Too much hops added

[keyert]

Hello,

I am brewing a 5 gal milk stout and the recipe requested .35 oz of magnum hops in addition to 1 oz of another. Since the store only sells in 1 oz increments, I just added 1 oz of each because I thought it would only taste better and have more flavor.

Just from tasting it before pitching the yeast, I could tell it was very overhopped. Halfway through the sweet lactose the magnums brutally disrupt your palette in a cacophony. What can I do to mask the hops? Will backsweetening help? Is there anything I should add now before I wait 3 weeks for fermentation to complete?

Thanks!

 

[Firewalker11]

Just follow the sage old advice of thousands of home brewers. Go have a home brew and wait.

Hops can be overpowering up front and mellow with time. Trying to "fix" it with back sweetening can backfire on you.

Give it time. ...

 

[ricshayne]

2oz of hops should be fine, that is not a lot of hops any way you look at it.

 

[drainbamage]

2oz of hops should be fine, that is not a lot of hops any way you look at it.

Depends on the recipe and variety of hops, really. An extra 0.65 oz. of hops--even a higher %AA variety like Magnum--in a DIPA is barely going to register. That same amount in a cream ale could blow it out of the water.

OP, don't judge it too harshly without trying the finished product. Wort fresh from the brew kettle will taste different from at bottling time (which will also be noticeably different than fully carbed beer ready to drink). Ferment and bottle as normal, and try it again. If the bitterness is still too harsh, and if you can bear to wait, set the bottles aside for a few months and try some more later. The hoppiness will mellow out, given enough time.

 

[The_Glue]

Brew an other one with no bittering hops and blend them or try adding salt during drinking.

 

[Foosier]

Totally agree on waiting it out. Never judge a beer by the taste going into the fermenter. No way you can judge at that point. The yeast needs to do their thing and then you need CO2 to really get the full flavor picture.

Will it be hoppier than you planned? Likely yes. Will it be bad? Doubt it. We we do know for sure is you will have beer and it could even be really good. You just won't know untill you let it finish. If it is too highly hopped, letting it age will mellow it out and lucky for you a milk stout will certainly benefit from having time to age.

 

[hottpeper13]

Make a small blonde to mix black and tans.

 

[slym2none]

try adding salt during drinking.

 

[Brew_G]

What was the OG? If you tripled the amount of high AA bittering hops, such as Magnum, in a relatively low OG beer, then it would be no surprise if it turned out much more bitter than you'd like. Blending it with another beer is an option, or you could simply chalk it up to experience, drink the beer, and look forward to brewing something better next time!

 

[keyert]

Okay, I will think about blending it. I am not very keen on waiting more than a couple weeks beyond the 21 day fermentation. Still, none of you think if it's still too bitter at the end that backsweetening would help reduce this?

 

[m00ps]

Im pretty confident that the roasted malts will overpower the hops you added. 2oz in a 5gal batch is nothing. Even using a high alpha hop like magnum. Only way it would be overbearing is if you added the whole 2oz at 60min and it was all magnum

 

[ricshayne]

I am not very keen on waiting more than a couple weeks beyond the 21 day fermentation.

Ha! Maybe brewing isn't for you then.

 

[pdog44450]

As others said, hops can be overwhelming before or even after fermentation. They should settle down after a couple months in the bottle. There's no way to "remove" hops except time.