IPA too bitter?

I am still rather new to the brewing world, and I decided to try and IPA. I was going for something along the lines of Terrapins Big Hoppy Monster. I'm not sure if I hit it or not, as this is incredibly bitter. The beer is still good, just more bitter than I expected. Will the bitterness mellow over time, and the flavor of the hops become more pronounced .. if so, how long should I let it age. I tasted it about a week after bottling.

This is the recipe:

4# Amber DME
3# Light DME
1 lb crystal 40L (steeped)

hop schedule:
All cascade hops 6%

2 oz cascade 60min
.5 oz cascade 35 min
.5 oz cascade 20 min
1 oz cascade 10 min
1 oz cascade flam out
1 oz dry hop primary (as soon as I pitched yeast)
1 oz dry hop (1 week in to fermentation, primary)

I used white labs east coast ale (WLP0008)

lyacovett said:

I tasted it about a week after bottling.

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No wonder. Wait at least two more weeks before trying the next one. Your beer is still very "green" and there may even be some "yeast bite" and other acrid flavors adding to the over-bitter impression.

Read this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/1030387-post8.html

In the meantime relax. Time heals all ales.

+1 on the 'green' factor.

Based on your recipe it seems like you have enough hops on the front end to create some very noticable hop flavour and aroma. And your IBU's shouldn't be insane - what was your OG?

Just wait a while, it's probably not ready.

BTW, bitterness will subside over time, but it can take a while. It depends on many factors, but it can easily take over 6 months for a noticable drop in bitterness to occur.
Hop flavour and aroma however will also dissipate, but much faster, one of my recent beers changed drastically after 3 months in that regard. That's why 'Pliny the Elder' says not to age it right on the bottle.

Yeah, I know. I'm a new b.

I was just really nervous that I did something wrong here. I also ran my recipe through 2 different calculators, and got one at 84 IBUs and another at 54, so that also got me confused. I knew that time would help, but being new to this, I wasn't sure how much.

My OG was at 1.063 and FG at bottling was at 1.016, this is also one of the biggest beers I've brewed, which also made me nervous. I was really hoping to have this ready for a vacation I was taking up north to the mountains in Virginia, I figured this would be nice to drink sitting on the lake at night ..... it seems it will be ready by then, its still about a month away ... so I am hopeful.

BTW ... not sure how big of a difference this makes, but my ambient temp at fermentation was 68-69, and I am aging my bottles at the same temp. I plan on moving them into the refrigerator after 2 weeks in the bottle. Should I wait longer, or do you think this will be OK??

Thanks.

It sounds like you did fine.

Seriously, give it a few more weeks - your beer is too young to tell anything from it yet. I wouldn't refigerate it until at least 3 weeks in the bottle...probably more.

Like I mentioned, this is a must-read: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/1030387-post8.html

+1
3 weeks (or more) room temp before cooling down to drink.
It won't hurt them - you could leave them out to mellow, condition, age, carbonate all the way up to your vacation trip, then chill them down.

OK, another question on this. The beer has been conditioning at 68 degrees for over a week. I decided to give it another try, knowing it wouldn't have reached its full potential yet. It was like a totally different beer, the bitterness has settled way down, but still plenty bitter ... the aroma is great, and the hop flavor is awesome .... but there is one other issue with it now, and I'm not sure if time will fix this or not.

When pouring in to a glass, there was just a ton of head .. and of course the head retention is great, so I have to wait a minimum of 5 - 10 minutes for the head to retreat enough for me to top off the glass. Will this settle down over time, or is this just something I will have to deal with? I think that I added a bit too much priming sugar, I lost alot of beer to hops in the bottom of the fermenter. It was a 5 gallon batch, but I only got to bottle about 4 gallons, and I used about 4 oz of corn sugar. No exploding bottles, or volcanoes ... but there is a ton of head in the glass .... will this settle down with some more time??

Did you cool it before you poured? Room temp brew will be VERY foamy.

Man, if it's just been a little over a week, the carbonation process is not complete - yeast are still eating sugar. You can get gushers, flat bottles or even combinations of the two in the meantime.

Please read through that link I posted before - it addresses these issues directly - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/1030387-post8.html.

Now, dont touch that beer for another couple of weeks. It's too soon to tell anything - but you're probably fine. If you do have a problem (which is unlikely) we can't diagnose it until your beer is done.

1. It's way too soon to judge.
2. That's half the hops in the free world.
3. RDWHAHB

OK, well ... I have no patience ... so I tried another. The taste is really coming in to its own now ... no worries there, I think this will be great flavor wise. I am still getting an unreal amount of head, but it does seem to be settling some ... so I'm sure in 2 more weeks it will be fine ... or at least come close to letting me pour a whole bottle into a glass.

I guess I left out an important factor as to why I was concerned about over carbing this beer. I mixed my priming sugar based on 5 gallons (somewhere around 4.5 oz of corn sugar) ... but I lost just about a whole gallon due to hope sediment from dry hopping.

Really, this was a very educational brew. I have learned a few things:

1 - Patience is key, I knew this already ... but I have never actually had it affect me before. I have tasted some of my other brews early on, and haven't had any problems.
2 - When dry hopping, don't pour the pellet right in the beer, I will use a hop bag from now on .. I ended up having to put the hop bag on the end of my siphon hose to filter out any hop particles from my bottling bucket ... but then again, as was pointed out, I did use half of the hops in the free world. (Although in my recipe, I did miss an oz somewhere, I used about 8 oz in total)
3 - Perhaps I should wait until all of my beer is racked into the bottling bucket before adding priming sugar. As of now, I put in the sugar mixture while it is racking, so that I don't have to stir it and risk an more contamination.
4 - This board is great, calms my worries just about as much as drinking a home brew.


Thanks guys.

lyacovett said:

3 - Perhaps I should wait until all of my beer is racked into the bottling bucket before adding priming sugar. As of now, I put in the sugar mixture while it is racking, so that I don't have to stir it and risk an more contamination.

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For the risk/fear of contamination, I add the priming sugar water to the bottling bucket, then rack the beer on that. No stirring required! I do move the tube that the green beer is coming from every so often so that I get a good mix, and then I cover and let it sit for 10-15 mins for further settling, then bottle as normal. No problems so far...

dave

How long are you chilling these beers before drinking?

If you are only chilling for a couple hours, that may be the reason you're getting a lot of foam. Pop one in the fridge for 48 hours and try it then.

1. Get a bigger glass.
2. Pour
3. Sniff head until it settles.
4. Drink

Anyone know why it is 48hrs? Seems like 8 hours in the fridge would do the job.

Well, I have let the IPA sit, and broke a few bottles out for July 4th. It was excellent. A little sweet, and super hoppy, and the head was just about perfect, still had about a half in by the time the glass was empty. Time really was the issue here, thanks for not laughing me out of the forum guys.

Carbon111, that link you posted is excellent and it should be mandatory reading for all new brewers. I just bottled a Brown Ale and it's only been 1 week. It's hard to sit back and wait, but I must. I have other aged homebrew to taste instead. Thanks to everyone for their posts. You've helped more people than you know.

brewdude25 said:

Anyone know why it is 48hrs? Seems like 8 hours in the fridge would do the job.

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8 Hours would chill it for sure, 48 will ensure the CO2 is dissolved at the new temp.

lyacovett said:

When pouring in to a glass, there was just a ton of head .. and of course the head retention is great, so I have to wait a minimum of 5 - 10 minutes for the head to retreat enough for me to top off the glass.

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All you need to take care of this is a little nose sweat: Just rub the sides of your nose between your pointer and middle fingers and then swirl it and the head just melts away. Do this for your friends and they'll love you for it!

lyacovett said:

I am still rather new to the brewing world, and I decided to try and IPA. I was going for something along the lines of Terrapins Big Hoppy Monster. I'm not sure if I hit it or not, as this is incredibly bitter. The beer is still good, just more bitter than I expected. Will the bitterness mellow over time, and the flavor of the hops become more pronounced .. if so, how long should I let it age. I tasted it about a week after bottling.

This is the recipe:

4# Amber DME
3# Light DME
1 lb crystal 40L (steeped)

hop schedule:
All cascade hops 6%

2 oz cascade 60min
.5 oz cascade 35 min
.5 oz cascade 20 min
1 oz cascade 10 min
1 oz cascade flam out
1 oz dry hop primary (as soon as I pitched yeast)
1 oz dry hop (1 week in to fermentation, primary)

I used white labs east coast ale (WLP0008)

Click to expand...

It most definitely needs more than a week in the bottle. Was it even carbed yet? Beer gets better with age but IPA's will start bitter, peak in flavor and then start to mellow and loose bitterness and hop flavor/aroma over time. Wait 2 or 3 more weeks depending on your aging temp. then put in the fridge for at least 48 hours then try.

It's awesome to revive nearly one year old topics.

I am glad I found this thread. I just did my second all grain batch and went with a clone of Pliny the elder. After seeing the insane amount of hops I decided against the dry hopping. I just racked it out of primary and took a little taste as I normally do and it was way more bitter than I expected and the strength and pine flavor of the hops had me worried. Hopefully a couple weeks conditioning will mellow it out some.

Welcome to Homebrew talk - if you LOVE IPAs, it will be fine - if you're ambivalent, then you'll probably find it too bitter, even skipping the dry hopping - which doesn't add bitterness, by the way - just flavor and aroma - but enhances the perception of hops and bitterness.

I like IPAs but more along the lines of Lagunitas IPA or Maximus. That clone is a bit intense.