Leaving hops in fermenter?

[EvilDrFoetus]

So a few weeks back I finally sourced an extract kit supplier here, and went with this:

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/summer-glow.html

Narrowly avoiding CO narcosis aside brew day went well, but I had to slap it in a pressure barrel and force carb after 3 weeks as finals were interfering with a bottling day. Still came out brilliant, pretty close to Oakham's Citra in many regards, but a bit *too* bitter and citrusy.

Recipe called for 18g of Magnum for bittering, 15g Citra each time for flavour and aroma, 60 min boil. (Freeze?) dried but clearly from full cones.

It wasn't specified in the instructions to strain so they all sat post-boil in the fermentor for 3 weeks. Raised it on HBT but didn't seem like a cause for concern from anyone, could this have anything to do with the bitterness?

Partial poil btw, about 6 litres in kettle to 21 in fermenter.

 

[SilverZero]

Bitterness won't happen without isomerization (which doesn't happen without high temps), so you might be tasting "grassiness" or just the vegetal hop flavors from a long soak. Or it might just be the taste of the brew that you thought would come out differently?

 

[Jawbox0]

You could have extracted extra bitterness from the hops by not cooling fast enough. Many brewers depend on a hopstand, a period of time after the boil where the wort temp remains above 180F. Doing this gives beer a perceived bitterness along with more hop character.

https://byo.com/mead/item/2808-hop-stands

 

[karch]

Have you done extracts before? I only have experience with one partial boil extract kit and I thought the beer turned out a lot more bitter than I expected.

 

[EvilDrFoetus]

Thanks all,

Only had a sink full of gel packs to cool on, so I suspect it might have taken longer to cool than expected (still done in 1/2 hour).

Granted it's my first time with extract, but this came out like the American Pales I've tried in terms of (perceived) IBU.

Definitely going to try straining the next batch to see if that makes any difference.

 

[ncbrewer]

There's no real need to strain out the hops normally. I guess if you were leaving it in the fermenter for months, it might get a little grassy tasting. I never strain the hops out.

 

[SilverZero]

You could have extracted extra bitterness from the hops by not cooling fast enough. Many brewers depend on a hopstand, a period of time after the boil where the wort temp remains above 180F. Doing this gives beer a perceived bitterness along with more hop character.

https://byo.com/mead/item/2808-hop-stands

180F is a high hop stand temperature (from the opinions I've gathered) as it vaporizes the oils you want for aroma and flavor, and isomerizes the alpha acids albeit at a lower rate than at boiling. The popular belief seems to be that the sweet spot for hop stands is between 160F and 170F max, though some do it down to 140F and like the results. Isomerization drops off exponentially from boiling temps and is below 15% after you hit that threshold.

https://byo.com/mead/item/2808-hop-stands

Chilling to below 170F shouldn't take too long if you added some running water to the mix (in a bucket, overflowing with a hose in it, not into the wort ). After that, you're fighting rogue bacteria more than worrying about bitterness, which is why cooling quickly is a bigger deal, but if you cover the kettle it shouldn't be much of a danger.

 

[hootowl]

I put the hops in a stainless screen container. Should I pull it out after the chill and before adding yeast?