A Bitter Carlsberg.

[daddywillwill]

hey guys.
just tasted my carlsberg clone that i made (been 2 weeks conditioning in bottle). i think i might have bottled a little early, tastes a tiny bit yeasty, but has a real bitter taste, on the verge of being to bitter. would the bitterness be caused by an infection?
thanks
Willis

 

[iScarlet]

Sounds doubtful, but what was the recipe?

 

[rackemup]

hey guys.
just tasted my carlsberg clone that i made (been 2 weeks conditioning in bottle). i think i might have bottled a little early, tastes a tiny bit yeasty, but has a real bitter taste, on the verge of being to bitter. would the bitterness be caused by an infection?
thanks
Willis

from what i've heard infections are usually sour. hold a sample up to the light and look for any abnormalities such as strings, cloudiness or slime etc. How does it smell? perhaps you just used too much hops?

 

[Adamt]

What was the recipe?

 

[daddywillwill]

coopers heritage larger
#15 enhancer
BH Hallertau 10g
FH Hallertau 15g
yeast from can.

no cloudyness or anything clear as day. loooks like a larger. had it in fermenter for about 5 weeks at 13-15.

 

[Wisey]

The infected brews I tasted were sour, bitter is generally to do with hopping

 

[Nick JD]

coopers heritage larger
#15 enhancer
BH Hallertau 10g
FH Hallertau 15g
yeast from can.

no cloudyness or anything clear as day. loooks like a larger. had it in fermenter for about 5 weeks at 13-15.

In my experience (only bought it once), that heritage lager kit is super-bitter. I don't know the IBUs, but it took me a few bottles to get used to it.

EDIT: Bitterness - 390IBU ... from the Coopers site. All their kits seem to have really high IBUs ... :huh: Is this the IBUs of the actual can?

 

[seemax]

390 IBU total at 23L is sub 20IBU, fairly mild. Short boil of 20g Hallertau wouldn't of added more than maybe 5IBU.

I wonder what hops they used in the can?

 

[Nick JD]

390 IBU total at 23L is sub 20IBU, fairly mild. Short boil of 20g Hallertau wouldn't of added more than maybe 5IBU.

I wonder what hops they used in the can?

Ah - so it is the can's IBU, cheers.

Perhaps someone slipped adding the hop extract! I found that stuff to be insanley bitter.

 

[Bribie G]

Apart from the very bland kits like Canadian or Cerveza I have always been wary of using bittering hops with kits, I have just used aroma and flavouring hop additions. Did you boil the hops for a long period?
The thing about kits is that the isohop they put in generally provided mostly bitterness and if you are going to enhance the hoppiness you really should just boil for ten minutes or so, or even just put pellets straight into the fermenter after three or four days, or in the case of hop flowers make a strong 'hop tea', let it soak for about 20 mins and strain that into the fermenter.

I reckon you have just ended up with a beer that is more bitter than you are used to at the pub or club because they don't actually put too many hops into Carlsberg and you have outdone them in that department! I actually had a Carlsberg on tap (Brewed under licence) at the Caloundra RSL the other day and it was disappointing in the hoppiness, not much different to a Carlton Draught <_<

Another thing about adding hops to kits, they really smooth out after a few weeks.

 

[buttersd70]

When the beer drops bright (the yeast drops, and the beer clears), it takes some of the hop volatiles with it....so when it clears, it will smooth the bitterness out, to a degree.

 

[Adamt]

They do add a hop oil addition to it, to my memory, this hop flavour may be confused for bitterness, or so could the presence of yeast (did you decant it into a glass or drink from the bottle?).

The website says it is recommended to add 1.5kg of liquid extract, which tells me it might have been designed with a decent hop profile that will be balanced with the malt profile... So that brings me to the next question, what is "#15"?

Did you take an OG and FG? You say it may have been bottled early...

Either way, the longer you leave it, the more the hop character will diminish, as will other things that could be mistaken for bitterness, like acetaldehyde.

 

[daddywillwill]

hey
ADAMT - OG 1.040, FG1.012, with bottling to early, the only reason why is cause it has a taste, a taste that i can't put my finger on, it just seems to taste a little yeasty? since i have never tasted anyone elses HB before, just hard to say exactly what the taste is besides the bitterness.

and i did a 20min for the bittering and 2 mins for aroma.

the beer is still green, 2 weeks into it. so maybe just write down the tastes now then try in another 2 weeks, write it down then do a 3 monther just to see what has dropped out and smoothed.

Thanks again
Willis

 

[Scruffy]

Bang it in the fridge for three weeks...

This should help the yeast drop out, clearing your beer, and the extra few days will temper the harshness (a bit)...

Hallertau isn't that bitter, i'm guessing the tin is quite bitter, what did the gloop taste like? (...oh, you didn't taste it!) ....stick this one away and start a new brew...what tastes were you after?

 

[bum]

Hallertau isn't that bitter, i'm guessing the tin is quite bitter

I recently used Hallertau Mittlefrueh for the first time and while it was about half the AA% of the hops I'd used in the past (and I used less of it) the resultant brew did come out with a much harsher perceived bitterness. Perhaps DWW has experienced the same?

If so, DWW, my experience is that it did level out somewhat - although the original bitterness was about the only thing I liked about that brew so I was a bit bummed but hopefully it'll get better for you.

 

[Adamt]

The only other thing it could be is autolysis, vegemite flavours due to leaving the beer on the primary yeast cake too long, if this is the case, I'm afraid it won't get better.