Chocolate malt - how much before it bitters?

I've got a nut brown ale that I brewed 4 months ago. It's sweet, smooth, and creamy and generally pretty good but it's got a bitter twang to it that I can't figure out.

5 gallon batch, OG was 1.048 and IBUs were 26 giving a BU:GU ratio of .547, according to Beersmith.

I used 4oz chocolate malt (2.53%).

I'm trying to figure out if the bitter bite is coming from the chocolate malt, an incorrect hop measurement, using the wrong bitterness formula, or if the beer is just still green.

It's not the chocolate- I've seen recipes that call for a lot more than that. I'm betting on it being green, just from my experience, but at 4 months it might not be that. Maybe you mashed/steeped it too hot? Looks from your sig like you've probably brewed more than me, so I'll step aside and just say that it wasn't the chocolate.

elkdog said:

It's not the chocolate- I've seen recipes that call for a lot more than that. I'm betting on it being green, just from my experience, but at 4 months it might not be that. Maybe you mashed/steeped it too hot?

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I've seen recipes with a lot more than that too--just never tried any. A couple other homebrews I'm drinking right now are a little overbitter....I'm starting to wonder if it's my water or if it's several other things. Just trying to eliminate the grains as the suspect, so that input helps me a lot!

elkdog said:

Looks from your sig like you've probably brewed more than me, so I'll step aside and just say that it wasn't the chocolate.

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You probably know a lot more than I do actually--I've just become pretty immersed in the hobby. I've only brewed 22....ok after tonight 23 batches since I started 5 months ago. I definitely do not have it all figured out yet

It's not the 4 oz of chocolate malt. What hops did you use? The bitterness and flavor of some varieties can be more lingering than others.

Brewsmith said:

It's not the 4 oz of chocolate malt. What hops did you use? The bitterness and flavor of some varieties can be more lingering than others.

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Well, I'm starting think it was the hops. If I measured correctly at the time, it should have been only .5 oz Galena (13.1 AA) for 60 min. This was one of my first batches before I started measuring my hops in grams--I did some math tonight and figured out that if I was off by even 1/8 of an ounce (the smallest amount my digital scale increments by in ounces) then I could have added 5 IBUs accidently.

Or maybe Galena just sucks, beer is still green, 26 IBUs was too much for this beer, I'm using the wrong bitterness scale (tinseth), water is too hard or high in sulfates, or something else I'm missing

Using software, you could easy have been at 32 IBUs with pellet hops. The formula is not as important. Just use one consistantly and know how to change the amounts accordingly. If it says 26 IBUs and it's too bitter, use less next time and get it closer to 20. It's all about knowing how your system.

The IBU's are high for a nut brown. They are generally in the 12-20 IBU range.

I have a chocolate coconut stout that I used a pound of chocolate in and it's not bitter.

I would say it's green or out of balance.

Give it more time to age and mellow.

I appreciate the input guys. I'm going to rebrew this and bump the IBUs down to 19. I'm also going to use a lower AA bittering hop and weigh carefully.

Sounds like a plan...

A 1.048 brown ale should not be green at four months.

Monkey, I most agree with your suspicion that you may have added just a little too much hops for your bittering. Since you were already working with a high-IBU recipe for the style, just the tiniest bit extra will throw the whole thing out of whack.

It does sound like you have a good plan for solving the problem.


TL

Yeah, my initial thought was that I either measured my hops wrong or just plain had too much in there...I didn't think the BU:GU seemed high enough for this to turn out bitter at all, but you live and learn I guess. Just wanted to eliminate the chocolate malt as a suspect.

I think once I get the bitterness at the right level this recipe is going to be a definite keeper.