Hi all, I am currently doing my first brew, I have followed Graham Wheelers 'Marstons Pedigree' recipe to the letter, apart from forgetting to leave the final gravity at 1007 for 24 hours before casking. The final gravity did reach 1007 but I casked it straight away by mistake. Everything had been cleaned and sanitised before use. I used the malt extract method, using Brupacks tinned extract. I may be being a little over cautious as I am only 18 days in, but I tried a sample this morning and although the general taste is good, there is a very strong overpowering bitter taste which lingers on the back of the throat. Will this improve in time? If not, is there something I can do to save the brew? Any advice would be great
Overpowering bitter taste
- Thread starter jayjee76
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I would hazard a guess that this harsh bittering could be caused by too many bittering hops (90 mins). I had a similar experience with a GW recipe.
The harshness does mellow a bit over time. Mine has been bottles for 5 months and still has the bitter taste, although not as bad as before.
I notice in the two GW books I have the recipes for pedigree are different. The older one uses a lot more 90 min hops. My theory is that modern hops are supplied in better condition than when the early books were published so you have to be a bit careful with the hop additions.
The harshness does mellow a bit over time. Mine has been bottles for 5 months and still has the bitter taste, although not as bad as before.
I notice in the two GW books I have the recipes for pedigree are different. The older one uses a lot more 90 min hops. My theory is that modern hops are supplied in better condition than when the early books were published so you have to be a bit careful with the hop additions.
If it is too bitter for you, stick it away and wait. It will mellow with time, in my experience. I made an ale a few months ago in which I mis-weighed the hops and used far too many - at first it was horrendous, I was gutted, but after about three months it was great. Hang in there!
Thanks everyone! I did a 25 litre batch with 35g Whitbread Golding and 23g of Fuggles initially, boiled for 90 mins with a further 19g of Whitbread Goldings added in the final 10 mins of boiling. I used a boiling bag for the ingredients. I guess I shall have to just be patient and hope it improves over time :-)
That doesn't sound excessive. I used 100g (as per recipe) of Goldings in the one that turned out very bitter. In a later Mild Ale I used 70g of Fuggles and there was no harsh bitter taste at all.
I am now leaning toward there being some problem with the actual batch of Goldings hops as I tried making some hop tea with the left overs and all I got was an intense bitterness and no hop flavour or aroma at all.
Needless to say I will be steering clear of Goldings for a while just in case.
EvansTheSteam
SteamAgeBrewer
To my mind a lot of recipes are over hopped, but on the other hand a great deal of home brewers like a very hoppy brew!
The beauty of home brewing is that you can brew to your personal taste, unfortunately you can only learn by experience.
The beauty of home brewing is that you can brew to your personal taste, unfortunately you can only learn by experience.
I brewed today with only 10g of northern brewer (10.6% AAs) for 60 minutes, but added a further 120g of Amarillo and Citra in the last 20 minutes. Another 20g of citra will be used as a dry hop. Past experience suggests it will not be especially bitter. 130g for bittering would take a brave man to drink:sick:.
I am of the opinion that AA percentages only tell part of the story when it comes to bitterness and other aspects of flavour.
I am of the opinion that AA percentages only tell part of the story when it comes to bitterness and other aspects of flavour.
A very hoppy brew can be very bitter, or just very full of hop flavour.
Early additions v late additions.
I do like high bitterness, but I did a recent split brew, one is much more bitter than the other, and I'm enjoying the balance of the less bitter at the moment. Flavour and aroma in place of the bitterness.
One fashionable option is to use little or no hops at the start of the boil, and put loads in during the last 20 minutes, to get loads of flavour and aroma, and a moderate degree of bitterness. I actually like my beers that don't go over the top on either front, I seem to be settling on nicely bitter but not stupidly so, and plenty of flavour/aroma but not bucket loads. I don't want to drink a pint of perfume or a pint of acid either. I like plenty of flavour though, from hops, malt and yeast. The balanced beer I am enjoying right now has a good yeast flavour with nice hops and a good malt flavour too.
I still enjoy very bitter ales sometimes though, and I do like massively dry hopped ales sometimes too.
beerhunter
Well-Known Member
overpowering bitter taste, sneak up on it and whack it with a hammer
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