Bittering question

I'm a new brewer with several batches under my belt and have recently went to all-grain. That said I understand bitter to aroma differences are dependent on strain and time added to boil. What about bitterness in general, to be more specific front vs back tasting bittering? Is this the result of hop strain only?

Thanks

I'm not sure what you mean by "front vs back." Can you elaborate? Do you mean the initial bitterness compared to the lingering bitterness?

Bitterness is determined by the alpha acid content of hops. The higher the AA%, the more bitterness you will extract from them. Longer boils will extract more alpha acids through isomerization. The type of hop has a lot to do with the bitterness, but it's more about where the hops were grown. Humidity, temp, etc... all have an influence on the final alpha acid content of the hop.

So, to sum it up (if I'm understanding your question correctly)...alpha acids are the main factor of bitterness. Boiling less with lead to more aroma, but it does extract some bitterness, so this may be the "up front" bitterness you're thinking about.

Flavor hops are added just for that purpose - usually in the last 15 minutes of the boil. During that short time in the hot environment, little, if any, alpha acids will be extracted from the hops to impart any bitterness. Likewise, aroma hops, added during the last minute, usually, will impart no bitterness.

Thanks guys-

I'm a new convert to IPAs. I was sticking to more Belgium ales in the past. So to clarify, some IPAs have more hop forward taste while other tend to linger and I'm trying to understand how that is done. Would this been done by balancing the malts with hops? If its just a balancing act is there some formula/rule? I understand more AA leads to more bitterness- but when you plug in the numbers to say "beersmith", you can add allot of hops at 15 min mark with little to no addition to the AA.
I'm just blown away with the whole up front vs lingering and the complexities that comes with some of these IPAs. Top that off with some rye and damn that's good!

Thanks again,
Dan

dbals said:

Thanks guys-

I'm a new convert to IPAs. I was sticking to more Belgium ales in the past. So to clarify, some IPAs have more hop forward taste while other tend to linger and I'm trying to understand how that is done. Would this been done by balancing the malts with hops? If its just a balancing act is there some formula/rule? I understand more AA leads to more bitterness- but when you plug in the numbers to say "beersmith", you can add allot of hops at 15 min mark with little to no addition to the AA.
I'm just blown away with the whole up front vs lingering and the complexities that comes with some of these IPAs. Top that off with some rye and damn that's good!

Thanks again,
Dan

Click to expand...

Most of that up front stuff that you notice is from the flavor hops. As avidhomebrewer pointed out, adding hops at different points in the boil will give you different results. Although, I've been taught that flavor hops are added in the last 30 minutes and aroma in the last 15, even though it's not common these days to use 30min. additions.

Thanks Suthrncomfrt1884 and avidhomebrewer!

Things are getting a little clearer.