wareaglefan23
Active Member
Hey all,
TL;DR at the bottom.
So, this weekend I brewed a 10 gal batch of (I?)PA. I used FWH (1oz Amarillo) and late additions exclusively to try for a mellow, low "apparent" bitterness ale. I added 1oz Citra @ 5mins, and 3oz at flameout for a 30 minute hop stand. Unfortunately, this is where things went wrong. Due to a family emergency, I had to leave the wort unchilled. I tossed a couple frozen, sanitized two liters in, wrapped the kettle in cold, wet towels, taped the lid down and left.
I wasn't able to get to the beer until the next afternoon. Everything seemed to smell great, no signs of infection or the like. Very excited at this point. Gravity was about 1.052 as expected, I started racking into the fermenters (split between two buckets, one pitched with a brett blend and the other with a more standard sacch). Then I tasted the sample in my hydrometer cylinder - HOLY HOPS, BATMAN!! It's like a slap in the face due what was essentially a 24 hour hop stand as if free fell from boiling to room temp. Even if I assumed a mere 20% utilization over that time period, it's pushing 100 IBUs (which is exactly what I didn't want to happen).
Now the question is- how do I get it back to my original intentions? I've thought I might brew a second round of the same wort, perhaps a little sweeter and stronger but with little to no hopping, and blend the two together. Fermentation should blow off some of the hop character, but in my experience it's more aroma that is lost than bitterness. Is it worth this extra effort to save, or is it a dumped batch?
TL;DR - Extremely over-hopped Pale Ale- how can I rein back the bitterness?
TL;DR at the bottom.
So, this weekend I brewed a 10 gal batch of (I?)PA. I used FWH (1oz Amarillo) and late additions exclusively to try for a mellow, low "apparent" bitterness ale. I added 1oz Citra @ 5mins, and 3oz at flameout for a 30 minute hop stand. Unfortunately, this is where things went wrong. Due to a family emergency, I had to leave the wort unchilled. I tossed a couple frozen, sanitized two liters in, wrapped the kettle in cold, wet towels, taped the lid down and left.
I wasn't able to get to the beer until the next afternoon. Everything seemed to smell great, no signs of infection or the like. Very excited at this point. Gravity was about 1.052 as expected, I started racking into the fermenters (split between two buckets, one pitched with a brett blend and the other with a more standard sacch). Then I tasted the sample in my hydrometer cylinder - HOLY HOPS, BATMAN!! It's like a slap in the face due what was essentially a 24 hour hop stand as if free fell from boiling to room temp. Even if I assumed a mere 20% utilization over that time period, it's pushing 100 IBUs (which is exactly what I didn't want to happen).
Now the question is- how do I get it back to my original intentions? I've thought I might brew a second round of the same wort, perhaps a little sweeter and stronger but with little to no hopping, and blend the two together. Fermentation should blow off some of the hop character, but in my experience it's more aroma that is lost than bitterness. Is it worth this extra effort to save, or is it a dumped batch?
TL;DR - Extremely over-hopped Pale Ale- how can I rein back the bitterness?
