Pale ales getting more bitter.

[beerkench]

Maybe it's just a perception thing, but as my hoppy pales or sesh ipa's (whatever you call them) lose their flavour, overall bitterness seems to increase. The bitterness is almost like a biting into an orange peel bitterness. Making a nice juicy brew into something not so nice. I know that flavour loss is inevitable but I don't expect the brew to become more bitter.
Oxidation could be the culprit but I try my best to do a closed transfer from fermenter to keg. I never open the fermenter until transfer and then I blow co2 in through the bung hole and transfer spigot to keg.

Maybe these slight infection?

Or maybe it's perception as the flavour drop reveals the true IBU's as the beer clears.

Anyone else notice the same?

 

[StopTakingMyUsername]

We had a lot of pale/IPAs come out bitter when we started brewing a bunch back in the day.
There were a few things we found, but since you're saying the beers are good at FIRST, then deteriorate into a bitter mess, I'd look at your bittering additions first. It may be that your aroma/flavor additions are great, but those dissipate quickly (for whatever reason, O2?)... and all that's left is the bittering addition (which, I may be wrong, but I think that will remain in a beer much longer).

Some things that helped us lower/remove bitterness from our IPA/Pale:
Charcoal filter to remove chloramines
PH monitoring (consistently between 5.3 - 5.4)
Filtering transfer from MT to BK to catch grain particles (if these are boiled it can lead to astringency)
Minimizing (or removing completely) the 60 min addition
Not dry-hopping for more than 7 days
Looking at which hops are used, and the freshness of them.

 

[Cyclman]

Sounds like a water chemistry issue to me, try RO water modified to PA requirements.

 

[tagz]

I agree. If it's astringent, water chemistry is a good place to look. The hops could be covering up the flavor for the first few weeks. Mash pH and chlorine would be a good place to start.