Less Hops Please

[Stile]

I hate bitter beer...... no really, i hate it.

I've been thinking of cutting back to a 1/4 the of hops needed in my brews.... or only going with a 45 min boil. Anybody else feel this way?? Any ideas?

 

[Fingers]

You can cut back on the hops or simply add them later in the boil. Instead of 60 minutes, try adding them at 45. If you have any brewing software, such as Beersmith, you can calculate the bitterness of your brews and tweak your additions.

 

[eriktlupus]

then brew your beers either as english milds or load the hops on the end of the boil, less boil time = less bitterness

 

[thataintchicken]

I hate bitter beer...... no really, i hate it.

You must be related to my GF.
Try adding hops later in the boil, or look for the lower AA versions of the hops you are using in your recipes.
Flavor and bitterness are not always partners in brewing.

Experimenting with different hops and boil times will change the flavor and bitterness of your beers.

If you need a guinea pig, I am around the corner in Newark.
Plus, the Mad Zymurgists would give you tons of advice and help.

 

[Stile]

You must be related to my GF.
Try adding hops later in the boil, or look for the lower AA versions of the hops you are using in your recipes.
Flavor and bitterness are not always partners in brewing.

Experimenting with different hops and boil times will change the flavor and bitterness of your beers.

If you need a guinea pig, I am around the corner in Newark.
Plus, the Mad Zymurgists would give you tons of advice and help.

I'm using Fuggles now (4.0) So i think i'm going with boiling times. I used less then 1oz on my porter yesterday, but when i took a sample right before dropping into my fermentor, it had quite the sharp bitterness to it. Of course i know things will change a bit after fermentation and conditioning.

 

[BrewBrain]

The later additions really do change the taste of the hops. I've got an IPA I'm drinking now that really isn't bitter much at all, relative to IPA's. I put the vast majority of the hops in the last 20 minutes of the boil. The result is a very tasty hoppy flavor without a whole lot of bitterness.

I miss the bitterness in an IPA, but it is good beer and definitely a good lesson on what late additions can do for a beer.

 

[WBC]

I noticed that you drink iced tea? Tea is bitter is it not, and yet we like it.

Some thoughts here. I like an IPA once and a while and they can get quite bitter but also have a flavor and aroma of hops which I also like. A severe example of this (and a very good IPA) is Stone brewing's "Stone IPA". The reason I say this is that we all can perceive bitterness in different ways and if you have at one time had a really bad experience in your early tasting of beer you locked your thinking "bitter = bad" no matter what. You have trained yourself to shun any beer with any bitter content no matter how small. I think a friend of mine said the same thing and he brews too. After trying many of my beers he finally said "Hay Bill, I think I am beginning to become a hop-head.... this is really good". It is an acquired taste that grows through exposure to whatever it is that we are not used to. What I have been trying to say here is that through challenging your palate with a quality hoppy beer you too will become a lover of bitter beers and actually crave them.

Beer you would like:
I like malty beer too that has moderate hops like a Helles (German lager) and a cream ale (American ale). These are easy to brew and should be to your liking at this time.

 

[Poobah58]

Drink Bud Lite

 

[BigEd]

I hate bitter beer...... no really, i hate it.

I've been thinking of cutting back to a 1/4 the of hops needed in my brews.... or only going with a 45 min boil. Anybody else feel this way?? Any ideas?

I don't think a wholesale cutback of hops is necessarily the way to go. It really depends on what type of beer you like and want to make. A blanket reduction of hops will cause problems in the balance of many beers. Better to enjoy a brew that features a low amount of hops to begin with like mild, brown, porter, Scotch, wheat, many Belgians, Oktoberfest, etc. You should also consider what hops you are using. Even with the current high prices of hops IMO you are better off using 2 oz of a 5%AA hop than an oz of a 10%AA hop as most of the high alpha varieties just have a sharper/courser flavor. The big alpha hops are fine for hop monster beers but other than that I think the lower alpha types are going to produce a smoother brew.

 

[newkarian]

Try out FWH. It leads to a smoother less percieved bitterness.

 

[TeleTwanger]

maybe its your water? less than 1 oz of fuggle should not be any way near sharp bitterness.

 

[Nurmey]

maybe its your water? less than 1 oz of fuggle should not be any way near sharp bitterness.

A very good point. I know it sounds weird but your water could be making your beer bitter. If I use my tap water straight, beer tastes very astringent and bitter.

My water has chloramines and is hard with a high pH.
I have started experimenting to adjust. Campden tabs for the chloramines and distilled water to bring down the minerals. I'm going to give Buffer 5.2 a try on my mash too.

I guess the question I have for you is; are you using tap water?

 

[Stile]

I used 7 gallons of spring water. I took a taste of my steeped adjunct grains and no bitterness at all. Taste after the boil... bitter. I agree that using as little hops that i did, it should not be so bitter... Hopefully it will mellow out when conditioned. No worries though.

BTW, here's what i did:

1# Oatmeal
1# Choc Malt
1# Crystal Malt (75L)

Mashed the above for 60 mins at 155 degrees in about 2.5 gals of water

Pulled grain bags into another 2.5 gals of water at 170 degrees for 10 mins

Dumped the 5 gals into brew pot and added 2 more gals of water.

Brought to a boil, cut heat, waited 5 mins and then added 7lbs of light LME (stirring the entire time for several mins) Brought back to boil.

Fuggle hops:
1/4oz 60 mins
1/4oz 15 mins
1/4oz 5 mins

 

[mattmcl]

I'm not a big fan of highly hopped beers either. They taste good, but I always get really bad heartburn after the first one, and if I keep drinking them the dietary repercussions just get worse. Doesn't matter if it's commercial beers, homebrew, whatever.

So I stick to stouts, porters, etc. It's a shame, because there are so many styles I just can't drink.

 

[r2eng]

There's some good advice above...

My advice is similar: Pick and brew styles YOU like to drink. If you don't like IPA's do not brew them. An underhopped IPA is not a good thing.

 

[beesy]

my suggestion would be to brew/drink different "not so bitter" sytels. i would not recommend taking you boils down to 45 minutes. the time is needed to break apart differnt molecules which will affect your final product. like others suggested, just add the hops later. this will reduce your bitteness and provide you with a drink more suited to your taste. maybe a dumb question, but you know enough to homebrew, then why are you still brewing beer styles you aren't fond of??

p.s. trying a 12 of sam adams winter pack tonight and to be honest, not that impressive. peanut butter jelly time!!

 

[budbo]

maybe a dumb question, but you know enough to homebrew, then why are you still brewing beer styles you aren't fond of??

Seems be common with new brewers to brew high alcohol, high IBU beers (IPAs) until they learn that the coolest part of Homebrewing is making the beer exactly the way you like it.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

It has been my experience that when people say they think a beer is bitter, they don't like the aftertaste. For these same people I have eliminated the aroma hop and they liked the beer.

You need a bittering hop at the beginning of the boil. I would touch that hop. Just eliminate the final hop or cut it down to 1/4 oz.

From experience this makes people happy that do not like "Bitter Beer".
For example try this out. Take a drink of a beer. Immediately after swallowing, exhale rapidly through your mouth across your tounge. This will eliminate the effect of the aroma hops.
If this solves the problem then reduce the aroma hops.

Forrest

 

[BierMuncher]

To judge the taste of a beer or the level of bitterness right out of a fermentation vessel is very misleading.

My Centennial Blonde...out of the primary...is very harsh. 3 weeks later..it's very smooth.

To brew up low IBU beers I'd suggest:

Cream Ale
Munich Helles
Octoberfest
English Brown Mild
Belgian Wit

There are a ton of great beers you can brew up with IBU's in the mid teens.

 

[TeleTwanger]

1/4oz of Fuggle for 60 minute is too bitter? Something's not right...That's like 4.5 IBUS. Maybe it's not bitterness but astringent tannins you're tasting. Another 1/4oz at 15 and 5 added maybe another 2-3ibus for a whopping total of 8 IBUs.