(Still) having a bit of an issue with a characteristic flavour that I get in a wide range of the beers I brew.
Not everyone seems to notice it but others describe it as a "robust lingering bitterness". There does however seem to be some uncertainty as to whether it's bitterness, or astringency giving the impression of bitterness.
Due to the wide range of brews that I've noticed this taste in, I'm fairly confident it is equipment/process related rather than ingredients or water. It's almost as if I'm getting a really high utilisation of the hop bitterness.
I typically follow pretty much the Greg Hughes recipes but obviously I scale the hope quantities depending on their alpha content. I usually also put the recipe into BeerSmith and the IBUs that it predicts seem to match the recipes pretty well. Neither do I use any outlandish water profile - typically I'm using 50% RO and then neutralising with CRS and/or lactic. I might add a bit of gypsum and calcium chloride depending on what I'm brewing, but I don't take the sulphate too high.
When it comes to the boil I use a 30L Burco. Once the wort has come up to a good rolling boil I just chuck the hops (always whole hops) straight in so that they roam feely around throughout the boil (60-70 min). I don't currently posess a spider or anything like that. Then after the boil I run-off though a wide, fine, mesh sieve that I have right in the bottom of the boiler: I let the hops settle to the bottom for a few minutes, then they build up on top of the sieve like a filter bed. This means that I get all but the last half a litre or so out of the kettle - but I'm wondering whether drawing all the wort off 'through' the hops is extracting too much bitterness from them?
Very interested in hearing whether anyone else does their boil/runoff in a similar way?
Cheers TETB
Not everyone seems to notice it but others describe it as a "robust lingering bitterness". There does however seem to be some uncertainty as to whether it's bitterness, or astringency giving the impression of bitterness.
Due to the wide range of brews that I've noticed this taste in, I'm fairly confident it is equipment/process related rather than ingredients or water. It's almost as if I'm getting a really high utilisation of the hop bitterness.
I typically follow pretty much the Greg Hughes recipes but obviously I scale the hope quantities depending on their alpha content. I usually also put the recipe into BeerSmith and the IBUs that it predicts seem to match the recipes pretty well. Neither do I use any outlandish water profile - typically I'm using 50% RO and then neutralising with CRS and/or lactic. I might add a bit of gypsum and calcium chloride depending on what I'm brewing, but I don't take the sulphate too high.
When it comes to the boil I use a 30L Burco. Once the wort has come up to a good rolling boil I just chuck the hops (always whole hops) straight in so that they roam feely around throughout the boil (60-70 min). I don't currently posess a spider or anything like that. Then after the boil I run-off though a wide, fine, mesh sieve that I have right in the bottom of the boiler: I let the hops settle to the bottom for a few minutes, then they build up on top of the sieve like a filter bed. This means that I get all but the last half a litre or so out of the kettle - but I'm wondering whether drawing all the wort off 'through' the hops is extracting too much bitterness from them?
Very interested in hearing whether anyone else does their boil/runoff in a similar way?
Cheers TETB
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