high ibu no bitterness....wtf?

[Jonathanquist]

Here is the recipe its a smash

11 pounds 2 row

1 oz simcoe 13.7% 60 min
1 oz simcoe @ 5 min
American ale yeast
Fermented at 68-73 degrees pitched yeast at 82 degrees

1.049 of and I just measured my of 1.005! Gave it a taste and I tasted almost no bitterness does this make sense brewr android app said I should have 43.5 ibu.
Please help should i make a hop tea?

 

[homebrewdad]

How long has it been fermenting? Green beer often only somewhat resembles what mature beer tastes like. Wort is even less of a reliable indicator.

 

[Jonathanquist]

Mm I hope that's what it is it has only been fermenting for 9 days. but fermentation is complete I hope its already pretty high alcohol attenuation

 

[Dynachrome]

Interesting recipe.

What stage are you at, just getting ready to bottle?

Off the cuff that doesn't seem like enough hops for that much IBU. ...check your calcs?

1.005 is pretty dry. That will affect the mouth-feel.

I've done hop tea. As far as I know hop tea is not an exact science. It worked for me though. The amount to boil is kind of like punting. Could end up short, long, or in the stands.

The way I got it, the smaller boil doesn't extract as much oils from the hops. ?The water gets saturated? I may may be way off.

 

[Jonathanquist]

Yeah its a single malt single hop recipe I'm new so I'm trying to learn the flavors. the alphas are 13.7% my app says 36.2 ibu for the 60 min addition and 7.2 for the 5 I was kinda expecting a bitter punch but its like a butterfly landed on me.

 

[chumpsteak]

I did an all Simcoe IPA once at 80 ibu's and I didn't think it was very bitter. To me, Simcoe tends to taste like honeydew melon when the beer is young and doesn't have much flavor or bitterness when used by itself. I've found that Simcoe goes citrusy when combined with citrusy hops and piney when combined with piney hops. By itself it kind of falls flat and doesn't have much character. I would suggest you give it a few more weeks before you do anything, and then if you feel like you have to add a hop tea, use a different hop like centennial or chinook depending on how you want the flavor to go. Good luck and give it some time.

Next time if you really want bitterness, get your IBU's up and your IBU/SG ratio well over 1.000.

 

[Jonathanquist]

Awesome sounds like great advice I will be using. Thank u!

 

[Jonathanquist]

I let curiosity get the best of me and I decided to pull another sample and give it another taste. I think my palette was off or the beer just turned a corner cuz it tasted like the bitterness I expected and I think I might be falling for simcoe!

 

[stevedasleeve]

Simcoe is wonderful by itself and early samples are truly a waste of time IMHO. Wait a week and it will be a completely different beer. Report back then!

 

[kh54s10]

Sounds good that you got what you wanted.

In my experience tasting the beer before bottling or kegging only gives you a rough idea of the final product. To me it usually tastes like kind of sweet flat beer. I have even had ones that at 3 weeks bottle conditioning I was disappointed and at 4 weeks I was delighted!

Just wait to make any final judgments until the beer has truly been given enough time to mature.

 

[chickypad]

Carbonation always seems to help with the perceived bitterness for me too.

Question OP, did you check the calibration on your hydrometer? Both your OG and FG seem pretty low to me for that recipe (this is 5 gal, right?).

 

[Jonathanquist]

6 gallons and the gambrinus pale doesn't really have very much unfermentables apparently. Also checked my hydrometer and spot on 1.00 in water.