A question of Hops

So, I finally popped open the first bottle of the Pale Ale I brewed on St. Patrick's Day. I was very excited to try my first brew, but was surprised at the hoppiness. The recipe had called for an ounce of Cascade pellets with the malt and another once at the end for ten minutes. This was a Pale Ale and Qbrew calculated the bitterness at 33, so I was surprised to pop ope what really tasted to me like a classic IPA.

The beer smells very strongly of Cascade Hops and reminds me of Papago Hop Dog IPA.

The instructions had said to just drop the pellets in and forget them, but I get the impression I was suppossed to try to strain them out... any thoughts?

It is easy to confuse bitterness and hoppiness, since they both come from hops AND the simple fact that many hoppy ales are also fairly bitter. But, the first addition you did determined, almost entirely, the bitterness and the second, the nose.

If you had left out the second addition it would have tasted very different. You would have had something closer to a Special Bitter.

2 ounces in a 5 gallon recipe? Shouldn't be too hoppy. Maybe you lucked out (I tend to under hop accidentally.)

The hops will mellow a little with time. If you don't like it, just wait a while.

by "drop them in" you mean during the boil right? If so they would have settled with your yeast in the primary (and secondary possibly) and you would have siphoned the beer away during racking.

Incidentally, what was the recipe? A light beer? More delicate recipes tend to show hop flavors more.

kvh

So.... yes I should filter the disintegrated pellet hops out after the boil?

I'm going to start adding cascade hops in my morning oatmeal... and possibly make some cascade tea to go along with it

No real need to filter them coyotlgw, some will argue you should, but I never have and its already turned out good.