Balancing an over-hopped haus ale

[mrkeeg]

Hey all,
My first all-grain was (more or less) Ed Wort's Hause Pale Ale.

I mentioned on another thread that it went pretty well for a first effort... but it was kind of spontaneous, so I had no manifold (ended up drilling holes in a pop bottle and siphoning from the bottom of it ... it worked... about as well as it sounds like it would), and also no cooling device except the great outdoors.

Anyway... hops. We had some cascade pellets, but it sort of went like this "how much is 1/2 oz?" *shake shake shake* "well... our AA% is lower than called for.. so better add a few more... and... they've been in the fridge a while so.. "*shake shake shake more* "not sure if that was quite enough... add these goldings too"

Anyway, I'm pretty sure we over-shot. Also, the slow cooling likely extracted further bitterness and destroyed aroma.

It just went into the keg, but warm and flat it tastes... BITTER.

So... I suppose I could add a malty, unfermentable adjunct to sweeten and balance it a bit. However, I'm thinking maybe dry hop (my options are cluster, crystal, cascade, or goldings) to bring back some aroma, and change the name from a pale ale to an India Pale Ale?

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[AiredAle]

You could dry hop it, but that won't reduce the bitterness. I would carb it, age it a couple weeks and taste it. If it's too bitter you could brew the same beer again but deliberately under-hop it and blend the two. Since you kegged it this will be easy, split the overbitter ale into two kegs, split the new beer between them, carb, age and try.

If you want to get all geeky, you could figure out how much under-bittered beer to add by taste testing and blending different amounts to get the bitterness you want.

I also suggest buying a scale capable of weighing to the gram or 1/10th of a gram. Lots of them available and not too expensive, do a search on this forum for threads about them. Then when you over or under hop you will know by how much...

 

[mrkeeg]

Thanks AiredAle,
I hadn't thought of mixing two batches.. that is a great idea.

I know the dry hopping wouldn't reduce the bitterness... I guess I just thought it could balance some of the bitter taste with some good hop aroma, and then change expectations from an easy pale ale to a hoppy IPA... you know... as if that's what I MEANT to do

 

[wildwest450]

Dude, buy a scale. They don't cost that much, and you can be more precise with those hop measurements.

 

[gabeweisz]

You might not even need to blend - just stick the keg in the back of your closet for 6 months and then taste it again -the bitterness may fade away.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

You can also blend it OUTSIDE of the keg.

Mix it with a sweetish beer in the glass and you can find a very nice balance.

 

[mrkeeg]

You know... a few days in the keg, cooling down to serving temp, carbonating up...

I think I like this beer as it turned out. Definitely hoppy still, not the super-easy-drinking ale I understand the original to be, but good. I suppose the ABV isn't high enough to call it a true IPA, but... it's nice to know that my first all grain is quite drinkable!

Next time I might do that or purpose from the original recipe... beef of the grains a bit to hit a higher gravity, load up the hops a bit more...

Thanks for the thoughts though all!

 

[WBC]

You will like it better in 2 weeks as bitterness will subside a bit. You need to buy a scale and they are not very expensive so don't put it off as you will find many uses for it other than brewing.

 

[mysteryberto]

+1 to scales they're very useful. I use mine for weighing out hops and coffee.

If you wait a few weeks the bitterness will mellow greatly.

 

[brrman]

I have the same problem - an overly bitter beer... I have been aging it for about 4 weeks now and it is subsiding somewhat. Might have to go 10 weeks before it is to my tastes though...

 

[homebrewer_99]

I tell people to blend often.

If it's a nice pale ale or something along those lines mix it about 50/50 with a lemon-lime soda. They're called "Radlers" in Germany.