Bitter beer

[pdfmorais]

Hi all,

Today I was going to transfer my first brew ever from the primary to the secondary and something bad happen... The carboy fell and broke up...

But I was able to save a little bit. I was really anxious to taste it an I did! But the beer was too bitter. I did all according to a recipe I made with Brewtarget.

Can the bitterness have something to do with the fermenting not being done yet? Or should I use less hops? In Brewtarget it said the flavor was balanced and the IBU's (25.1) where according to the beer type (Viena Lager).

Can anyone help me?
Thanks..

 

[AndytheBeave]

Hey there,
Did you use tap water or RO water in this? If you used tap water, I would investigate your water chemistry in brewer's friend or bru'n water (or whatever you software of choice is). It may be that your water is susceptible to producing bitterness.

 

[TheHopfather]

You'd really have to post your recipe to help you figure it out. 25 IBUs shouldn't be overly bitter but there is a chance your IBU calculation was off somehow. You could be using higher AA hops than were inputted into the recipe, you could have added the hops earlier than intended in the recipe, you could have used more hops than were accounted for in the recipe. Water chemistry could also be the culprit.

 

[Bosh]

You could be tasting yeast that hasn't settled out yet or krausen gloop. Both can taste unpleasantly bitter.

Also I would strongly recommend NOT using a secondary as a newbie, just one more place where things can go wrong. Let it stay in the primary for about three weeks then bottle is a decent rule of thumb.

 

[pdfmorais]

Ill be checking the tap water PH later tonight. There is a PDF attached with the recipe.

I just remembered that I boiled with the lid closed. Another thing i did was filter the wort with a white cloth (I had some problems milling the grain) witch was probably washed with bleach and detergent. Can any of these have anything to do with the bitterness?

The max value for the Chlorine in my tap water is 1,27 mg/L. Is that toot much?

View attachment lager.pdf

 

[TheHopfather]

Boiling with the lid on can cause DMS in the beer, looks like you made a lager so that isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world.

Chlorine in your water is another matter. Chlorine will react with naturally occurring phenols in your beer and produce chlorophenols. Chlorophenols have a very low taste threshold (in the parts per billion rather than million, Randy Mosher says it is detectable at <0.5ppb), and they taste bad. It is possible you are picking up any chlorophenols as bitterness. You should do everything you can to ensure any water that will be touching your beer is chlorine free to avoid them (Star San water, priming sugar water, brewing liquor, etc).

I notice in your recipe your Saaz is listed at 2.3% AA, is that the correct value? Seems slightly low to me, it could also be you were using stronger hops than it says in the recipe and you ended up with a more bitter beer that way.

 

[MerlinWerks]

Chances are that it is quite simply "green" beer, which will taste overly bitter in almost all cases. You did not mention how long it was in the primary, but when young most beers will not taste anywhere near what they will after at least six weeks. Bitterness typically smoothes out and flavors begin to meld together, plus this being a lager there would be even more time required before it reaches it's full potential. It's a pretty typical complaint with new brewers and we have all experienced it at some point or another.

Measuring your water pH will most likely not be helpful, unless you have really, really bad water. It's the pH of the mash that you want to control...

 

[pdfmorais]

The 2.3% AA value is what was written on the package. I assumed it was right... The beer has been in the primary for a week.

I have another beer in primary right now. It is a diferent lager but it uses the same hops and was made with the same process. If the problem was chlorine this one Will be ruined too.

And tomorow I Will brew with water from a natural Spring that surely Will not have chlorine.

 

[MerlinWerks]

OK, but in either case you can't meaningfully evaluate the taste of a week old beer unless something is really screwed up and seeming overly bitter does not generally qualify as that's very typical for a young beer. Make sure you give it some time before drawing your conclusions...

 

[pdfmorais]

Ok. Thanks to everyone for the feedback!