It’s bitter

[Shawnstve]

Ok so it’s not hoppy, it’s just bitter. It’s my first beer, and it’s ok. It’s a pale ale, tastes just like a light pale ale, with very little hops. Yet there is a slight bitter aftertaste to it. I did go light on the hops, and the bitterness isnt hoppy bitterness. It’s almost like that bitterness in the back of your throat when you have a Tylenol or something. It’s medicinal bitterness not hoppy bitterness. Anyone know what can cause that? Also, the foam on top is super white, weird looking. I might have under carbed this but it was quite fuzzy which is good. And the beer tastes great! If it wasn’t for that astringent bitterness at the end.

the recipe was for a 1 gallon. I used 1.9 lbs of 2 row, 0.2 lbs of Crystal-10L, 2 grams of cascade at 60min, and 2 grams at 20 minutes. Then for yeast I used mauribrew pale ale yeast. I let it ferment for 3 weeks, then bottled with dextros for carbonation (from a calculator) but I went slightly lighter than suggested in fear of bottle bombs. I let sit in the bottle for 2 weeks, and then cold crashed it for 2 days in the fridge.
is there any contamination issues that can cause super bitter flavors? This happened also to my cider as well. But the cider is mildly sweet so it kinda mellowed out the bitterness. This is beer, a light pale ale. It’s not sweet. So it’s just bitter. Also let me mention it’s more of an aftertaste type of bitterness. Not on the forefront of the sip like hop bitterness is. It’s after I second after I’ll get a bitter taste. In the back of the tounge

 

[dnr]

It could be a few things, from what I understand of beer.
1.) Oxidation. Sunlight can ruin beer very quickly.
2.) Water chemistry. Carbonate or carbonic acid. Could also mean you primed or carbonated too much for your taste.
3.) Fresh hops can't be vegetal or astringent. Some people can describe that as aspirin, too.

 

[Shawnstve]

Ok thanks for the reply!
so I don’t think the sun got in it. Maybe occasionally the lights in my closet were turned on, but briefly.
I suspect the water chemistry. Its highly filtered water, from something called a Berkey filter. our water is very very hard though out of the faucet, and I’ve tested with strips and it’s high PH. But from what I read it’s low PH that can cause bitterness in beer? I’m not sure. I’ll call my local home brew to see if they have a way to test my water better than the test strips.
I under carbonated my beer actually. Less carbonation than I’m used to actually. So I don’t think it’s that. But maybe.... Bottle didn’t really do much when opened, it didn’t make much of a tsssss sound.
So I am used to IPA’s, and I used pellets, cascade pellets. And very light amount not a lot. In fact I find this beer less in hops flavor than I’d like, I was thinking from the flavor that I would want to add more hops next time. But maybe.
You know, I had taken some Benadryl in liquid form just now because I had an allergic reaction to something and I tasted the exact same flavor that’s in the beer. That same bitterness, on the back of my tounge. So if you have had Benadryl before and know what bitterness I’m talking about...

 

[Transamguy77]

What temp did you ferment at? If it fermented hot it will produce fusel alcohol and maybe that is what you are tasting? Also the Berkey filter will filter out a ton of minerals, and some of the ones you will need in certain beer styles, that might also be your issue.

 

[thehaze]

Medicinal is an off-flavour and means contamination. But I think you are just sensitive to bitterness and you don't like it. There's lots of ways bitterness can express itself in a beer, and it can be nuanced and there is not just one factor that may contribute to that: it can be anything from mash pH, to mineral content in the water or lack thereof, to lack of balance in the beer. Bitterness can hit your palate differently: it doesn't always need to be forefront. Many IPAs and Pale Ales have a lasting, backend bitterness. It may present or be perceived differently due things like water treatment and / or amount of hops used. You talk about " hoppy bitterness " and went ahead and used - correct me if I'm wrong - 4 grams of hops in 4 liters of beer? That's really, really low. For a light Pale Ale with no dry hopping, I would never go under 10 grams of hops per liter. That's about 40 grams for 1 gallon. You also used 50% at 60 minutes and 50% at 20 minutes. The beer will have bitterness. Not much hoppiness.

Next time, you could try treating your water, making sure your mash and post boil pH are in range, adding more hops at the end of boil and using less hops at 60 minutes, if you do not want that isomerised type of bitterness, in the back of the throat.

Undercarbed beer will struggle forming a head, due to the lack of CO2 " pushing and keeping " foam on top.

 

[Shawnstve]

Thank you for the help! Here is the recipe I was going for. I divided all the amounts by 5 for a 1 gallon brew. Easy Blonde Ale - All Grain Blonde Ale Homebrew Beer Recipe - Brewer's Friend

So maybe it was imbalance, I suspect water quality. I’ll go get bottled water for my next brew and try that. I’ll also do more hops at the end, you recommend a 5 minute?

 

[Shawnstve]

And btw, this couldn’t possibly be bad for me to drink or anything right? I don’t wanna waste it, so I’ll deal with a slightly bitter flavor as long as it won’t hurt me.

 

[tmurph6]

Medicinal taste, bandaid or plastic flavors come from chlorophenols which is interaction between your malts and chlorine or chloramine in your water. My advice is to use campden tablets to get rid of that. Dose your water and let them do their thing for about 20 minutes while you heat up your strike water then mash in. Filtering effectively removes chlorine, but chloramines are a lot more stubborn to remove. Also pay attention to the flow rate requirements of your filter. Sometimes people flow too fast through the filter and it’s not effective enough at higher flow rates. I had this problem in the past despite charcoal filtering my water with filters specific for chlorine/chloramine. Didn’t do enough for me, campden totally wiped it out.

A lot of times bitter flavors come from tannin extraction during sparge. High sparge ph where your grainbed ph raises above 6 can extract tannins. Over sparging can also extract tannins. If your water is alkaline (8pH or so) consider adjusting mash ph with lactic acid. Most brewing calculators will do this calculation for you, I’ve found brewersfriend to be the best. If you’re especially worried, consider also acidifying you’re sparge water to 5.8ph to avoid raising your grainbed ph above 6.

 

[Yooper]

A harsh bitter flavor generally comes from alkalinity in the water. I really suspect the water source for the bitterness.

 

[jrgtr42]

I'm with TheHaze. You're getting some of the bittering addition with the hops, but 20 minutes is sort of a no-man's-land with aroma and flavor. I would say to move that 20 minutes to inside 5 minutes to go, or even flame-out, and increase it. I don't know about 40 grams - that's about an ounce and a third (sorry, converting to US standard measurements here...) but something like 10 grams at 5 minutes should get you some good aroma and flavor there.
The next thing is to look at your water. As a first time brewer, you may not want to get heavy into water chemistry, but... how does your water taste when drinking it out of the tap? Is there anything chlorine-like there? Maybe try brewing again using spring water from the store - as a one-gallon brewer, you should only need a couple gallons max for the brew. If that works, and you know you want to keep on brewing, then look into water chemistry - there are a couple great books out there. definitely worth reading, and it's never a bad thing to know your water as well - you may invest in a filter or somthing. Or at least a water softener, since I just re-read your reply about having extremely hard water - that's definitely a big one.
The other things, lights and temps are other things to watch - but that's easy. Drape a blanket or something over the fermenter and you're good - but you want to watch the temps - mid 60's Farenheit (don't know the celsius conversion)

 

[Shawnstve]

Medicinal taste, bandaid or plastic flavors come from chlorophenols which is interaction between your malts and chlorine or chloramine in your water. My advice is to use campden tablets to get rid of that. Dose your water and let them do their thing for about 20 minutes while you heat up your strike water then mash in. Filtering effectively removes chlorine, but chloramines are a lot more stubborn to remove. Also pay attention to the flow rate requirements of your filter. Sometimes people flow too fast through the filter and it’s not effective enough at higher flow rates. I had this problem in the past despite charcoal filtering my water with filters specific for chlorine/chloramine. Didn’t do enough for me, campden totally wiped it out.

A lot of times bitter flavors come from tannin extraction during sparge. High sparge ph where your grainbed ph raises above 6 can extract tannins. Over sparging can also extract tannins. If your water is alkaline (8pH or so) consider adjusting mash ph with lactic acid. Most brewing calculators will do this calculation for you, I’ve found brewersfriend to be the best. If you’re especially worried, consider also acidifying you’re sparge water to 5.8ph to avoid raising your grainbed ph above 6.

So I’ve got Camden Tablets, but I’ve always been told not to ferment anything until 24 hours after dropping in a tablet. Is this not true?
So the berkey says it removes all contaminants including chloromine, but I’ll try getting it tested somewhere thanks for the help

 

[Transamguy77]

That Berkey removes so much stuff, several years ago my daughter put rain water we collected through it, but didn’t tell anyone she did, and nobody knew it. And my last trip to Disney world we took it to filter the water and then did a side by side and you couldn’t smell or taste the chlorine. You might just be able to contact Berkey and they might be able to tell you what the end product should be.

 

[Shawnstve]

Yes, it is on their website. It removes almost everything...

 

[Transamguy77]

So you are going to need to add some back. There are some brewing water calculators out there to make those calculations.

 

[tmurph6]

So I’ve got Camden Tablets, but I’ve always been told not to ferment anything until 24 hours after dropping in a tablet. Is this not true?
So the berkey says it removes all contaminants including chloromine, but I’ll try getting it tested somewhere thanks for the help

You can ferment after using campden tablets. I use them in every batch I use despite filtering through a charcoal filter at 1gpm.

I’ll say don’t trust anything you read on marketing materials regarding filters. Get your water tested via ward labs if you want to use your tap water. I think ph is your problem, but for the cost of campden tablets that removes an easy variable. FYI ward labs won’t give you anything regarding chlorine or chloramine in your water.

 

[Early8]

Assuming the issue is chlorine in your water source, and you want to use a Campden tablet to reduce it, you would add the tablet as you were heating your strike water, before mashing in. The yeast reducing nature of the tablet will be long gone post boil.

 

[Shawnstve]

Ohhhh ok! Lol I guess in wine making it needs the 24 hours then. Since your not heating