Hey gang, got a n00b question here. I'm just now starting to crack open an occasional bottle of my cream ale and it's wonderful except for one little nagging thing. There is a lingering bitterness that hangs out at the very back of your tongue after taking a drink. When you taste it, it's actually very balanced and you don't get much bitterness at all, but as soon as you swallow the back of your tongue holds on to something and it detracts a bit from the refreshing quality. It's still very good and very drinkable, but I'm curious as to what could be causing it. My wife couldn't even notice it, but I do.
Basic procedure:
1.042 OG
1.009 FG
Basic light extract with some specialty grains. 1 oz. cascade (7.1%) at 60 min and 1 oz. cascade at 3 minutes. Did a 4.5 gal boil and then topped off. No late extract addition. Made a n00b mistake of pitching yeast starter a bit early and it was 75 degrees. I then quickly cooled the fermenter down to 67 by the time visible fermentation signs were showing. Sat in fermenter for about 3 weeks, bottled, and it's sat for another 3 weeks at 69-71 degrees or so.
Curiously enough, this bitter aftertaste has persisted ever since I tasted the first hydrometer sample. At the time I just figured it would just work itself out, but now I'm not so sure.
I know 3 weeks in the bottle is still on the early side, but it's also a quite low gravity beer. And I have tasted a bottle here and there throughout the conditioning process to try and learn how the flavors change as it matures, and it's clearly matured quite well other than the aftertaste.
So, I'm just trying to gain a better understanding of what might cause this. Is there a glaring error on my part? Is it something that could still mellow out as it sits in the bottles longer? I haven't jumped in head first and started drinking it yet and plan on letting them sit another week or two before handing them out to friends, but as long as I'm learning the ropes I might as well see if this is something I can fix via my brewing process, or really still just green, etc.
Either way, I'll drink the **** out of it because it's damn good
Basic procedure:
1.042 OG
1.009 FG
Basic light extract with some specialty grains. 1 oz. cascade (7.1%) at 60 min and 1 oz. cascade at 3 minutes. Did a 4.5 gal boil and then topped off. No late extract addition. Made a n00b mistake of pitching yeast starter a bit early and it was 75 degrees. I then quickly cooled the fermenter down to 67 by the time visible fermentation signs were showing. Sat in fermenter for about 3 weeks, bottled, and it's sat for another 3 weeks at 69-71 degrees or so.
Curiously enough, this bitter aftertaste has persisted ever since I tasted the first hydrometer sample. At the time I just figured it would just work itself out, but now I'm not so sure.
I know 3 weeks in the bottle is still on the early side, but it's also a quite low gravity beer. And I have tasted a bottle here and there throughout the conditioning process to try and learn how the flavors change as it matures, and it's clearly matured quite well other than the aftertaste.
So, I'm just trying to gain a better understanding of what might cause this. Is there a glaring error on my part? Is it something that could still mellow out as it sits in the bottles longer? I haven't jumped in head first and started drinking it yet and plan on letting them sit another week or two before handing them out to friends, but as long as I'm learning the ropes I might as well see if this is something I can fix via my brewing process, or really still just green, etc.
Either way, I'll drink the **** out of it because it's damn good
