I received a much higher ABV% than expected (around 6.7%). Will this make a difference in the long run with my beer?
2) Right now, the beer is incredibly bitter. Not the good kind of bitter I was expecting, but just plain mouth-puckering. I assume that with some age, this will largely be ameliorated, but I'd like some input on this.

For reference, this was my recipe:
3.3 lb. Gold malt extract
3 lb. Minnesota clover honey
8 oz. Carapils
1 oz. Glacier
1 oz. Argentine Cascade
Wyeast Americal Ale liquid yeast

Thanks! Glad to be a part of this community!

We'll need some additional information to answer the questions. First, was it a 5 gallon batch, or something else? That will determine the OG we're working with. Second, what were the timing additions of the hops? Their time in the boil determined how much bitterness (as well as flavor and aroma) you have in the final beer. Usually, you will see a bittering addition around the beginning of the boil, or 60 min (measured as time until the end of the boil); and a flavor or aroma addition (anywhere from 20 min to 0 mins as time until the end of the boil).

Let us know and we can help you out.

Fair enough, I didn't want to overload the post with information. It was a 5 gallon batch (just over). OG was... 1.06-something. I think. My numbers are a bit blurry for having gotten the paper wet.

First hops were added at the beginning of a 60 minute boil (the Glacier). Honey was added with 10 minutes left to get rid of the scum as much as possible (at the risk of off flavors from the honey. I've had good luck with this method for my mead). The Cascade was added at 2 minutes from the end of the boil, purely for aroma.

EDIT: In case it matters, I primed with 5oz. corn sugar dissolved in 1C of water.

catatonicmonkey said:

EDIT: In case it matters, I primed with 5oz. corn sugar dissolved in 1C of water.

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So this batch has already fermented and reached its Final Gravity? If this was added when you put it into the fermenter, all you did was raise the OG a little bit. You prime with the corn sugar when you go to bottle.

It was at bottling. This batch is all done and has been in the bottles for just over 3 weeks.

Still looking for some advice here. Being that this is my first shot at beer, I feel a bit out of my depth.

Well, not knowing your OG exactly, let's say it was 1.065. Your yeast's attenuation range is 73%-77%. So, if you take the high end (77%), that means your expected FG would be 1.015. ABV would be 6.55%. That's not far off from you actual ABV. The difference could be that your OG was higher than 1.065 or you just got really good performance from the yeast. I don't think the extra alcohol should affect the flavor that much since it isn't really that big a difference.

As for the bitterness, what was the alpha acid % of your Glacier hops? Also, what was your boil volume?

mojotele said:

Well, not knowing your OG exactly, let's say it was 1.065. Your yeast's attenuation range is 73%-77%. So, if you take the high end (77%), that means your expected FG would be 1.015. ABV would be 6.55%. That's not far off from you actual ABV. The difference could be that your OG was higher than 1.065 or you just got really good performance from the yeast. I don't think the extra alcohol should affect the flavor that much since it isn't really that big a difference.

As for the bitterness, what was the alpha acid % of your Glacier hops?

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Yeah, the math bears out my numbers on the fermentation and OG/FG numbers (FG was right around 1.01), I was just surprised at how much alcohol was produced.

I'll see if I can find the AA% for the hops, that was one thing I didn't fully understand going into the process. I think the bags it came in have been pitched, though I'm sure I can call Midwest and get the numbers.

The bitterness will mellow out a bit with time, however with that much honey and only 3.3lbs of malt you don't have much to combat the bitter with. The honey will also thin/dry out your brew and rob it of a bit of mouthfeel with it being about 1/2 of your fermentable sugar. It can add a cidery quality to the beer as well.

Let it sit for a few more weeks and try another one to see how much it mellows out.

One other thing:

I'm plugging your recipe into BeerSmith, and the numbers just aren't working out. I'm not sure if your extract was LME or DME (from the weight I'm guessing LME), but the OG doesn't come out anywhere near 1.060 either way. Are you sure you didn't add more fermentables?

wyzazz said:

The bitterness will mellow out a bit with time, however with that much honey and only 3.3lbs of malt you don't have much to combat the bitter with.

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This is a good point regarding the bitterness. Check out this chart. Regardless of how I work it, you always end up in either the "slightly hoppy" or "extra hoppy" regions of the chart after ignoring the honey (since it isn't actual malt). That would make for one bitter beer.

The honey is almost 100% fermentable sugar, that's why his OG is up to 1060.

wyzazz said:

The honey is almost 100% fermentable sugar, that's why his OG is up to 1060.

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Adding that amount of honey in BeerSmith, though, doesn't take it up to 1.060. Perhaps the ppg of the honey I'm using in BeerSmith is too low.

mojotele said:

This is a good point regarding the bitterness. Check out this chart. Regardless of how I work it, you always end up in either the "slightly hoppy" or "extra hoppy" regions of the chart after ignoring the honey (since it isn't actual malt). That would make for one bitter beer.

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This is probably my biggest downfall (although even to my relatively naive palette, this doesn't seem to be solely hops bitterness) from being a mead homebrewer normally. I had no idea honey would act so strangely in the brew, and everything I read about recipes like this projected light hoppiness with a pleasant body. Oh well, it's drinkable even if it's not exactly what I expected.

As for my OG/FG numbers, I'm running my recipe through Beersmith myself right now to see where I may have gone wrong/misread my hydrometer. Truth be told, when I brew mead I don't even bother with these readings and go solely by aroma/flavor.

A few more notes:

1) The alpha acid %s in my hops were ~6% for the glacier and ~1.5% for the cascade. I boiled with the cascade and used the glacier for aroma/flavor.
2) Unless I'm misreading Beersmith, it estimates an OG of 1.045. Can't account for my (apparently) higher reading, other than user error.

Are you sure about Cascade being 1.5%? That seems really low.

I know you said you followed the recipe to the letter, but an astringent/mouth-puckering bitterness can be caused from tannins leaching from specialty grains. This could have happened if the Cara-pils was steeped at too high a temperature (or boiled) or if the grain bag was squeezed. Did anything like this happen?

Not at all certain on the Cascade, that's just what Midwest's website says. Beersmith notes a typical number of 5.5%, which certainly seems more reasonable. (See here).

My steep temperature was a pretty constant 150-155F, then I drained the bag and tossed the grains outside for the birds to enjoy, so everything should have been OK there. At this point, I figure just giving it more time is probably the best solution. The aroma is divine -- plenty of honey and some nice floral notes -- so I'm just hoping for a flavor to match this.