Lingering bitterness

[eastbaybrewer]

I just brewed a porter 3 weeks ago. I had the first taste last night and it good, but it has a lingering bitterness in the aftertaste. Will the fade in the keg? The recipe is 38 ibu's.

 

[Dave Sarber]

Let it condition for a while. Most dark beers are enhanced in flavor and smoothness with a little extra aging.

 

[kevin58]

What hops did you use?

 

[eastbaybrewer]

What hops did you use?

Bravo 1/2oz @60 and 1/2oz @30

 

[RM-MN]

I tend to wait much longer than 3 weeks for my porters. I find them much better after 3 months.

 

[ALExanderH]

Could also be affected by your water chemistry and grain bill, high amounts of very dark roasted grains can give you a bitter character which I think should age out but if it indeed is affected by water and too much hops then that is not likely to fade
Could also be a culmination of multiple factors

 

[kevin58]

I plugged his hops into one of my typical porter recipes and in those amounts the IBU only comes to around 45 which is not too much for a porter. But Bravo, known for it's bitterness profile, is not a hop I would ever consider using in a porter which shouldn't have a pronounced bitterness. Alexander is right about certain dark roasted grains. I have made porters which at first taste appeared overly bitter but I later determined that it was actually an acrid character that came from too much dark roasted grains.

 

[eastbaybrewer]

Just had a pint. The bitterness is fading. I guess a little time cold crashing in the keg helped.

 

[Dland]

Recently read an article (Beer Smith) says to consider adding dark roasts late in mash to avoid bitterness, as their sugars are already available due to roasting.

I brewed some sort of Bock yesterday and added some Special B in last 15 min of mash, got the dark color and caramel taste w/o much bitterness.