bitter taste

I just moved my fat tire clone from the fermentor to the keg and tasted it uncarbonated. It had a slight bitter taste to i. When I did my final wort boil I started with almost six gallons and ended up with only 4. I think my boil might have been to intense. If so, would this lead to a bitter taste moreso than desired? I kept a good fermintation temp of 70 but the 2nd night of fermintation it got up to 78. when the beer started fermenting the air lock was going crazy. After the 78 degree night there was very little action, should this have been a concern. I also used a yeast starter

Hi Chicken. If you use the same amount of hops in a five gallon and a a four gallon batch, the four gallon batch will taste more bitter.

The beer would be uncarbonated when you rack from the fermenter to the keg, nothing unusual there.

Your fermentation temps are an area that you could work on for future brewing. After getting the basic process down, controlling fermentation temps is one of the best improvements you can make and will yield remarkable results. For most ale yeasts, if you aim for the mid 60s, your beers will tend to produce fewer off-flavors.

Your beer will always taste different between carbed and un-carbed.

As noted above the amount of hops needed for 5 gallons, used in 4 gallons will result in more bitterness. But I wouldn't worry too much about it.

While your fermentation temp. control needs a lot of work, it's not a contributing factor to bitterness.

So in short... don't worry about. Leave your beer alone. Let it ferment out all the way. Bottle it... leave it alone for 2 weeks.

THEN see what you think. Really it's ideal of you can leave your beer in the bottle for 4 weeks before you taste it though.

I can attest to the vast improvement a better controlled ferm temp makes. I just sampled my gravity reading sample and immediately said it was my best beer yet. This is after investing in an external thermostat for my garage fridge.