beer too bitter

I've successfully brewed my first batch of beer in 12 years but seeing that I added 3 oz's of boiling hops (fuggles) for a 12 gal batch - the beer has a quite bitter finish.

I was thinking of filtering it with my plate, wine filter..would that tone the bitterness down?

Thanks

I've never heard that filtering can reduce bittering. What might really help is time. If the beer is less than 6 weeks old, it will taste more bitter than it will be after it smooths out some. What was the recipe? Maybe some additions now can help cover up some of this bitterness- like some sweetening or some dryhopping.

Odd that 3 ounces of a typically lower AA hop into a 12 gallon batch would overbitter the beer. Is there perhaps something else going on in the beer?

I'd let it mature for a month or two then sample.

SAMBUCA said:

I was thinking of filtering it with my plate, wine filter..would that tone the bitterness down?

Click to expand...

That might actually increase bitterness.....the bitterness is coming from the acids coming out of hops. If you're filtering, you're taking out some particles left over from malts and proteins: elements that add to body and sweetness.

Do what others suggest and let it age. One other thing I've noticed is that I prefer beer to have some citrus aroma if it's going to be bitter. You don't say what type of beer you're going for....but with Fuggles I'm assuming some English ale or stout. They don't seem to have the hop aroma (or IBUs for that matter!) of American ales. But if it's still too bitter tasting after you let it age, you can think about adding something to it (ie coffee if this is a stout). Another idea is maybe dry hopping it to get some more citrus type aroma. It's your boiling hops that's adding the bitterness, and I find I do like balancing them with aroma hops.

I have yet to taste a beer that is too bitter.

Let it sit for a while - it'll mellow.