Bitter hydrometer sample

[AQUILAS]

I brewed my christmas old ale today.

Everything went really well. Hit all my numbers all throughout, actually did better than all the estimated numbers.

After taking my post boil sample for an OG reading, the aroma was amazing. EKG gingerbread cookie is what I could think of. But the taste......it was super bitter upfront. After the bitterness went away, the taste went back to the EKG gingerbread cookie.

I want to think that the bitterness came from the amount of hops put in. Nearly 6oz of hops. For those that didn't read the recipe, it was 2.75oz fuggles @ 60 and 2.75oz EKG at 10. I've never brewed an IPA, so I'm not sure how bitter those can be right after boil, but does this sound on par with IPA wort bitterness?

If it's not the hops, I added 1/2tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4tsp ground ginger, and 1/4tsp ground nutmeg at flameout. Could that have anything to do with the bitterness?

I'm leaving this in the primary for 2 months before I bottle it, at which point, I'll be leaving it for 4 weeks before sharing it with my family on Christmas. So I hope that the bitterness clears out.

 

[Bensiff]

Hops are very bitter right off the boil, they will calm down immensely during fermentation. Spices tend to add more of an astringent sort of bitterness.

 

[brew_darrymore]

It's normal for post-boil IPA's to be overly bitter. I always drink the hydrometer sample before I transfer the wort to my fermenter. And my experience is that it's not just the IPA's, but most other beers are overly bitter at that point as well.

But don't worry. My experience is that bitterness will mellow down quite a bit after 60 days, so your beer will turn out fine.

 

[AQUILAS]

Hops are very bitter right off the boil, they will calm down immensely during fermentation. Spices tend to add more of an astringent sort of bitterness.

It's normal for post-boil IPA's to be overly bitter. I always drink the hydrometer sample before I transfer the wort to my fermenter. And my experience is that it's not just the IPA's, but most other beers are overly bitter at that point as well.

But don't worry. My experience is that bitterness will mellow down quite a bit after 60 days, so your beer will turn out fine.

Thank you both for your responses. I kind of figured that with the amount of hops I put in this recipe is related to the time in the primary, so that after the 3 months it ages (2 months in primary, 1 month in bottle), there is still going to be some hop profile. So this made the old ale wort on the level of IPA wort bitter.

I guess I just needed to hear that to RDWHAHB.

If some of the bitterness was due to the spices, would that astringent bitterness mellow out over that time?

 

[Talgrath]

Personally, i have given up on the idea of tasting the beer/wort before it is done for the most part. Generally speaking the flavor won't match up with the finished product. Too much happens during fermentation and priming that will change the flavor.

 

[AQUILAS]

Personally, i have given up on the idea of tasting the beer/wort before it is done for the most part. Generally speaking the flavor won't match up with the finished product. Too much happens during fermentation and priming that will change the flavor.

After I made this post yesterday, I started looking up similar threads and a lot of folks mentioned the same thing. I need to do the same.

If there were any off-flavors, would off-flavors be moreso detected after fermentation or would you be able to detect any from the post-boil wort?

 

[solbes]

Excess yeast in suspension gives more of a bite to the bitterness I've found. I always drink the hydrometer sample at racking or packaging (2-4 weeks from brew date). Seems to be present in at least half of my beers. But that extra bite does not transfer to the carbonated an packaged beer after most yeast settles out. Cheers!

 

[brew_darrymore]

If there were any off-flavors, would off-flavors be moreso detected after fermentation or would you be able to detect any from the post-boil wort?

The post-boil wort is nothing more than a bitter hopped barley tea. Most off flavours (if any) would develop during fermentation. But as one of the posters above said: a flat, warm sample after fermentation is done will taste nothing like the same sample being carbonated and chilled. So, don't panic about the taste at bottling/kegging time.


By the way, I do taste my beer at all stages. I taste the mash, I have a taste at pre-boil, after boil, at bottling time, and at 1 and 2 weeks after bottling! Hey, it's my product, and I'd like to know how it evolves from grain to a nice, carbonated, cold and refreshing beer!!

Cheers!

 

[Bensiff]

After I made this post yesterday, I started looking up similar threads and a lot of folks mentioned the same thing. I need to do the same.

If there were any off-flavors, would off-flavors be moreso detected after fermentation or would you be able to detect any from the post-boil wort?

The only major off flavor I can think you would get from the mash would be astringency from over sparging or high pH, that would be covered up by the hop bitterness for the most part unless you are very sensitive to astringency or are practiced in picking out that character.

 

[pdog44450]

Personally, i have given up on the idea of tasting the beer/wort before it is done for the most part. Generally speaking the flavor won't match up with the finished product. Too much happens during fermentation and priming that will change the flavor.

Me too. Honestly half the time I can't tell the difference between a brown ale and an ipa wort, I must just have a bad palate

 

[AQUILAS]

The post-boil wort is nothing more than a bitter hopped barley tea. Most off flavours (if any) would develop during fermentation. But as one of the posters above said: a flat, warm sample after fermentation is done will taste nothing like the same sample being carbonated and chilled. So, don't panic about the taste at bottling/kegging time.


By the way, I do taste my beer at all stages. I taste the mash, I have a taste at pre-boil, after boil, at bottling time, and at 1 and 2 weeks after bottling! Hey, it's my product, and I'd like to know how it evolves from grain to a nice, carbonated, cold and refreshing beer!!

Cheers!

That makes sense. I just panicked a bit there because of all the beers I've made up to this point, the post-boil wort has always tasted sweet and bitter. This one was very, very bitter up front. But as I said in a reply above, at the time I made this post, I didn't consider the strong bitterness was probably/most likely from the amount of bittering hops I put in. A whole 2.75oz of fuggles at 60. With my other brews, the most I think I ever put in was around 1-1.25oz.

The only major off flavor I can think you would get from the mash would be astringency from over sparging or high pH, that would be covered up by the hop bitterness for the most part unless you are very sensitive to astringency or are practiced in picking out that character.

I don't sparge as I do a full volume mash in a cooler. As for pH, I didn't check the pH of the mash as I don't have a pH meter yet (though one is in the mail on its way to me as we speak), but I don't think I could have done anything to have a high pH. I used RO'd water (got water from those Glacier water dispensers at the grocery store), though not sure about my malts. Would that large amount of maris otter contribute to high pH?

 

[Bensiff]

If you used RO water and didn't add salts back to create some buffering capacity its pH would likely drop low especially with the darker malts.