AdrianTrace
Member
Although it's probably user error
My first few extract brews have come out spot on for OG per Brewtarget, but the final beers have been waaaaay more bitter than expected. I've found the culprit: the boil SG figure shows as 1.000 (which is close, as I only have the steeped grains adding gravity to the boil ~1.005-10). For example, the recipe for Herk SMaSH!
Nicely balanced with 49.5 IBU... or so I thought.
Reduce the LME figure to about what went in the boil (0.5kg max) and the IBUs jump almost 50% to 73.6!
That would explain the bitterness. I don't know how to fix it, other than to remember to remove the direct-to-fermenter malt extract before setting the hop bill (which I have now done with all my other recipes).
My bittering hops may go a bit further now, though :thumb:
My first few extract brews have come out spot on for OG per Brewtarget, but the final beers have been waaaaay more bitter than expected. I've found the culprit: the boil SG figure shows as 1.000 (which is close, as I only have the steeped grains adding gravity to the boil ~1.005-10). For example, the recipe for Herk SMaSH!
Nicely balanced with 49.5 IBU... or so I thought.
Reduce the LME figure to about what went in the boil (0.5kg max) and the IBUs jump almost 50% to 73.6!
That would explain the bitterness. I don't know how to fix it, other than to remember to remove the direct-to-fermenter malt extract before setting the hop bill (which I have now done with all my other recipes).
My bittering hops may go a bit further now, though :thumb: