Overly Bitter IPA

[Foreigner]

Hi all:

SG 1.055 6 gallon batch
Hop additions. 1.75oz cascades @60 min. 1oz fuggles 20mins, 1/2oz fuggles at flameout.

So, it is a little too bitter for my tastes. Tastes really good otherwise. Is it a horrible crime to add an extra gallon of boiled cooled water to cut down the bitterness? I realize it will water down everything else.

Has anyone ever done this? I mean, it's DRINKABLE, but not in the enjoyable smooth way I would like it to be.

Please advise me with your experiences. If it will mellow a little with age (I just tasted it going into the secondary) I can and will wait for it, but I think that might just be wishful thinking.

 

[ajf]

It will mellow with age. In fact, it will mellow so much that you may well find it under hopped by the time you are ready to drink it.

-a.

 

[Bobby_M]

If you really wanted to, you could make a 1 gallon batch with a pound of DME and then pour in a bottle of your current brew to impart the yeast. Let it ferment out and then add it back to your bitter batch. I wouldn't water it down, but adding a completely non bittered beer in would balance it.

 

[Beerrific]

The bitterness will mellow out. Just give it time.

 

[Foreigner]

I respect your opinions, but I have read, and read, and read that the hop flavour will mellow but not the bitterness, is this not correct? I like the idea of doing a 1 gallon brew and adding it, but it sounds like work. I'd be more likely to brew a 5 gallon underhopped batch and just mix @ drinking in a pitcher or something.

Is the general concensus let it age? Am I wrong that the flavour and aroma mellow but not the bitterness?

thanks all
EDIT: its possible some of the EXTRA bite is from the yeast still in suspension. What y'all think?

 

[anthrobe]

I say keep drinking it to train your taste buds. :cross: After a 12 er you will find it enjoyable

 

[Foreigner]

I say keep drinking it to train your taste buds. :cross: After a 12 er you will find it enjoyable

LOL yeah, I only really taste the first two anyway

 

[anthrobe]

The first time I got my hands on a real hoppy and bitter beer, I could not finish the pint. I kept on drinking and now it is my favorite style of beer. This Hop Knot I brewed is real hoppy and I am having a hard time waiting for it to mature more.

 

[Foreigner]

The first time I got my hands on a real hoppy and bitter beer, I could not finish the pint. I kept on drinking and now it is my favorite style of beer. This Hop Knot I brewed is real hoppy and I am having a hard time waiting for it to mature more.

Don't get me wrong, I do like a good hoppy ale. I'm racking my brain to figure out why the bitterness is so sharp and the only thing I can come up with (other than yeast in suspension) is that I used a higher alpha hop for bittering. I've heard this can lead to a sharp bitterness, which I think is what I'm experiencing.

thanks anthrobe! Ever had Mill Street tankhouse ale? Yum hoppy!

 

[Beerrific]

Honestly I really think what you are tasting is a bitter beer PLUS the effect of it being very green. In my experience green beer comes across as a sharp bitter taste. I think it will mellow out. Cascade is usually not used as bittering because you would rather use it for flavor and it is usually a low alpha hop. Do you know the hardness of your water? Hard water will result in a more bitter beer.

Your idea of making another brew and blending at drinking is a good idea. If you do this make sure the beer you make is drinkable on its own. If your IPA comes out good (which I think it will), you could drink both on their own.

 

[Willsellout]

You sure it's hop bitterness your tasting and not like sucking on a teabag kind of bitterness? One of my beers was real bitter because I screwed up the sparge and extracted some weird grainy bitter flavors.



Dan

 

[david_42]

OP - People tend to confuse bitterness and hoppiness. (many also don't realize not all pales are IPAs) The bitterness will mellow a bit, give it 5-6 weeks. Hop flavor and aroma fade, but this isn't much of a problem for 6-7 months if you keep it cool.

You may also consider dry hopping with 1/2 oz. of a Goldings. You don't want too much, as this is an English style pale, but a little will help balance things.

 

[djflesch]

Bittering comes from the thermal isomerization of alpha acids into compounds we taste as bitterness. If you calculate the IBUs (international bittering units) in your recipe, you have a little past the minimum bitterness to call the beer an IPA--based upon the BJCP style guidelines.

When calculating bitterness, generally only use those hops that are added for the full boil (>50 min) add significant bitterness to the beer because it takes that long for the alpha acids to isomerize into the bittering compounds. With ProMash, it allows you to calculate the IBUs given an alpha acid content, batch size and boiling time. For your hops I used 5.75% alpha for Cascade and 5.0% for Fuggles. This gives your beer 48.5 IBUs for a 6G batch. I also assumed pellet hops, which increase the bittering because the lupulin glands are already burst. Style-wise, an IPA should be between 40 and 72 IBUs.

Your beer should be fine! As mentioned by many previous posters, things will mellow out with age. Being that your beer is not anywhere close to being fully aged (assuming that you bottle, you will still have another 1-2 weeks for aging! Also, if you are finding that the beer is still to bitter when you drink it, then you are probably not giving the yeast enough time to process the chemicals in the secondary fermentation--I would suggest that you give your 2ndary fermentation between 10-14 days, after about a week in the primary. Another 1-2 weeks in bottles and you will have a great tasting beer.

If aging doesn't help, then what you may be tasting is not bittering from the hops, but rather astringency from mashing the grains at too high of a temperature or for too long. I haven't had quite the full experience yet, but I would suggest mash times of no longer than 90 min for the low 150's and no longer than 60-70 min for the high 150's.

 

[boldone]

Just a side note on Cascade hops. Last weekend I brewed an all Cascade PA. The alpha units were 7.8%!, extremely high for cascade in my opinion. I adjusted my recipe by eliminating one full ounce to achieve the same IBU based on 5.8%, which is what I had purchased just a month ago.

I have had some pretty bitter IPA's, but I truly enjoy a punch you in the face bitterness. The bitterness does mellow with time. If it is drinkable now, give it a few weeks and I am sure it will be much better.

 

[Foreigner]

:rockin: I'm pretty sure I didn't extract any tannins because I sparged a 2nd beer (stout) off this and the sample of that from the secondary tasted awesome. The beer is quite "green" and cloudy owing to its young age. I look forward to sampling this in a month or so.

The suggestion to dry hop is interesting also. Are you saying that added hop flavour/aroma will compliment the bitterness or help to hide it?

I'm quite a bit more at ease now.

I thank you all for your assistance.

 

[Willsellout]

:rockin: I'm pretty sure I didn't extract any tannins because I sparged a 2nd beer (stout) off this and the sample of that from the secondary tasted awesome. The beer is quite "green" and cloudy owing to its young age. I look forward to sampling this in a month or so.

The suggestion to dry hop is interesting also. Are you saying that added hop flavour/aroma will compliment the bitterness or help to hide it?

I'm quite a bit more at ease now.

I thank you all for your assistance.

Well if your sure you didn't mess up...then let it sit for a while. I think the suggestion to dryhop will kind of hide the bitterness, or perceived bitterness.


Dan

 

[djflesch]

Dry hopping will add a lot of aroma to your beer and I would certainly recommend it for an IPA, which should have lots-O hop everything I couldn't speak toward whether dryhopping will hide bitterness, but with more aroma, it might draw your attention away from the bitterness. Bitter is tasted on the back of your tongue, so it will still be noticeable in the aftertaste, well after the aroma and front-tongue tastes are gone.

With Cascade hops in there, my personal choice would be to dryhop with Amarillo hops--about 1 oz should do it. I am slightly biased because I love Amarillo, but if you like Cascades, then you should like if not love Amarillo. Give it a smell and see what you think!

 

[Foreigner]

Well if your sure you didn't mess up...then let it sit for a while. I think the suggestion to dryhop will kind of hide the bitterness, or perceived bitterness.


Dan

I said "pretty sure." I'm not quite expert enough to be totally sure

Oh! Out of curiousity, how did you screw up the sparge? Did you dump in boiling water or something? I would like the benefit of this knowledge...

 

[homebrewer_99]

Blend it with a sweeter beer in a pitcher before serving...no one will know.

 

[Foreigner]

Update: I just bottled it today and the sample was...delicious. Definately on the bitter end of the spectrum, but really quite delicious. I had never brewed anything w/ quite so many hops before and thus had never tasted it green.

This beer is a winner!

Oh, just for schnitzengiggles I also mixed a bottle of nicely carbonated extremely minimally hopped braggot with a bottle of the flat heavily hopped IPA.

The resulting "mixed drink" has medium carbonation and the taste is extremely well balanced...If anyone was curious about mixing either flat beers or beers too much at either end of the spectrum!