My First Attempt Too Bitter

[Deja_vu]

Yeah was probably a bit ambitious here for a first up effort, but made a coopers pale ale kit with BE2 & safale american ale yeast, and fermented for 2 weeks at 17 degrees.... Dry hopped it with 2 cascade teabags when it stopped bubbling to add some aroma maybe a touch of flavour.... I didn't think dry hopping imparted much else....

anyhow I tried a bottle yesterday (3 weeks old) and damn it's nasty, too bitter, and not a clean bitter either, enough to put a beer lover off beer for good.

any ideas?

 

[Brewer_010]

Yeah was probably a bit ambitious here for a first up effort, but made a coopers pale ale kit with BE2 & safale american ale yeast, and fermented for 2 weeks at 17 degrees.... Dry hopped it with 2 cascade teabags when it stopped bubbling to add some aroma maybe a touch of flavour.... I didn't think dry hopping imparted much else....

anyhow I tried a bottle yesterday (3 weeks old) and damn it's nasty, too bitter, and not a clean bitter either, enough to put a beer lover off beer for good.

any ideas?

Patience...
Leave this for a few more weeks to allow the flavours to meld together. The american ale yeast accentuates hop flavours, so some beers may be too harsh for the first 3-6 weeks.
Dry hopping adds no bitterness, but I recommend leaving this til 5-7 weeks old.
Cheers

 

[ironxmortlock]

Yeah was probably a bit ambitious here for a first up effort, but made a coopers pale ale kit with BE2 & safale american ale yeast, and fermented for 2 weeks at 17 degrees.... Dry hopped it with 2 cascade teabags when it stopped bubbling to add some aroma maybe a touch of flavour.... I didn't think dry hopping imparted much else....

anyhow I tried a bottle yesterday (3 weeks old) and damn it's nasty, too bitter, and not a clean bitter either, enough to put a beer lover off beer for good.

any ideas?

When you say "3 weeks old" do you mean it's been sitting in the bottles for three weeks or it's been three weeks since you started fermentation. I had a brew that was bitter as hell when I tasted it after it had been bottled for only a week but after 4 weeks in the bottles it had smoothed out alot.

 

[wildschwein]

Yeah just leave it until it tastes right. Green beer always has odd flavours. You'll find in a number of weeks and months it'll settle down. And yes US ales do add certain bitter tang to your brews.

 

[Steve]

Yeah just leave it until it tastes right. Green beer always has odd flavours. You'll find in a number of weeks and months it'll settle down. And yes US ales do add certain bitter tang to your brews.

:blink: US ales add a certain bitter tang? What yeast do you mean there ws?
Cheers
Steve

 

[wildschwein]

:blink: US ales add a certain bitter tang? What yeast do you mean there ws?
Cheers
Steve

US 56 comes to mind, although I have seen people describe it as very neutral I've found it to be quite influential on the flavour of the brew even fermented at 16-18C.

 

[Steve]

US 56 comes to mind, although I have seen people describe it as very neutral I've found it to be quite influential on the flavour of the brew even fermented at 16-18C.

thats interesting ws....ive always thought it was quite neutral?
Cheers
Steve

 

[Enerjex]

just let it mellow out, plenty of my brews taste bitter out of the fermenter but that disappears.

 

[Adamt]

Your beer should be fairly moderate in bitterness, being just a CPA kit (assuming you made it up to ~23L). The dry hops will not have any noticeable effect on bitterness. US-56 at 17C should yield a very clean fermentation from my experience.

This "nasty bitterness" could be is the infamous "kit twang", which can be attributed to an old/mishandled kit. Or it simply could be acetaldehyde, which tastes like bitter green apples, this is attributed to young or green beer.

As others have said, time will tell.

Edit: Also, you may notice some grassy flavours from the dry-hops, depending on how big the teabags are.

 

[discoloop]

Edit: Also, you may notice some grassy flavours from the dry-hops, depending on how big the teabags are.

I've made a very similar brew before. Came out really grassy to begin with, but mellowed considerably after a month or so.

Strong flavours always seem to mellow after time...

 

[Deja_vu]

hen you say "3 weeks old" do you mean it's been sitting in the bottles for three weeks or it's been three weeks since you started fermentation. I had a brew that was bitter as hell when I tasted it after it had been bottled for only a week but after 4 weeks in the bottles it had smoothed out alot.

Yeah it's been 3 weeks in the bottle - but you've all answered my question, thanks guys - i'll wait and see how it goes!

 

[ale_snail]

i did an amber ale and hopped it with 100g of Saaz, its not that its bitter, its not really, its just that it has a big hop aroma and flavour which i hope a few weeks in the bottle will kill.

 

[matti]

Yeah, as above, you need to give it time.
Though I must put in, that I tried dry hopping with kits and found that you only needed half the amount usually as most kits are rather dry.

What I mean with that is, they lack real malt flavour and to overhop it the beer taste more like Tetley tea with bubbles.

If you want to improve that, get top brand malt like Black Rock or Muntons kits. Those Brew enhancer don't add that much to the maltiness. They're good for a better body and head retension but go easy on the hopping IMHO.

Ive got a Cooper pale ale that my missus like. Not too bad, but not my style.
Give me an REAL ALE.
Yorkshire Bitter style 35-40 IBU

 

[ale_snail]

yeah im defo gonna try get some quality malt.. although my LHBS only has coopers i think

 

[Uncle Fester]

i did an amber ale and hopped it with 100g of Saaz, its not that its bitter, its not really, its just that it has a big hop aroma and flavour which i hope a few weeks in the bottle will kill.

Just a quick question.... Why dry hop with 100g of Saaz if you are not looking for a heap of aroma? :huh:

Fester.

 

[bconnery]

thats interesting ws....ive always thought it was quite neutral?
Cheers
Steve

S05 is neutral in terms of yeast flavours but it's a classic yeast for letting hops shine through.

Probably precisely because of the fact that its neutral I guess.

 

[0M39A]

S05 is neutral in terms of yeast flavours but it's a classic yeast for letting hops shine through.

Probably precisely because of the fact that its neutral I guess.

s-04 or s-05?

i find s-04 gives a decent amount of yeast flavour, but us-05 is very neutral.


is there an s-05 yeast?

 

[Deja_vu]

I have a batch going in the fermenter with s-04 yeast, and it got going in less than half the time as the the S-05 and has now stopped. Put it down on tuesday, the conditions are the same, the fermenters reading 16 degrees...
Does the english ale yeast work a bit quicker in your experience guys?

 

[ale_snail]

Just a quick question.... Why dry hop with 100g of Saaz if you are not looking for a heap of aroma? :huh:

Fester.

ahh no i didnt dry hop like that.. in my boil i used 100g, its just a very strong flavour