Bitter/Weird Hoppy PRE-Fermenting flavor

[FlyBoyKnight]

Apparently I accidentally posted my question in the "DIY" section. I have started it here now in the right section.

Hello everyone. My brew buddy and I recently brewed a "Blackberry Wheat Ale" that we have done before and, after following the recipe with no real hiccups, we took a gravity reading and proceeded to try the beer used in the hydrometer cylinder. When we tried the beer, it had a very pronounced bitter / sorta kinda hoppy flavor which I do not remember the first time we brewed this recipe.

I am afraid it may have been from over-steeping the grains combine with our new / different local water profile (moved from VT to MN since we brewed the recipe last).

Grains:
8 oz Torrified Wheat
8 oz RAHR White Wheat
12 oz Caramalt 10L

Steeped in 2 gallons of water for 60 minutes at 160 (fell to 145 over the hour)
as per recipe. Recipe was written by the LHBS in VT.

After the steep:
3 lbs Muntons Plain Wheat DME
2 lbs Clover Honey
1 oz German Hersbrucker Hops - boiled for 60 mins
1 oz Mt Hood Hops - boiled for 20 minutes
1 satchet Safale US-05 yeast

Blackberry essence added to bottle bucket when bottling.

Hops strained out with funnel screen when pouring into fermenter (which is why the weird hoppy flavor was even weirder (this is the first time we used the strainer = first time we used musin bags for hops))

We're gonna see it through to bottling (and most likely all the way to drink-day) but I am just worried that the batch may not be the same as before.

Thanx in advance for the thoughts/advice.

 

[Teromous]

Hops strained out with funnel screen when pouring into fermenter (which is why the weird hoppy flavor was even weirder (this is the first time we used the strainer = first time we used musin bags for hops))

I think you answered your own question. Hop bags are usually much finer than strainers (mine are at least). You're probably just tasting more of the suspended hop material. During fermentation yeast flocculation will cause most of that material to drop out. It could also be that you are getting higher utilization out of your hops by not using a bag, and are perceiving a higher bitterness. That can get a bit touchy and controversial though, so I'll leave it out there as an optional theory. It's my opinion that it's much more likely to be hop particles that made it through the strainer though.

In any event, beer tastes much more bitter prior to fermentation anyway.

 

[FlyBoyKnight]

I think you answered your own question. Hop bags are usually much finer than strainers (mine are at least). You're probably just tasting more of the suspended hop material.

Yeah, I wondered if that was the case too but several brews ago, we stopped using musin bags for our hop boils and just dumped the raw pellets in the kettle. After the boil (as per lots of people's methods on this site), we would just dump everything, hop matter and all, into the bucket and let it go. The trub deflector at the bottom of our racking cane always kept that nastiness out of the bottles so we never had a problem with that respect but this is actually the first time we used the strainer screen to strain out the hop matter from the fermenter (strainer screen came with the funnel I bought to finally use my better bottle as a primary) so if anything, compared to brews we have done recently, I 1/2 expected it to taste LESS hoppy/bitter before being fermented but again, I just not sure. I was thinking maybe all the scraping / scooping of hop matter out of the screen I did when pouring might have contributed maybe (some weird form of wringing the hops out or something????) but really this is probably not the case

In any event, beer tastes much more bitter prior to fermentation anyway.

I have noticed that since boiling the raw hops, the pre-fermentation flavors have been hoppier and that gets toned way down after fermenting so I don't think it'll be a huge concern. I guess I just got a little worried that I would end up with my first 5 gallon batch of beer-flavored drain cleaner.

 

[zeg]

Many of my brews (perhaps most) have a sharp hop-bittery aftertaste. It always worries me, but never shows in the end product. I wouldn't worry.

Not much you could do anyway...

 

[FlyBoyKnight]

Hey guys. Thanx for the input / words of wisdom.

When we tasted the brew between primary and bottling, the bitter / hoppy note was gone. The beer tasted darn near exactly what I remembered it did.

In the future, I will not worry if I do get this taste.

The beer "finished" conditioning last weekend and it came out great. The blackberry essence adds a very interesting note to the beer and I think the longer this one sits, the better the honey / wheat / blackberry flavors will mingle and blend. I've got a six pack in the "beer cellar" (box under my bed). I am really excited to try this one in a few months.

 

[FlyBoyKnight]

On another note, I brewed a Kolsch style summer beer (in light of a possible failed previous batch) the week after I brewed the Blackberry Wheat beer and upon tasting this beer a pitching, I noticed a similar bitter/hop note in this one as well. Maybe I just never noticed it before. Oh well, I won't be worrying about again unless it is seriously oppressive.

Thanx again for the advice!