Late extract addition question

Brewers,
Yesterday I brewed up a mini-mash kit from AHS. It was their Anniversary Amber. I had read about doing a late extract addition to reduce carmelization and thus reduce darkening of the beer. I steeped 3+ lbs. of grain, added 1oz. of Palisades hops at the beginning of the boil, turned off the flame at 45 minutes, and added 1oz. of Hallertau hops and the 5lbs. of LME.

Now to my Question. After cooling the wort and taking an SG reading, I tasted it. It seemed extremely bitter to me. Did the late addition cause this increased hops bitterness?

All input appreciated. Thanks.

NRS

I wouldn't rely on taste until the beer is finished.

But, at least theoretically, the flameout hop addition should add no bitterness (although I'm sure that in reality it could add MINIMAL bitterness).

In thinking about it, I wonder if you actually got a piece (or many tiny pieces) of the flame out pellet in your sample. Ever eat part of a pellet? Very bitter.

Well, sugar levels in the wort do play a factor in the IBUs extracted from your hops. The lower the sugar levels, the more your hop utilization. So you may have overshot your bittering units by adding the extract late. I wouldn't say its a huge deal though since you only used 1 oz of bittering hops. You will just get a slightly more bitter final product than stated in the kit instructions. Just go with it and you will probably still be satisfied with the end product once the beer is fermented and carbed.

But you might want to do a little reading on hop utilization before your next brewday if you plan on doing this again. Find an IBU calculator online and play around with it. For example, you could have made some adjustments to make the beer a little less bitter if you had altered the hop schedule to add (for example) 2/3 oz of the Palisades bittering hops at the beginning and the other 1/3 of the Palisades closer to flameout.