Very Harsh Taste???

I finished a Brown Ale, it was fermenting for about 5 days in primary. Secondary for about 8 days, it has been in a keg for a week now and it is still very strong on the bitters I guess. It taste like very earthy pine taste. It is getting better with time, it was not good the first day after carbonating.

Starting gravity 1.052@84F finished at 1.014@74F

8 oz. maple syrup
6 lbs. amber malt extract
1 lb. british pale malt
1/2 lb. special b malt
1 lb. medium crystal malt
1 oz. target (60 min)
1 oz. fuggles (20 min)
1 oz. fuggles (1 min)
1 pkg. bru-vigor (yeast food)
1 pkg. widsor ale yeast

mashed the grains for 1 hr in 150F filtered tap water
double sparged with 170F filtered tap water
starting with 6.3 gal to boil finished with 5 gal

I am going to bottle this stuff because it is so strong it is almost not drinkable.

Any advise?

The next time you brew it, cut the special b amount in half. There should be no more than 4 oz in a 5 gal batch.

Also, you've to 50 IBU of hops there. That's a lot of hops. Unless that's what your were looking for, that's a lot of bitter.

From Northern Brewer:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/grainmalts.html

"Dingemans Special B (115° L) is an extremely dark caramel malt, which combines characteristics of dark caramel and light roasted malt. It has a sharp, almost toffee like flavor. In small proportions, it can contribute a ruby red color. Don't exceed 1/4 pound per five-gallon batch."

From what I read about Special B, it has the toffee/caramel flavor in small quantities, and a raisen-like flavor in larger quantities. I've never heard/read anything about it being bitter at all, so I'm leaning towards the hops being the culprit.

-walker

BTW: I used 1/4 lb of special B in my porter to try and give it a caramel flavor, and I can't even detect it at all.

I think I used 1/2 a pound of special b in most recent porter (I'll have to check my recipe). You can certainly taste it, but I wouldn't say it’s harsh. Since you say it’s a piney taste, I strongly would suspect the hops are the source. Give it some time to mellow: Aging should help it out immensely.

Looking at the hops scale it is around a 50 and the pilsner I brew is around a 40. But I guess the hops that I used in the Brown Ale must be a harsher tasting hops, I had no idea that was going to that much of a difference. The pilsner I brew is actually very mellow on the hops flavor, then again I just started about 2 month ago. I still need to get the hang of this hops stuff.

Thanks for the help.