excess bitterness

I've brewed up about 15 batches so far, mostly the red ale. BB kits. I sometimes end up with some batches having an excess bitterness. Same hops, same boil times. I usually do a 3.5-4 gallon boil (starting water) then ferment in the bucket. Should I try a smaller boil or closed fermenter? It's not all batches but a few ended up with a sharp bitter aftertaste.

What is your water situation? Do you buy water from the store, have city water, or well water (and possibly water softener)?

What about steeping temps? Tannins in the grain can cause astringency and will increase the bitterness perceived in the beer.

I have brewed two batches and have the same problem. Both have a late strong bitter taste. I was going to cut the hops in the recipe by half, don't know what else to do.

I use city water then run it through a carbon filter then let it sit over night before using.

I start my grain at room temp then turn heat up slow until about 160, steep for 20 minutes then pour 150 degree water through to rinse out the sweet wort, but I don't squeeze the bag.

I just finished a batch of american amber ale that I fermented in a 5 gallon carboy close fermenter. and tried one last night. it is a milder beer, not fully carbonated yet but it didn't have the WOW bitterness at the end. maybe the blow off tube helped.

any other ideas are still welcome

I have thought about using bottled water to see how that helps. Is there anyway to help avoid the excess tannins?

thanks for all your help guys

my guess is its your boil gravity. for what ever reason I'm willing to bet on the bitter brews your boil gravity was low. probably due to the use of 4 gallons instead of 3.5. if you lower the boil gravity of any recipe you will get more bitterness out of what ever hops you use. conversely if you use a higher boil gravity you will get less bitterness out of a hops addition.

Maybe reduce the amount of water you are steeping your grains in? That should keep tannin extraction down.

ok thanks guys, will try it this weekend.

This is an important question:

Is it bitter or is it tannic? And yes, there's a huge difference between the two.

so how can I tell the difference??

Tannins (generally) taste like tea.

Bitterness would come from the hop alpha acids (think, IPA)

Tannins (think puckering and drying, like eating unripe fruit or drinking an unaged syrah red wine) would likely come from your grains, possibly from getting them too hot at the bottom of your mash due to not enough stirring to redistribute the heat.


The tastes are similar though, but if you have a good tongue you can get an idea of where the bitterness came from and adjust your technique/recipe accordingly.

TipsyDragon said:

my guess is its your boil gravity. for what ever reason I'm willing to bet on the bitter brews your boil gravity was low. probably due to the use of 4 gallons instead of 3.5. if you lower the boil gravity of any recipe you will get more bitterness out of what ever hops you use. conversely if you use a higher boil gravity you will get less bitterness out of a hops addition.

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I would agree, most store extract kits I have used call for a 2 1/2 gallon boil, anything more than whats instructed will cause more bitterness due to higher utilization of the hops.

ok going with the 2.5 gallon boil. and thanks for the tannin info.

philhead1 said:

ok going with the 2.5 gallon boil. and thanks for the tannin info.

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I prefer a larger boil, actually. In my opinion, boiling the largest amount you can seems to give the best results. The easiest thing to do is to either download some free brewing software, or post the recipe here and one of us can help you, and just reduce the bittering hops accordingly.

I usually do 3.5-4 gallon boils, but would like to try and knock it down (bitterness) for some of my not quite up to homebrews yet. they drink them but it still hit them pretty good. it doesn't both me