question about bitterness

Is the bitterness after the boil an indicator of final taste or does it mellow after fermentation and bttling?

No not really, most beers will mellow with age.

This is a hard question. The fermented beer is definitely different. Over time you can gain a sense of how it will change. So, yes it will taste different after fermentation, but it won't become less bitter. If anything the reduction of sugars will cause the bitterness to stand out, but that is all relative to other changes in the flavor of the beer through fermentation.

I take it you have made a beer you think is too bitter out of the kettle?

donjonson said:

Is the bitterness after the boil an indicator of final taste or does it mellow after fermentation and bttling?

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IMO the wort always tastes more bitter than the fermented beer.

Brewpastor said:

This is a hard question. The fermented beer is definitely different. Over time you can gain a sense of how it will change. So, yes it will taste different after fermentation, but it won't become less bitter. If anything the reduction of sugars will cause the bitterness to stand out, but that is all relative to other changes in the flavor of the beer through fermentation.

I take it you have made a beer you think is too bitter out of the kettle?

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Yes I think I may have gotten more hop utilization than the recipe intended. Used more water and added the extract at the end. I tasted the wort and it was much more bitter than I expected.

Unless you were making a very bitter beer to begin with, the difference in hop utilization probably isn't much above the threshold of perception. For pale industrial American lagers the threshold of perception is about 5 IBU - i.e., you can't tell one is more bitter from another unless there is a difference of 5 IBU or more. And that's for flavorless "beer" (Bud etc). If you managed to increase your utilization by 10%, your original recipe would have to specify 50 IBU for you to have a chance of noticing an increase in bitterness.

Unfermented wort always tastes more bitter than I expect to me as well. RDWHAHB!