Pale ale is super bitter- hopeless?

[Ludesbrews]

All,

I did a 20 min zoomin pale ale from NB, which was great. Almost hit my OG perfectly, and it’s done fermenting. At flame-out, I added .75 oz dried tangerine peel. I tasted it today (out of the big mouth bubbler) and it’s SUPER bitter. It’s a 5g batch. Could this be caused by the tangerine peel? It isn’t awful, but is there any way to make this less bitter? Maybe rack to a secondary and add something to neutralize it?


Thanks

 

[archthered]

You will need to provide additional information, like the recipe or at least the hop schedule, did it sit long before cooling allowing more hops to isomerize, to get better feed back. It would be helpful to know how many IBU's are in it and the gravity etc, it may be bitter but there's a difference if it's 45 IBU's bitter vs. 100 IBU's bitter and both will taste different if the FG is 1.007 vs 1.015, and honestly things like OG, yeast strain, and your process may help.

That said I have a few thoughts without that information. To start with yes the tangerine peel is likely to add bitterness but it shouldn't be a ton. Also in my experience beer in general will taste more bitter and less hoppy straight out of the fermenter. I believe this is because it is uncarbonated and the carbonation puts more molecules associated with flavor into the air giving the beer more aroma and taste, carbonation should bring out the hops AND the tangerine. Not only that but I think the carbonation blunts the bitter just a bit. If you did not add any hops towards the end then you may not get much hop flavor. Truth in advertising I've never done short boils so there may be some important differences there.

As far as fixing it goes that will be more or less difficult depending on how you re serving it. Time will help no matter what, racking it first is up to you, but other flavors will fade along with the bitterness. If you are kegging it I'd wait to hear a few more comments and ideas, especially after including your recipe, then keg it and see what it's like before messing with it, it may be just fine. If it is still too sweet just open up the keg and throw in some water with sugar or DME dissolved in it, that will raise the gravity and take some of the bite off, do this gradually so you don't over do it. If you are bottling it may be harder to deal with. You could try adding some sugar to it but this will likely just restart fermentation and you will not get much actual sugar left after the yeast pig out, dark DME is your best bet there but even that may not work as hoped, and you will have to wait until it's done refermenting or you will get bottle bombs. You could water it down and add sugar/DME, I know that's sacrilege to some, but that would help by raising the volume and there-by lowering the IBU's.

As I said posting your recipe will help further diagnosis

 

[RPh_Guy]

You will need to provide additional information,

Bitterness comes from the hops, and several factors contribute to how much bitterness they add:
The hop variety, the hop quantity & timing, the alpha acid levels, and how long it took to chill.

 

[smata67]

That recipe has an IBU of 72, which is fairly bitter, more like an IPA than a Pale Ale. Also, did you boil for the recommended 20 minutes? If you boiled for more than that, you made the beer even more bitter. The summit hop is highly bittering and the more you boil, the more bitter the beer gets. At this point, complete the fermentation and bottle on schedule. You may like the results. If not, your options are to blend it with a less bitter beer at time of drinking. Look for an APA with low IBUs. You can also let it sit for a few months which helps to smooth things out. But many people like very bitter beers, it is one of the reasons IPAs are so popular.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Bitterness comes from the hops, and several factors contribute to how much bitterness they add:
The hop variety, the hop quantity & timing, the alpha acid levels, and how long it took to chill.

And the water profile.

 

[dmtaylor]

Citrus pith is very bitter as well.

 

[FatDragon]

You could always boil and add a couple pounds of DME, double your dry hop, and call it a DIPA.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Where did you come up with that quantity of tangerine peel? Not saying it's wrong, but just wondering.

The reason I ask is that I see you used *dried* tangerine peel instead of fresh. Any dried fruit or spice ingredient shouldn't be used in the same quantity as fresh. If you were seeing recipes that called for say 0.75 oz of tangerine peel, and they were assuming fresh, dried might be 2-3 times as strong taste-wise.

Also there's a big difference between using tangerine zest and tangerine peel. A lot of bitterness is contained in the pith of the actual peel as @dmtaylor points out, that you won't necessarily notice if you're using zest.

But overall I think it's best to chill and carbonate it, as @archthered suggests. Warmth tends to increase perception of bitterness, and I believe that carbonation as well blunts it. How it tastes right out of the fermenter might be different than how it tastes fizzy and cold out of a glass.

 

[strambo]

Yeah, if it is a "Pale Ale" with a target IBU of 72, then style-wise it is an IPA, so just call it that! Next time reduce the hops to be around 40-ish IBUs and it would taste more like a classic PA.

I wouldn't mess with it by adding more fermentables at this point, if it is good, just a little bitter, that is better than risking turning a good beer into something "meh" IMHO.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

Make another brew, maybe 2 or 3 gal, then blend and bottle.

I did that with an ale that was too bitter from wormwood. It still seemed bitter after blending, but after a month of bottle conditioning it is great! A little blending and a little time will do wonders.