Help! Too bitter!!!!!!

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Hi,

I bottled my 2nd batch last week, I know it's not ready yet and really needs a few more weeks but I tasted a bottle last night and its much too bitter to drink.

I used 2 x 1.5kg of coopers Light LME and steeped 300g of crystal malt for 30 mins at 65 degree's.

My Boil size was about 15 litres and i topped up the wort to 23 litres.

I used lots of hops! 100g of Columbus and 100g of Cascade.
30g Columbus 60 mins
30g Columbus 15 mins
35g Cascade 15 mins
15g Columbus 5 mins
40g Cascade 5 mins
Dry hopped for 10 days with 25g Columbus and 25g Cascade.

I added 400g of Honey at high krausen and left in primary fermenter for 18 days then bottled. (no secondary)

I don't have a Hydrometer so I don't know what the gravity was.
I squeezed the hops both from boil and dry hop back into the wort. I did not squeeze any of the Crystal malt.

Will my beer be too bitter to drink or will it mellow out??
 
It’s too bitter? With those hop configs I wonder why?! Actually, I don’t know grams and am too lazy to convert; for all I know that equals 2oz. I know 2kg is like 1 u.s. lb??? Ok, maybe I don’t know. Anyway, you might need to let it age for several months for that to mellow… but then I don’t bottle, I keg. Let’s put it this way, I’m no help!

I did, however, over do the hops on my last choc stout and it was too bitter. Two months has mellowed it a bit but two more months should be just right. Just my 2 useless cents.
 
You'll have to let it sit for a few more months and the hops will eventually start to fade. Sample one every month or so and you'll start to notice it mellowing out.
 
Aging will definitely mellow the bitterness. Whether it will still be "too" bitter is entirely up to your taste buds. Welcome to brewing! For future brews, try some simpler recipes/hop schedules. They still taste great and it's easier to learn about the ingredients and their effects on taste when there's less of them. Do a search for a great article, "brewing on the ones", by Drew Beechum. Great info...
 
I think that's 7 ounces of hops for a 6 gallon batch. It will mellow over time, or the other suggestion I got when I did the same thing, overboard with the hops and too bitter, was to make another batch minus all the hops and mix them. Though actually, the more I keep tasting it, the better it's becoming. I don't think I've given it enough time to mellow, so thinking it's an acquired taste. Savor the bitterness! Just pretend your camping, don't have any cream or sugar and someone made the coffee way too strong.
 
Thanks for all the help guys, for my next brew I have 100g of Amarillo hops, I intend to brew 23 litres, any recommendations on hop schedule, I also have 500g of Crystal malt. How much extract should I use for it to be about 5/6% abv & whats the best ways to use the Crystal (some recipes advise to steep in cold water and bring up to temp then remove and others say to steep for 30 mins at 150/165????????
 
Thanks for all the help guys, for my next brew I have 100g of Amarillo hops, I intend to brew 23 litres, any recommendations on hop schedule, I also have 500g of Crystal malt. How much extract should I use for it to be about 5/6% abv & whats the best ways to use the Crystal (some recipes advise to steep in cold water and bring up to temp then remove and others say to steep for 30 mins at 150/165????????

I think you need to understand the brewing process before you move on to your next recipe.
I would advise getting a program like beersmith if you want to start formulating your own recipes, or you can head over to the recipe section and find one thats proven to be good.

100 grams of amarillo is around 3.2 ounces i think?
I would add
30gm at 60
15gm at 15
25gm at 5
30gm dry hop for 5-7 days.

This will give u a nice light IPA when steeping that crystal ( i usually heat to 165 and use a hopbag to submerge for 30min. Bring it back up to boil and add your first hop addition. 8pds of LME would get you to around 5.6-5.8%
 
Hmm...maybe you're just sensitive to bitter flavors? You basically only used 30g of Columbus (a little over 1oz) to provide bittering for 6 gallons.

As to your question though, I think it's the case that both the bittering and aromatic compounds of hops decay fairly rapidly.
 
I think your only miscalculation was the ounce of Columbus for bittering (60 minutes). Everything else was short boil time, or no boil time, and should not have overbittered your brew. The recipe seems fine to me with that one exception. A guess of the correct amount of columbus for 60 minutes is probably 8-15 grams (1/4 to 1/2 of what you used, at 60 minutes).
 
Ah I didn't notice your fermentables. Since you had a relatively low gravity during boil, combined with a fairly large volume you were going to have a high utilization of the bittering compounds for your beer. My calculator came out a little over 60 IBUs.
 
I used to much hops on my first brew around 2 oz at 60 it does mellow out after awhile but if you keep drinking like I did you get use to the bitterness so your options are to either age it longer or just drink it enough to the point you don't mind it anymore
 
Another thing to note is that the taste may change quite a bit as the conditioning progresses. I have never opened a bottle before 2 weeks, but at the 2 weeks some are carbonated and others are not but ALL taste better after 3 weeks. I also had one that tasted pretty bad at bottling and very good after 3 weeks conditioning.
 
Another option to cut the bitterness besides aging, is to brew a no hop beer and then mix them. In fact if you have 2 containters, you could gently stir up what you have (to get yeast off teh bottom) rack half of it over and put 1/2 of the new brew on top of each - be sure to cool it first - and then you will have 2 batches at 23L instead of 1.

for the Americans reading, about 28gr is 1 oz, so total hops are about 3.5 oz of each (7) although bittering is at 1oz (30gr). and the 2x 1.5Kg is 3kg = 6.6 LME (2 cans) the 400gr of honey is about .88lb

It is also worth mentioning that depending on how quickly he cooled, he'd get some bittering acid to disolve in teh 15 and even 5 min adds, I think the change over temp is alike 160F/71C but I don't recall exactly, and some of that bitterness will come out if it takes an hour for the cooling to take place (I'm guessing at the hour, maybe he has a 5 min wort chiller, not a 1 hour ice bath, or maybe OP removed hop socks at flame out). Anyhow, depending on you exact methodology, you can still get AA isomerization even as you cool if you don't pull the hops or cool rapidly.
 
Cheers for all the help guys! I'm new to this homebrew game and addicted just 2 brews in! As for the bitterness levels, I don't think it's my particular taste as i like beers like Brewdog Hardcore IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Thornbridge Jaipur ect... As for cooling the wort it probably took 30 mins in an ice bath continually stirring to release the heat then topped with cold water. The hops were left in the wort during this period as i did not put them in a muslin, squeeze them afterward cooling. Anywho, i know i'll get lots of tuts from you experienced guys but im going to taste another bottle tonight....purely for 'scientific research' purposes.
 
PANIC OVER!!! I'm drinking a bottle now and it tastes stunning - even after only 10 days in the bottle! Seems I have done what so many do and panic over drinking green beer- The harsh bitterness has gone and the hops are tasting lovely - It still young so hopefully the flavours will round off and get even better.........Guess I need to stop drinking them in order to find out!
 
Columbus hops have an alpha acid rating of 11 - 16% and cascade hops have a rating of 4.5 - 7%. The higher rating will give more bitterness to your beer. The two factors to adjust are amount and boil time. 60min boil is standard so reduce the amount of high alpha acid hops and maybe add to the low acid ones to get the flavor profile you want.
 
The two factors to adjust are amount and boil time. 60min boil is standard so reduce the amount of high alpha acid hops and maybe add to the low acid ones to get the flavor profile you want.

This is true, of course, but it's always important to remember that when adjusting for bitterness that the boil gravity also has a dramatic effect on AA utilization

http://realbeer.com/hops/research.html
 

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