What's wort supposed to taste like?

[aidan]

For my third batch of homebrew I brewed up an American Pale Ale with all Cascade hops pellets - 4 20g additions at 60, 30, 10 & 0 mins, plus an additional 20g set aside for dry hopping. (Full recipe details in this thread - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/first-extract-batch-need-advice-recipe-qtys-215340/) When I tasted the wort it was nasty - very bitter and a very concentrated hops taste. By comparison the wort from my previous 2 batches tasted nice but these were pre-hopped no boil kit beers so that might not be a good comparison.

So what do you reckon wort from a recipe like this would taste like?

 

[Wiezer]

Pretty much as you described. It's going to take time for the hop bitterness to mellow out. It will be fine by the time your beer is carbed and ready to drink.

 

[Smokeater233]

Well - that depends on a variety of factors, not the least of which is hop usage. Wort can have a "thick" mouthfeel, and be both sweet (from the un-fermented sugars) and very bitter (mostly from the hops) at the same time. You'll find with some higher IBU beers (like IPAs) that even after fermentation the taste is very bitter - bottle conditioning helps to balance the hops.

Cascade hops are average alpha acids hops roughly in the 5 or 6% range. You have about 0.75 ounces added at 60 (for bittering) 0.75 ounces added at 30 (for flavoring), etc. In calculating your bittering units for the four hop additions you arrive at a not-terribly-insignificant 40 IBUs for your wort (assuming an OG of 1.050, 5 gallons of volume with an alpha acid amount of 5%) with the majority coming from the first grouping of hops tossed in at the start of your boil. For comparison, Sierra Nevada has 37 IBUs.

This is only part of the story however, the gravity of the beer (I simply presumed a starting OG of 1.050 and didn't calculate out the full recipe), and the aroma will both have an effect on your perceived sense of bitterness.

Regardless, keep tasting your results from different brews and you'll soon gain a greater understanding of the varying flavor profiles of the ingredients you add at each stage in the process... Undoubtedly this will turn out to be a great beer - enjoy!

 

[RM-MN]

Try not to drink all your beer from this batch all at once. Leave some of it to bottle condition longer and see how the flavor changes. I think you'll really like the flavor it has after 8 to 10 weeks in the bottle.

 

[aidan]

Cascade hops are average alpha acids hops roughly in the 5 or 6% range. You have about 0.75 ounces added at 60 (for bittering) 0.75 ounces added at 30 (for flavoring), etc. In calculating your bittering units for the four hop additions you arrive at a not-terribly-insignificant 40 IBUs for your wort (assuming an OG of 1.050, 5 gallons of volume with an alpha acid amount of 5%) with the majority coming from the first grouping of hops tossed in at the start of your boil. For comparison, Sierra Nevada has 37 IBUs.

This is only part of the story however, the gravity of the beer (I simply presumed a starting OG of 1.050 and didn't calculate out the full recipe), and the aroma will both have an effect on your perceived sense of bitterness.

The weird thing is that the measured OG was more like 1.040 than 1.050. I measured 1.040 from sample taken from top and 1.043 from second sample taken from bottom after mixing and prior to pitching. Maybe the malt was a bit weak or something? Could that affect the flavour? i.e. less residual sweetness to balance against the hops?

By the way I like SNPA which is why I chose to do a Cascade hopped APA.

 

[AggieChemDoc]

If your top and bottom OGs don't match, your wort is not mixed well.

 

[jonmohno]

Bitter sweet tea thats what wort tastes like to me.

 

[aidan]

If your top and bottom OGs don't match, your wort is not mixed well.

I mixed it by stirring and then aggressively shaking for about 2 minutes for both mixing and aeration. I thought I was maybe even going overboard with the mixing but apparently not. What's the recommended amount of mixing to do?

Anyway, having taken samples from opposite ends and they were reasonably close, I find it hard to imagine that there was some volume of 1.060 lurking somewhere in the middle to average out the OG at 1.050, but I suppose it's not beyond the realm of possibility...

Has anybody brewed a similar beer and tasted the wort? By the way the aroma in the fridge where it's fermenting now is actually quite nice.

On a side note, I just had one of my favourite beers for lunch today, a nice pint of Fair Maiden Ale from a local Nelson craft brewer, Founders. I asked them about the hops and they told me it's an American Pale Ale style with lots of cascade hops - just what I'm trying to brew I thought to myself. If mine turns out anything like a Fair Maiden I'll be over the moon! I also asked how long they ferment for and was surprised to find out only 10 days and only in primary, then cold conditioned for 3 weeks. I had been reading about the merits of leaving it a long time in the primary and was considering going longer than the planned 2 weeks for this one but if 10 days is enough for one of my favourite beers, then 2 weeks should definitely be plenty for mine.

 

[Smokeater233]

Two minutes of mixing and aeration is perfectly fine - it's kinda hard to go overboard with this. One of the problems with doing partial boils - as you are finding out - is that the wort and the top-off water don't always mix immediately and thus you may not get the OG readings you are looking for. Just average it out - it's better to be more precise, but when doing partial extract I care more about dropping wort temp and pitching yeast than demanding a perfect OG reading.

As for the shorter ferment time on the hoppier beers - I've been cutting my time in primary short for my IPAs (aiming for brew to bottle in two weeks - naturally provided fermentation is complete) to best maintain hop aroma. This may not be the most suitable approach, but since I don't have a Randall the Enamel Animal and I'm a huge hop head, this has worked for me thus far...

 

[aidan]

Update: 1 week into fermentation, tonight I took an SG sample and tasted it prior dry hopping. Any niggling worries about it being over-hopped are totally unfounded. It actually tastes quite mild, so it should be a fine beer. Next time I might want to even go heavier on the hops! SG is down to the target but I'll leave it for another week before cold crashing.

 

[Smokeater233]

See that - RDWHAHB works! Congrats aidan - give us an update after fermentation is complete, and she's sat in bottles for a few weeks...

 

[aidan]

See that - RDWHAHB works! Congrats aidan - give us an update after fermentation is complete, and she's sat in bottles for a few weeks...

Just bottled it last night after almost 4 weeks in primary (longer than planned due to elbow fracture). Drank some of it as I was bottling and tastes great straight from primary! I could have had pints of it right there but limited myself to a few glasses. Reminiscent of SNPA. Not at all over hoppy, but a nice Cascade flavour. She'll be a nice one.

 

[pkeeler]

Wort should taste like sugar water. What probably happened is that you got some hot break or something in your taste.

 

[tjpfeister]

Wort pre boil = OM NOM NOM NUMMERS!
Wort post boil = poopy cacka
Wort post fermentation (beer) = Heaven.

:-D

I'm glad yours turned out. That's why I have made it a habit not to taste anything until post fermentation. No sense in worrying like that