Harsh back end

[Matty22]

So I attempted a Liberty Ale clone. It turned out pretty well except that the back end is a bit harsh. It's bitter, but not in a good hoppy way, it's distracting from the rest of the good taste. Here is my recipe:

Malts:
1. Munton's Light LME 6.6lbs.
2. Brewers Best Golden Light DME 1 lb.

Grains:
1. Crushed Caramel 40L 1lb.
2. Crushed Victory Malt 8oz.

Hops:
1. Columbus 1.5oz 60mins 13.9%
2. Cascade 2oz 60 mins 6.4%
3. Cascade 1oz 5mins 6.4%
4. Liberty 1oz dry-hopped dunno the AA%

OG: 1.060 FG: 1.018

Procedure:
Dry-hopped 1 oz on day 10. 2 weeks in primary. 1 week in secondary. 2 weeks conditioning.

As of right now, it's been in bottle probably 3.5 weeks. My hope is that the harsh back end will mellow with bottle time. Any other possible causes that I should/could avoid in the future? I know a problem I have now due to lack of equipment is that it's hard to control my fermentation temps. Could that cause this problem?

Thanks.

 

[Walker]

So I attempted a Liberty Ale clone. It turned out pretty well except that the back end is a bit harsh. It's bitter, but not in a good hoppy way, it's distracting from the rest of the good taste. Here is my recipe:

1. Columbus 1.5oz 60mins 13.9%
2. Cascade 2oz 60 mins 6.4%

Where did this recipe come from? It seems pretty odd to me that it would have 2oz of cascade at 60 minutes in addition to 1.5oz of columbus, and then nothing else until right at the end of the boil.

That is a WHOLE lot of hops in there at 60 minutes, and the beer has a harsh bitterness (IMO) because you have over 120 IBUs in a 1.060 beer.

disclaimer: I've never had liberty ale, so I don't know what it tastes like, but I am surprised that there is no hop addition somewhere in the 30-10 minute area of the boil.

 

[Hex]

I'd recommend dry hopping in the secondary for the last 5-7 days.

 

[Matty22]

Where did this recipe come from? It seems pretty odd to me that it would have 2oz of cascade at 60 minutes in addition to 1.5oz of columbus, and then nothing else until right at the end of the boil.

That is a WHOLE lot of hops in there at 60 minutes, and the beer has a harsh bitterness (IMO) because you have over 120 IBUs in a 1.060 beer.

disclaimer: I've never had liberty ale, so I don't know what it tastes like, but I am surprised that there is no hop addition somewhere in the 30-10 minute area of the boil.

The main chunk of the recipe is the Brewers Best IPA kit recipe. Calls for 3.5oz bittering hops which would be the 1.5oz of Columbus and 2oz Cascade.

 

[Walker]

The main chunk of the recipe is the Brewers Best IPA kit recipe. Calls for 3.5oz bittering hops which would be the 1.5oz of Columbus and 2oz Cascade.

Something is wrong. I looked the recipe up online and found this PDF:
http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1037_India_Pale_Ale.pdf

They do claim 3.5 oz of bittering hops, but they don't specify the variety or AA directly on the PDF.

However, they DO claim that it should be only in the 45-49 IBU range. If this came packaged up in a kit, they screwed up and should not have included such high alpha hops to use in it. 3.5oz of bittering hops and a target of upper 40's on IBU would require hops that had an alpha acid score somewhere in the 3% to 4% range.