Lingering Bitterness, not pleasant can't fix

Hello all. So i have done about 15 all grain batches now, and no matter what i do, my pale ales / ipa's are all ending up with the same lingering bitterness that says on the back of my tongue forever. Some of these are clones, and others my own recipes. I have done a couple of blondes, and vienna lagers and did not have this problem. I do 8.5 gallon batches, keggle HLT, round cooler mash, and keggle kettle. I have a fermentation chamber and usually ferment around 64-65 degrees (with probe on outside of carboy.) I mash at 150 and never higher than 152. I was convinced that my water was the problem after getting a water report showing high sulphates so i installed an RO system and built the water for my last batch with 100% RO water. I thought i finally had it fixed, the first week the beer was great and i did not notice the lingering after-taste. However, I dry hopped this beer and as the taste faded, the lingering bitterness was there again so maybe it was covering it up? I also bottled half of that batch, and it tasted the same. So....not sure where to go now, what else could be causing this? I am planning on entering a competition just so i can get feedback on what it could be. (Or i can send to someone here if anyone wants to help me out ? ). My only other thought is maybe the RO did not strip enough of the sulphates out. I may try with 100% spring water next time? Any help would be greatly appreciated, getting frustrated

 

What's your hop schedule look like? Are you always bittering with the same hop? Also, is this strictly your perception, or do others have the same complaint? Maybe it's just a matter of changing up your recipes. I'm a total hophead, but I don't do much of a bittering charge -- I love to just hammer the beer with late and whirlpool hops.

 

Dont have my latest recipe with me, but generally i do 60, 20, 5, then a dry hop. I have been bittering only with Magnum, 20, and 5 min additions vary. (Last recipe was citra and cascade. ) IBU's should be about 32 or so

 

That's for a pale, I take it? That sure doesn't seem like much. Can you tell if this is a hop bitterness, or more like some astringency from the grain (tannins)? What do other people say about the beer?

 

Yes, a pale. Unfortunately most of my friends don't drink anything but light beers so I am pretty much the only one that drinks them. My brother in law said he liked the last batch i did, but not sure if i can get honest feedback from him.

I am not even sure i could tell you what astringency tastes like. I have never sucked on a tea bag. I do drink alot of pales and ipa's whenever we go out though, and none have the same aftertaste i am experiencing.

 

If I were you, I'd try brewing a really simple SMaSH, something like 10 lbs of Maris Otter, with an oz. of Cascade at 60, another oz at 15, and 2 oz at flameout. Pitch a very clean yeast (I don't love US-05, but that one would be fine, or WLP090, or whatever), and just let it ferment out at 65-ish. I would also make sure to get new (2014) hops from a trusted source (I've had some bad hops that really screwed up a few batches before).

Sometimes it can be helpful to try to eliminate variables with issues like this.

 

Thanks, i may try something like that. I have been using a bells yeast that i harvested, guess i could try a new vial of something.