How do I add bitterness after the fact?

I have an APA that after 3 months of aging is still too damn unbalanced. I went overboard on the flavor hops and basically have a hop juice beer. I need to get some bitterness in there. Is a hop tea a good method for this? Should I use a French press or just make a pint of wort with x oz of hops?

I'd just boil some hops in a liter of water for about 15 or 20 minutes, then add that to your finished beer to taste.

I've used a hop tea (once) to adjust the balance going into the keg. It worked very well for me, but I've heard others say it's not effective, so, YMMV.

I didn't use a French press. I had an extra hops bag on hand, so I just boiled it up in that.

Another option is to use hops extract.

could you just add a pinch of leaf hops in your cup each time? Would that work?

ecojack said:

could you just add a pinch of leaf hops in your cup each time? Would that work?

Click to expand...

That would give more flavor, not bitterness.

Ive heard of people using those hop extracts as well, and just adding a few drops to taste.

hop tea or hop extract, either one will work. Just make sure not to use too much liquid or your body will suffer.

I have no problem with the body thinning out a touch. So how much hops in a liter of water? Lets say I'm using a 5% AA hop

It depends on how much bitterness you need. The theoretical max IBU for a solution is 120, I think. So, if you max out your liter at 120, it will be diluted to add about 6 IBU to the full batch, assuming it's a 5 gal batch.

How much do you need?

Hm... I'd think about 15.

At that point, you'd need to add 2 liters+ at maxed IBUs. That might dilute the rest of the batch too much. You might be better off with hops extract or boiling up some DME/LME in the addition.

On the other hand, you could do the 1L and see how it goes. Then, take it from there.

I've done split vessel full wort boils on the stove and tried hopping both pots or just one. When I hop both pots I definitely notice a utilization loss in the smaller vessel.

Do you have a previous beer you've brewed that has about the same bitterness you're targeting in this batch? If so, look up your recipe and see what the bitterness hop contribtion was. Then I'd ramp it up maybe 1.5 -2 times and boil the crap out of it. Taste it, and if it needs more, add more. If it needs less, dilute it. This kind of correction is more like cooking than brewing. Good luck.

Also, I just found this extract on MoreBeer https://morebeer.com/view_product/7835/103693/IsoHop_Bitterness_Extract_1_oz

They also post the formula for desired IBUs

You could probably calculate this on paper or beersmith but I would just boil a half ounce or so of hops in 1 to 2 quarts of water. Boil it until your volume goes down to 1/2 quart? Add it to your beer a 1/2 teaspoon at a time.

Trial and error could be fun