Beer too bitter?

My brew is done with primary fermentation and i am racking to secondary. I tasted the brew and it was very bitter (throw-out bitter!). If anyone could tell me why or have any suggestion on how to bring the bitterness down it would be greatly appreciated. Here is my hole set up:

I am using a Munton's Hopped Amber kit. I put some malto-dextrin in to give it body, and i put irish moss into the boil. I boiled all for about 5 mins (just to mix it thoroughly). Then i put it into my primary fermenter. All my gravity readings were right. Also, i fermented for about 6 days and i did have some krausen form but i heard that was normal.

Again, i hope someone can help me with this. I would hate to have to throw a batch out.

Cheers, Dan

park it and let it ride. not sure but i believe the dextrins will take awhile to ferment out.

is it hop bitter or maybe well water bitter. i see that your from wentzville (im from Harvester) and depending where at in wentzville if your on a well there are a few things for you to do with your water first, before brewing.

if its not a hop type of bitter, i would say its probably a water or sani issue.

Bitterness can be a relative quality. Which beers do you typically drink?

6 days in the primary, then to secondary?
You have to let it ferment first, the bitterness is normal, especially if you took it from the top of the beer near the kausen layer, which will be bitter.
You want to keep your beer in the primary at least for 10 days, and longer.

I live in rural wentzville, and we do share a well with a neighbor and to remind you this bitter is not normal, verrrrry bitter.

So i should just let it ride for awhile?

thanks
Dan

To reply to arturo,

I usually drink lights but have drink a few ambers and this bitter is not a normal amber bitter.

Let it mellow/age a bit. If that does not smooth it out, consider dry hopping. I'm guessing that pre hopped kit is not all that fresh and due to age it's gotten bitter. For $2.00 worth of hops you can usually save an over the top bitter beer.

Samc

THank you for the reply, Just curious though, have you tried this method before?




Thanks
Dan

fishermand715 said:

Samc

THank you for the reply, Just curious though, have you tried this method before?




Thanks
Dan

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Sure did. Made 10 gallons AG of Pliny clone and the first 5 were awesome, perfectly balanced. The second 5 gallons were so damn bitter I could not drink more than an ounce at one sitting. Another HBT'er suggested adding dry hops figuring that the aging had killed the original hop aroma/flavor, he was dead on correct. I never got it to be as good as the first 5 gallons, but it was very drinkable. I often do a continuous dry hop in the keg and add new hops every few weeks if the keg is still going.

samc

So your saying, dry hopping will lower my bitterness? I always thought hops made the beer more bitter and have more flavor/aroma?

Thanks
Dan

i would just let it be. Time heals Beer.

is this your first batch using your water?

fishermand715 said:

samc

So your saying, dry hopping will lower my bitterness? I always thought hops made the beer more bitter and have more flavor/aroma?

Thanks
Dan

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Hops boiled in your wort increases bitterness (the longer the boil to a point the more bittering compounds are released). You are not lowering bitterness, dry hopping just releases the aroma compounds which helps balance out the beer. You would need to read up on it for the actual science behind it as I dropped chemistry class after the first week. LOL

maltbarleyhops

i have made another batch before using my water.

thank you samc for the info i most likely will try this.

Don't spaz out yet! Leave it be, bottle it and try it again in six weeks. Some of my beers were very very bitter from primary to secondary and even secondary to bottle (almost undrinkable). After 4-6 weeks they mellowed substantially and turned out great (they were IPA's though). I haven't brewed any amber beers so I can't speak to that. Did you steep grains in this recipe?

no i didnt steep any grains and should i bottle it on time and let it age in the bottles or should i let it age in the secondary?

thanks Dan

I have tried this and it works You could brew a half or full batch grain, malt only no bitter hop just the 5 min boil something citrusy like cascade . ferment 1 week then mix the batches together store cold 3-4 before bottling.

smeloche said:

I have tried this and it works You could brew a half or full batch grain, malt only no bitter hop just the 5 min boil something citrusy like cascade . ferment 1 week then mix the batches together store cold 3-4 before bottling.

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ahhh, zombies!!

I have found I do not like the prehopped LME cans; fresh or not, there is something there that tastes really bitter and unbalanced. BTW I do like IPAs and other hoppy brews. That LME just does not work for me. I just did a search and found this thread;

Muntons Hopped LME

Take it for what it's worth as I have had similiar experiences. I would give it a longer primary, longer secondary, more than standard bottle age. I have a sixer left of that same amber that is coming up on 10 months now that I thought was too bitter.... Consider me inspired.

Thanks for posting all this. To some they can't even taste that twang, or don't care about it and that's all fine and well. But it's just not for me and I suspect this is correct that that twang for the large part does come from the lack of age and the use of the Prehopped LME cans; fresh or not.

Some will tell you it's do to your "incorrect process" which ok, I'll buy into to some extent (I or no one is perfect), but I don't buy into fully after doing plenty of extract kit brews myself and reading and listening to many books and programs from the experts.

Plus you also have to cut through a slight bit of BS that gets thrown at extract brewers about this type of stuff as well. I get it and understand why.

The good thing is that all this has driven me to attempt to make better beer and put in the time and $ investment to get to that point.

Larsccw said:

Thanks for posting all this. To some they can't even taste that twang, or don't care about it and that's all fine and well. But it's just not for me and I suspect this is correct that that twang for the large part does come from the lack of age and the use of the Prehopped LME cans; fresh or not.

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Pre-hopped or not, I try to avoid all LME that comes from cans, per recommendation from someone on here. I had a bad experience with "twangy-ness" from the non-hopped muntons cans, as well as all my Mr. Beer batches. Never gotten that taste when I've used all DME, or LME that comes in bags.

ChessRockwell said:

Pre-hopped or not, I try to avoid all LME that comes from cans, per recommendation from someone on here. I had a bad experience with "twangy-ness" from the non-hopped muntons cans, as well as all my Mr. Beer batches. Never gotten that taste when I've used all DME, or LME that comes in bags.

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Good to know ChessRockwell, sounds like I will no longer have that situation by choice in the future as well. Thanks for the tip.

I try to stick solely with DME. The problem is Austin Homebrew has those $21.99 weekly specials. There is the option for mini mash, but how do we suppose we get around the extract issue? Would adding more specialty grains help to some extent? Obviously I am brewing on a budget & trying to help Larsccw as well as meself.

fishermand715 said:

I am using a Munton's Hopped Amber kit. I put some malto-dextrin in to give it body, and i put irish moss into the boil. I boiled all for about 5 mins (just to mix it thoroughly). Then i put it into my primary fermenter.

Cheers, Dan

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Maybe im not understanding but are you saying you only boiled everything for 5 mins? Im not familiar with the kit, but shouldnt you be boiling for 60 min like a regular brew? Like i said im unfamiliar with this type of kit so maybe its different, but the 5 min thing threw me off.

3sheetsEMJ said:

Maybe im not understanding but are you saying you only boiled everything for 5 mins? Im not familiar with the kit, but shouldnt you be boiling for 60 min like a regular brew? Like i said im unfamiliar with this type of kit so maybe its different, but the 5 min thing threw me off.

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I haven't used one of those kits in a while, but from my understanding when you're using hopped extract you don't need to do a 60min boil because you're not trying to extract everything from the hops, it's already in there. You're basically only boiling to pasteurize. Someone correct if I'm wrong...

I dont but you can do it that way as long as you don't put the aroma hops in for the whole boil! Made that mistake as a noob once, turned out like a gross, twangy IPA. Well, as bitter as one anyway.