very very hoppy and bitter beer..

[wkawk2416]

newbie here and just wanted to ask a quick question.

about 6 months ago, i bought a 5 gallon kettle to brew beer.

For better hop utilization, I put 1 oz of cascades in the boiling 5 gallon water.

i didn't put any malt or anything so it was just hops and boiling water.

and that went about almost an hour and i started to put dry malt extract and some finishing hops.

and that fermented well (about 2-3 weeks) and bottled 2-3 weeks also.

everything seemed fine before I taste the beer.

the taste was very very very bad, smelled and tasted like manicure that put on nails.

I was sure something went wrong and had infection in it. But I decided to age the beer to mellow down some flavor and see what happen.

and now I finally tasted again after 3-4months I bottled it. and now it taste like very much like ipa and very drinkable.

I intended to make blond ale but it became ipa because of over utilization of hops.

so my question is " if I age those beer more, then would hoppiness mellow down more and eventually become american ale??

 

[arturo7]

Hop bitterness does decrease over time.

"American Ale" describes a very wide range of beers. Of which particular one are you thinking?

 

[jigidyjim]

Weird, I always thought hop utilization had to do with some sort of interaction with the malt sugars, I didn't realize it would utilize (for lack of a better word) in just water.

 

[gypsyhead]

in response more to jigidyjim than original poster:
new theory suggests hop utilization is more about just general "dissolved solids," which doesn't necessarily relate to sugars (ie. dissolved proteins and lipids have some effect as well), but if you see sources like 'Radical Brewing' for items like their 1776 Stout (i think that was the one), in order to achieve the bitterness required to combat the maltiness of the stout, they recommend steeping the hops separately in 160F water for 60min, then adding to the main mash.

Basically it's an equation of dissolved solids vs. water quantity and temperature, ie. basic chem. hot water, at larger quantities, can accept larger amounts of dissolved solids (ie, sugars, hop products, proteins, etc) up to a certain level of "saturation." in short, the less dissolved solids and the higher the temperature of a liquor, the more ready the liquor is to accept new products.

to wkawk2416:
it'll mellow out, but from what I've noticed, I get a bit too much "resiny" bitterness (enamel melting flavor) with the late extract addition, and definitely fewer of the subtle flavors of the hops, despite a regular hop schedule.

 

[Mongrel]

1 oz of Cascade shouldn't add all that much bitterness. I use 2 oz of Cascade and 2 of Willamette in my amber. It's hoppy, but not all that hoppy...but then I live in in fresh hop land...er...Oregon.

You mention the smell/taste of nail manicure. What temp did you ferment at? Did you sanitize?

 

[wkawk2416]

to mongrel

yes i did use starsan to sanitize..

First, i thought my beer was infected when i first tasted because it tasted like nail polisher. and that was solely judging by tasting the beer. When fermenting, it did not have any signs of infection and that is why i decided to age the beer and see what happen.

Ferment temperature was around 68-72 with notty.. and it was normal fermentation.

Also I used 2 oz of cascades
1 oz of cascades for whole 60 mins with just pure water and
I continually add another 1oz of cascades as I was adding dry malt extract.

and after 3-4 months of aging, it is hoppy but IPA like hoppy where i intended to make just normal blond ale.. and as far as flavor goes, it is not bad at all. I am quite surprised how hoppiness can be mellow down that much.

 

[dcp27]

was 68-72 ambient or wort temperature? if ambient, then your off-flavor was fusels

 

[wkawk2416]

to dcp27.

What i do is I put water in big bucket with some cold ice too keep temperature of fermentation bucket around 68-72. In this case, isn't it more like wort temperature?

 

[dcp27]

ya that would keep the wort pretty stable at those temps, however some strains do begin to produce fusels once you get into the 70s. I asked cuz during active fermentation, the wort can rise 5-10F, which definitely would have put you too high

 

[wkawk2416]

yeah, thanks for the input dcp27

but after aging those beer almost 4 months, i dont taste any off-flavor. in fact, it is quite drinkable and i like it.. however, i was just wondering if its possible that beer can be tasted like ipa if hop utilization is increase significantly where i intended to make typical blond ale ..

thanks.

 

[KNOTSANE]

Although I have never used hops the way you described, It seems to me if you had to wait 4 months to make this ale "drinkable" it seems like something went awry early on. It looks like you didn't do a mash out, so tannin should not be causing the tingy off flavor. If your ice bath setup for temp control was maintained through out, then that should not be it either. Possibly more hops were used than needed? We need an expert to chime in on this one.

 

[Hockeyhunter99]

http://www.homebrewzone.com/off-flavors.htm

This site can help you check what went wrong. what the off flavors are, what you did, and how to remedy them. it has helped with some of my first HB.

the longer they sit in bottle, the more cleanup the yeast can do.