Extract beers are bitter

My first 2 batches were extract kits from NB, caribou skinner, and Irish red. Both beers are REALLY bitter. Is it possible I screwed something up? 3rd batch was a Hefe kit and it is awesome!. I am moving to all grain next batch, hopefully my beers will get better. I just can't figure out why they are so bitter. Thoughts?

Billy

How many gallons did you boil? If you boiled a full 5 or 6 gallons, you had better hop utilization because the wort was less concentrated than the kit assumed it to be. Most kits assume you boil 2-3 gallons, check the instructions. Moving a portion of the provided hops later on in the boil will give you more aroma AND the designed IBU's.

If you boiled the amount of water indicated in the instructions, and added them per their hop schedule then I'm at a loss.

Sweet this just answered one of my questions. I have been doing a full five gallon boil and my beers are sick bitter. since the first few I've been doing shorter boils and it has helped. A month fridge conditioning helped the first one a great deal. In IIPAs it's not noticeable. But thanks for that!

Conditioning doesn't just drop out the hops, it can also drop out other compounds that add bitterness. Yeast is sometimes a bitterness culprit in young beer.

I meant caribou slobber, stupid cell phone spell check. I boil 3 gallons and top off with cold water in fermentor.

Billy