Is there a way to make a brew less bitter

OK, I royally screwed up. I'm making a lager (Sams Clone) and I took a gravity reading today, sampled it and it's way too bitter.
I had some of the hops left over and I rechecked them and though I swore I used a 6%AA Simcoe hop (boiled for 60 mins), in reality I used a Santiam 12% AA for 60 mins. So went back and adjusted the recipe in BeerSmith and alas the IBU is 85.5 which is exactly how it tastes. I was going to lager this week but it's undrinkable and I'm out of my mind PO'd at myself !

So, is there anything I could do ?

you can brew that batch again without hops and mix the two
JJ

Thanks JJ; can I assume that it will halve the IBU% ?

Exactly...plus you'll have 10 gals of it!!

If it was an extract recipe all you need to do is boil your water and pasteurize your extract for 15 mins and cool before adding/mixing it with your first brew. You don't need to boil for 1 hour.

ok now i'm confused. So, I don't have to go through the entire brew process, boil, pitch yeast, ferment in primary and then mix ?
So, It sounds like I just create the wort w/o yeast pitching and mix ? The yeast from the initial batch will liven up and start the feremting process again ?

The answer may ultimately be patience.

First of all, tastings taken during fermentation are often a lot more bitter than the beer ultimately ends up being. Second, bittering drops out over time. So, you might want to just lager the beer for a longer period of time than you usually would, and be patient with it once you bottle it. You COULD brew another batch with less bitterness and blend the two, but personally... I'd just lager for a longer period of time, then let the beer age for a while.

If you have a second fermenter, you can just split both the old & new batches. Give the old batch a switch to rouse the yeast and rack half to the new fermenter. Since the yeast are already working, you don't need to aerate.

That much excess bitterness will take a long time, if ever to mellow.

I guess I'm just not afraid of 85 IBUS...

Well no, 85 IBU isn't that bad but the malt bill was only meant to hold up half as much for a bad balance. I'd probably blend it.

gresc said:

ok now i'm confused. So, I don't have to go through the entire brew process, boil, pitch yeast, ferment in primary and then mix ?
So, It sounds like I just create the wort w/o yeast pitching and mix ? The yeast from the initial batch will liven up and start the feremting process again ?

Click to expand...

OK, first off...where is your beer? Primary or secondary?

If it's in the primary it's still fermenting and your yeast is active. Mixing both batches will feed more sugars to the yeast and it will work...if your container is large enough.

If your brew is already in the secondary then you can pitch your wort on top of the yeast cake and ferment it that way. If not, jjust use some more of the same yeast as the first batch.

If your brew is an extract there's no need to boil it for 1 hour. The boil time is only for extracting the bitterness from the hops. Just boil your water and remove the pot from the heat, add the extract and steep for 15 mins. Cool and pitch yeast...or pour it over the yeast cake.

You could ferment them separately then blend them at bottling/kegging time.

You have to pay particular attention to NOT areate them...make sure you blend without splashing...

ok it's at the tail end of primary fermentation in a 6 gallon carboy and I have nothing that will hold 10 gallons. So, it sounds like I have limited choices. I'm going to brew another 5 gallons, ferment, lager and combine when it's bottling time. Does that seem ok ?

Well, I'd still recommend racking your beer into secondary on the same day you brew the new "hopless" batch. Pitch that right onto the previous yeast cake and it will take off nicely. Yes, then recombine in your bottling bucket in two equal batches.

Right...what Bobby said too!!

thanks guys.

Excellent recommendation BobbyM. Should have a nice fast ferment that way.