My stout has a very bitter after taste.

I made wine for years but never brewed beer.
I made my first kit yesterday...I think I did a few things wrong (I can NEVER follow a recipe without adding to it)
Followed the instructions for Young's Harvest Stout..
THEN boiled up a jar of 750g Pure Cane Molasses and a jar of Malt Extract from Holland and Barrett 454g with water until it seemed to have desolved with simmering.
Put that in the fermenter and made up to 3.75 gallons as per instructions.

Added yeast and off it went..GREAT!

This morning I tasted it and it has a VERY bitter after taste that lingers.

What can I do to make it less bitter?

Val
(who can't resist messing with everything)

the taste of the beer 24 hours after making it is nothing like the taste of the beer when it is actually ready to drink.

relax a little, and wait another 3 weeks, THEN take a taste.

Yeah, talk about green beer!!!! Like Walker said, give it a few weeks.

+1 to Walker's suggestion - you really won't be able to tell much now.

Stouts have a complex mix of flavors, I think, and the balance is the key. I suspect you may not be tasting bitter (from the hops) but rather roastiness (from the roasted barley or maybe coffee, if this recipe uses it). In any case, roastiness can be really rough tasting at first and will mellow as the stout matures.

All of the stout's I've done so far (extract) have taken a good 6+ weeks after kegging to smooth out.

Last night I was finally happy with the flavor of one I brewed in late July. It's been kegeed since late August, but took this long for the bitter aftertaste to go away and now has a smooth, malty/coffee flavor. I only taste it once a week. If it's not right, I try it again a week later.

And since nobody else has said it, amazingly, RDWHAHB.

Ah, thanks.
I know homemade wine changes with maturity (over a long period of months or even years, but I wasn't sure about brewing beers and stouts.
This is a kit and says to bottle after 10 days when fermentation slows to a stop but it appears it may be better to rack it into a second fermentation bucket and allow some time to mature..yes?
Or should I bottle it with a primer and store the bottles?
So nice to have people to answer questions.

Val

razzysmum said:

This is a kit and says to bottle after 10 days when fermentation slows to a stop but it appears it may be better to rack it into a second fermentation bucket and allow some time to mature..yes?
Or should I bottle it with a primer and store the bottles?


Val

Click to expand...

Give it at least 14 days in the primary. I usually leave mine in the bucket for 2 - 4 weeks and then straight to the bottle or keg. I only use a secondary if I'm dry hopping or using some type of "clearing" agent.

The best way to know if it's finished fermenting is to check the gravity with a hydrometer for a few days. If the readings don't change, then it's done. I rarely do this myself, but that's the best way to know for sure.

DO NOT BOTTLE UNTIL IT'S COMPLETELY FINISHED FERMENTING! If you bottle too soon you'll end up with exploding bottles.

DO NOT BOTTLE UNTIL IT'S COMPLETELY FINISHED FERMENTING! If you bottle too soon you'll end up with exploding bottles.
******
Yep, been there, done that with wine... I still have a mark on my leg from years ago when I put a bottle on the floor (luckily) and it blew!
Thanks for the advice... I know I can keep wine in a demijohn for ages but I didn't know if beer and stout yeast died quickly. Son did a brew and left it and he said although he primed the bottles the beer was flat. Maybe he kept it too cool and it didn't carbonate, I dunno. The next batch was good and I confess I kept a bottle for more than a year in the cupboard before I found it again and it was still really good.
Brewing is intersting and different to wine... I like it.
Now all I have to do is develop a taste for beers... never really took to them before.

Val