Lack of Bitterness?!

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Jkali860

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Hey Everyone,
My main mission on this last DIPA was to achieve hop flavor. I have been able to have very bitter beers, some being way to bitter, even for my taste. So I really wanted to achieve the hop flavor and thick mouth-feel from the resins in the hops. Below is my recipe to my last DIPA recipe and I recently tried and it was very surprised. I definitely achieved what I wanted to but maybe a little too much. I am very happy with the thick mouth-feel and resin character from the hops. The only thing is that the beer isn't too bitter. Its a high ABV beer but the alcohol is hidden extremely well due to the hop flavor. It finishes like a outstanding DIPA but it doesn't have a bitter backbone to add the knockout punch.

I plan on bringing this to my LHBS and seeing what they think... As I said it finishes great, but there just isn't enough hop bitterness in this one. Next time I'll up the bittering hops to possibly 1oz of warrior and 1oz of citra, but for now, whats the reason to the severe lack of bitterness?

Cheers and thanks in advance everyone!!

Fermentables
6.8 lb Liquid Malt Extract - Light 53.7%
5 lb Liquid Malt Extract - Pilsen 39%

Steeping Grains
Amount
1 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 20L 7.3%

Hops
Amount Use Time IBU
.5oz Warrior Pellet Boil 60 min 40.31
.5oz Citra Pellet Boil 45 min 25.44
1 oz Citra Pellet Boil 10 min 17.58
1 oz Amarillo Pellet Boil 10 min 13.75
1 oz Motueka Pellet Boil 10 min 11.19
1 oz Mosiac Pellet Boil 10 min 12.79
.5 oz Citra Pellet Steep 0 min
.5 oz Mosiac Pellet Steep 0 min
.5 oz Amarillo Pellet Steep 0 min
.5 oz Motueka Pellet Steep 0 min
 
All those late hops will add flavor, but less bitterness, which comes more from early hops. The longer the boil, the more acids are isomerized, which is where the bitterness comes from.
 
What is your boil volume vs. your batch size?

If you boil 2.5 gallons and top up to 5 gallons the most IBU's you can hope to get is 50 and even that is a stretch it would be more like 40ish.
 
Usually about 1 oz of bittering has been enough in the past for me. Just wondering why it's different this time around?

Also, my boil volume was 6 gallons and I came out with a little less than 5 but didn't end up topping off and hit my OG dead on.

Thanks for the responses!!


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In my limited experience, .5oz at 60 - 1oz at 45 - and .5oz at 30 gives really nice bittering. Since you are using multiple bittering hps, the hardest part is deciding which hops you want to use at each interval. That is only my opinion, and subject to debate. Hope it helps.
 
When did you add the extract to the boil?

If you added all the extract late in the boil, then were the hops just boiling in plain water, plus the 1 lb of Crystal 20 you steeped? If so, there may not have been enough sugars in the water for the hop oils to bind to, meaning you got poor hop utilization.

If you added all the extract at the beginning of the boil, then you would've had good hop utilization, but you also would likely have caramelized your extract at least a little bit, leading to a residual sweetness that would work against any bitterness from the hops.

If you added half the extract at the beginning, and the rest toward the end of the boil (as is recommended), then you should have had good hop utilization and minimized your extract caramelization, in which case the only explanation I can think of is that you simply didn't use enough bittering hops, and they're being overwhelmed by the 6 oz of late-addition hops. Did you dry hop at all? Did you contain your hops in any way during the boil (like in a hop sock), or did you just throw them right into the boil?
 
First, I am the same way as you, i love bitter IPA's. Now, with that said, my last brew was with 1 oz of Warrior at 60 minutes and it came out perfect. I agree with Kombat that you should add around 3lbs of your extract right before your hops to help with utilization and color. (all your extract in the beginning will cause a darker brew.) There is some debate on a hop sock or free ballin it and IMO just throw it in the boil to free float, you can always strain after! If you topped off any water you can say bye to your IBU's as well so give more info on your process!
 
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