Very very bitter beer, what can i do ?

[misterc]

Hey guys,

my beer had finished fermenting couple days ago, this is a week away from brewday. so i sampled it, and the result was VERY VERY bitter juice. it's undrinkable

please note that i poured all of the cold breaks into the fermenter, is it possible that its due to sitting on the trub for a week full of hops?

OG 1.040
Expected FG 1.010
SG now 1.010 (hit the target pretty well)
calculated IBUs ~30

what can i do about it ???

thank you!!
:cross:

 

[twistr25]

Can you give us your recipe, yeast strain, ferment temps? My batches sit on the trub for three weeks, so that is likely not the issue.

 

[RobertRGeorge]

Are you suggesting you used pellet hops and didn't get the powder out of the wort?
I hate to throw out beer and almost never would with a flaw like this.
You can always mix this batch with another by pouring bottles into a pitcher at a ratio that you like. I've used a pitcher in the past that I put in the freezer first to help retain carbonation and chill.

 

[Yooper]

Hey guys,

my beer had finished fermenting couple days ago, this is a week away from brewday. so i sampled it, and the result was VERY VERY bitter juice. it's undrinkable

please note that i poured all of the cold breaks into the fermenter, is it possible that its due to sitting on the trub for a week full of hops?

OG 1.040
Expected FG 1.010
SG now 1.010 (hit the target pretty well)
calculated IBUs ~30

what can i do about it ???

thank you!!
:cross:

I have a counterflow chiller, which means that all of the cold break, as well as the pellet hop debris, goes into the fermenter and my beer has never been messed up from that.

If the beer is bitter, there are only a couple of causes. One is the recipe (too many bittering hops for the recipe) but with a 30 IBU beer that isn't likely. The second is water chemistry, but that usually means a "plastic" flavor to the bitterness.

I bet that since it's flat and unconditioned that the bitterness will fade and the beer will turn out much better than it seems right now. If you post your recipe, though, we can take a look and make sure that nothing seems to be wrong with the recipe.

 

[chungking]

My first batch I made I didn't strain out the hop pellet debris. It came out bitter, the wife hated it, but I didn't mind it to much.

I have since strained the pellets out while transferring from pot to fermenter. Haven't had an overly bitter brew since. However, from reading on here, it shouldn't matter whether you strain them out or not. 3 weeks in primary is recommended though.

The last batch I brewed I decided not to strain the pellets out. It's a basic pale ale from Midwest. Another 1.5 weeks in primary and then bottle time. I'll let you know how it turns out...

 

[misterc]

This is my recipe

OG 1.040 FG 1.010

2.5kg Amber LME

hops
-60min 10g Nelson Sauvin ~13% AA
-30min 30g Cascade ~6% AA
-1min 20g Nelson Sauvin ~13% AA
from calculation, these should made up around 30IBUs

yeast - Safale us05 at around 75F, pretty hot here



i think that addition of NS at the last minute has something to do with exceeding bitterness, may it be those alpha acid that was released and hasn't flock down yet, plus the fact that i sampled it too soon (at 1 week) ??

i hope it will mellow out :rockin:

thanks guys!

 

[Yooper]

This is my recipe

OG 1.040 FG 1.010

2.5kg Amber LME

hops
-60min 10g Nelson Sauvin ~13% AA
-30min 30g Cascade ~6% AA
-1min 20g Nelson Sauvin ~13% AA
from calculation, these should made up around 30IBUs

yeast - Safale us05 at around 75F, pretty hot here



i think that addition of NS at the last minute has something to do with exceeding bitterness, may it be those alpha acid that was released and hasn't flock down yet, plus the fact that i sampled it too soon (at 1 week) ??

i hope it will mellow out :rockin:

thanks guys!

It's the bittering hops that cause bitterness- the one minute hops will not create bitterness.

30 IBUs in a 1.040 beer is quite a bit of bittering, and when I calculated that recipe in my software, I got more like 40 IBUs. The 30 grams of cascade at 30 minutes would contribute a lot of bitterness.

It's the recipe's fault, but it should mellow quite a bit with some time. Next time, keep the bittering hops lower for a more balanced beer.

 

[twistr25]

Did you do a partial boil or a full boil? The 1 min addition would not add that much to bitterness, that's the aroma addition, so it only adds a couple points to the IBUs

 

[misterc]

I didn't recalculated the recipe. Yes, it must be faulty

Thanks soooo much guys!!

hope this will get better with age

 

[david_42]

You might try adding some maltodextrin. It will boost the body and add a slight sweetness, both of which will counter the bitterness.

 

[neosapien]

I would just let it ride out for a while. The bitterness will fade a bit with time. Just forget about the sample you tasted. By the time you get around to drinking the last bottle of this batch, you won't even remember how bitter is tasted now.

 

[45_70sharps]

I made some beer with what I had at the house a while back.
Last minute I decided to make it a coffee beer. Sounded good to me.
Between the hops and the coffee the stuff came out very bitter. Too bitter to be enjoyable.

I let it sit and would try it from time to time and it got better, but not good.
I finally boiled up some water and put some DME in it, when it cooled I added it to the keg and let it sit for a week or two.

Came out very good then. Not only did I like it but it was a hit with guests.

Made me wish I hadn't thrown my notes away from when I made it!

Give it some sweetness to offset the bitter and give it a little time.
Honey might be good instead of DME.... Just try something and chances are you can salvage it and it might turn out to be very good.

 

[freisste]

Give it some sweetness to offset the bitter and give it a little time.
Honey might be good instead of DME.... Just try something and chances are you can salvage it and it might turn out to be very good.

I'm pretty new, so don't quote me, but I think adding honey (which will almost fully ferment) will give more alcohol, but not help with malt-hop balance. I would add something less fermentable.

 

[45_70sharps]

I'm pretty new, so don't quote me, but I think adding honey (which will almost fully ferment) will give more alcohol, but not help with malt-hop balance. I would add something less fermentable.

I haven't used honey in beer yet ( going to this Saturday!) so I'm not sure but I think honey is more complex and added late in the process you can have the honey leave a lot of flavor.

Malt is very fermentable and yet if you were to brew with all malts extract you would have a very sweet and not desirable. You need the hop bitter to offset it.
I think that either would add to the sweetness, but like I said, I don't know much about honey in the brew. I just thought it would be worth a try and had thought about it when I had the overly bitter batch.

I wouldn't do either until the beer was fermented out and I could taste it though.

 

[freisste]

I haven't used honey in beer yet ( going to this Saturday!) so I'm not sure but I think honey is more complex and added late in the process you can have the honey leave a lot of flavor.

Malt is very fermentable and yet if you were to brew with all malts extract you would have a very sweet and not desirable. You need the hop bitter to offset it.
I think that either would add to the sweetness, but like I said, I don't know much about honey in the brew. I just thought it would be worth a try and had thought about it when I had the overly bitter batch.

I wouldn't do either until the beer was fermented out and I could taste it though.

Hmmm... One of us is confused.

I think you are right that honey will leave flavor if added late, but I am not sure about the sweetness. Also, I agree that all malt would be too sweet, but I think that is because it is NOT very fermentable (compared to other things yeast eat like corn sugar or honey), so it leaves sugars behind. Other unfermentables like lactose and maltodextrine add even more sweetness. Basically it is sugar that the yeast won't eat so it stays in the brew.

But again, I could be totally wrong.

 

[45_70sharps]

freisste, You are right that the malt will add sweetness, but that's the point when it's to bitter. Hops add bitter to offset the sweet so reverse it.
Honey will add flavors ( maybe) and might offset the hop bitterness. Not sure on the honey. Like I said I've never used honey.

All sugar would just add alcohol. It's not going to cover the bitter.
I've never done anything with lactose or maltodextrine and don't even know where you get them. Non fermentable sugars would help. Something that adds some flavor also might be nice though.
I know that the extract helped my ultra bitter beer. That and time. Before I added it I was thinking about honey because if the honey flavor came through it might have been nice. Extract was a lot cheaper way to try and save the beer than honey though.

 

[freisste]

I think I misread your post. It now sounds like we are saying the same thing.

If it is too bitter, you can balance with more sweetness. I get more sweetness, totally fermentable sugars won't help (because they turn entirely to alcohol), so you need sugars that aren't totally fermentable.

 

[strambo]

If you would have moved the Cascades from 30 minutes to 15 minutes, it would have both lowered the bitterness and drastically increased the hop flavor. 30 minutes doesn't add much, if any, flavor. For bittering-60 minutes. Flavor-20 minutes and under. Aroma- 5 mins, flameout, and dry hop.

 

[misterc]

I decided to fix this batch by adding CARAMEL.

I used 1/2 kilo of table sugar, boiled it until it turned dark and dilute with some water, preventing it from hardening, then added the mixture into the beer.
6 hours has passed and the krausen is now formed. Gravity has increased from ~1.010 to ~1.020.

My thinking is by adding caramel, which is mostly unfermentables, will increase the sweetness of the beer to balance out the bitterness.

Will keep you guys updated.
Thanks for every helps!!!!:rockin:

 

[45_70sharps]

Sounds like it could be a good solution.
sweeten it and give it some time.

 

[Yooper]

I decided to fix this batch by adding CARAMEL.

I used 1/2 kilo of table sugar, boiled it until it turned dark and dilute with some water, preventing it from hardening, then added the mixture into the beer.
6 hours has passed and the krausen is now formed. Gravity has increased from ~1.010 to ~1.020.

My thinking is by adding caramel, which is mostly unfermentables, will increase the sweetness of the beer to balance out the bitterness.

Will keep you guys updated.
Thanks for every helps!!!!:rockin:

But caramel, make from sugar ISN'T mostly unfermentable. It'll ferment out, and leave a weird flavor.

 

[chickypad]

I would resist the urge to keep tinkering. As neosapian and Yooper alluded to, we are talking about a 7 day old beer here. I know that in retropsect the recipe is not what you wanted, but I think you are probably just making things worse adding stuff. Would definitely not have gone with carmelized sugar (were you thinking caramel malt ?).

 

[Yooper]

I would resist the urge to keep tinkering. As neosapian and Yooper alluded to, we are talking about a 7 day old beer here. I know that in retropsect the recipe is not what you wanted, but I think you are probably just making things worse adding stuff. Would definitely not have gone with carmelized sugar (were you thinking caramel malt ?).

Well, I think we're in agreement but not being heard!

I would NEVER tinker with something only a week old. But if I did, I'd make sure to add the proper addition, and not cause more issues than the beer had before. There are now going to be additional issues with this beer, I'm afraid.

 

[gregfreemyer]

I'm sure I'm speaking heresy, but

I'm a noob and my second batch I messed up the recipe. It was too bitter for my taste. Others like it.

Mine's a witbier, so i've been drinking it with san pelligrino orange flavored sparkling water mixed in. About 1 part san pelligrino to 2 parts overly bitter witbier. I really like the combo. I like shandy's anyway, and this is an interesting variation on a traditional shandy.

Greg

 

[mikescooling]

I would resist the urge to keep tinkering. As neosapian and Yooper alluded to, we are talking about a 7 day old beer here. I know that in retropsect the recipe is not what you wanted, but I think you are probably just making things worse adding stuff. Would definitely not have gone with carmelized sugar (were you thinking caramel malt ?).

I 2nd, this beer is green. The #1 thing I tell new brewers is don't drink your beer the first week, but they all do (I did, got sick too). As a side note you can keep beer in the carboy for a long time and it keeps getting better. When you start doing more beers you will see they can change color from week to week.