I think I screwed up. :(

[Szerek]

Well, not me but BeerSmith.

I took a gravity reading this morning and for the 3rd day in a row my gravity has been stable telling me that the ferment is over. However, I sipped some of the beer and BOY is it bitter.

I did some looking around and realized that I think I went WAY WAY WAY above what I should have for hops.

I used BeerSmith (Eval Version) to pick the hops and it told me that my IBU should be around 30ish.

So after tasting the over the top bitterness, I re-entered my recipe (same recipe, everything the same) and it gave me different IBU (about 4.7). Soooo, I did it again and got an IBU of 87ish. (this is all on my home PC by the way).

So, this morning I installed BeerSmith on my work laptop, and I've entered the recipe 3 times and all three are showing an IBU of 214.

To make a long story short, I think something is wrong with my BeerSmith installation at home.

My question is, is there ANYTHING I can do to cut down on the bitterness? The beer is still in the primary, and I'm not sure how much it will mellow over the next few weeks and I'm a tad worried that it will be far too bitter to drink.

 

[Szerek]

Edit: I'm sure you'll want to know.. this was a 2.5 gallon batch and I used the following Hop Schedule:

2.00oz of Cluster @ 60
1.50oz of Cascade @ 15
.50 oz of Cascade @ 5

After looking around that is from what I've seen WAY WAY WAY too heavy

 

[Beerrific]

What kind of beer is it?

The bitterness tends to disappear after the secondary and conditioning.

 

[Willsellout]

That's quite a bit of hops for a 2.5 gal batch. Not sure of the AA% of your bittering hops but 2 oz is lot. What style is it::edit:: I see it's a APA...well you just made an IPA



Dan

 

[Brewsmith]

Turn it into 5 gallons. Add enough malt extract and water to get it to 5 gallons of the same gravity. That will dilute the bitterness without diluting the beer.

 

[Szerek]

Turn it into 5 gallons. Add enough malt extract and water to get it to 5 gallons of the same gravity. That will dilute the bitterness without diluting the beer.

How would I go about doing that? I still have 1lb of LME left from the brew, but my local HBS is only opened Wednesdays and Saturday's and I can't get over today or Saturday.

Should I just do another another boil with the LME I have left?

Also, my next batch was going to be a Raspberry APA, can I just boil up the 1lb of LME I have left and then add about 30oz of Frozen Concentrate? (that should bring the gravity up to about where it should be) then let it re-ferment in the primary?

EDIT: It should be noted that I'm fermenting in a 5gal bucket so I'd have to keep any additions under the 5 gal mark. I can probably add another 1 - 2 gallons of water

 

[WOP31]

Holy hoppiness Batman! 2 oz of bittering hops in a 2.5 gal batch, I am a hop head but thats wild. I hope that this is an IPA. I would say that it should mellow out a bit but that is a pretty big hop schedule. You could add some lactose or something similar to the secondary to sweeten it up. but you may end up with a really bitter/sweet beer. Good name though - Too Sweet Bitters.

 

[Yooper]

That's more hops than I would use in a 5 gallon batch, probably. But I think Brewsmith has a great idea- boil up some DME and make 2.5 gallons of hopless wort, chill it, and make it a 5 gallon batch. That might be a very, very good beer!

Edit- just read your reply. 1 pound LME isn't much at all so you'd need more than that. No way would I had berries to this- you'd have very, very bitter fruity beer.

 

[Brewsmith]

You'd need about 1 3.3 lb can of LME and enough water to bring it up to volume. I'd just boil the extract in about a gallon of water only enough to sanitize it then cool it and add it to the fermenter and top up to five gallons with water.

 

[Szerek]

You'd need about 1 3.3 lb can of LME and enough water to bring it up to volume. I'd just boil the extract in about a gallon of water only enough to sanitize it then cool it and add it to the fermenter and top up to five gallons with water.

Ok, I'm trying to find a way to squeeze in a run to the HBS this afternoon. Is there anything I need to worry about as far as Oxidation by adding Wort now? Anything I need to be concerned about as far as infecting the beer?

By the way, thank you all so very much for your help. If it weren't for this community I probably would have given up after the first batch.

 

[Brewsmith]

As long as everything is clean and sanitized that touches the cooled wort, you're fine. I wouldn't worry about oxidation. If it ends up drinkable, it will be gone before oxidation really becomes a problem.

 

[Yooper]

While you're there, any chance you can buy a bigger bucket? A 5 gallon bucket gives you no head room at all.....

Brewsmith gave great advice. I'd probably dump the wort into a new (larger) bucket, and siphon the beer you already made in. Then gently spoon the yeast cake in.

if you're going to keep the small fermenter, I'd just siphon the new cooled wort into it gently.

 

[Szerek]

While you're there, any chance you can buy a bigger bucket? A 5 gallon bucket gives you no head room at all.....

Brewsmith gave great advice. I'd probably dump the wort into a new (larger) bucket, and siphon the beer you already made in. Then gently spoon the yeast cake in.

if you're going to keep the small fermenter, I'd just siphon the new cooled wort into it gently.

Right now I can't afford a bigger bucket. The buckets I do have are buckets I've gotten for free and converted them to their purpose for about $4 per bucket.

I think at this point I'm going to try to get to my LHBS and pick up another lb of DME and boil 2 lbs more of DME in 1.5 gallons of water and add that to the fermented wort. I think that will sufficiently cut the hoppiness for me.

That will give me 4 gallons total in the 5 gallon bucket. My krausen layer from the first ferment only gave me about a 2 inch ring, and 4 gallons should give me enough head room.

 

[Szerek]

It's done.. I boiled another 2lbs of DME in 1.5 gallons and made it a 4 gallon batch.. That should drop the IBUs down to the 60 - 70 range, which I guess now makes this an IPA.

By the way.. I did get a little aeration when I added the new wort to the batch. I hope that doesn't ruin it. I'm hoping that the yeasties use up that little bit of oxygen I introduced.