Reducing Bitterness

[Aaron86]

Hey all. My current batch is on day 10 fermenting.

Ingredients:

Coopers Amber Malt 1kg
Coopers Wheat Malt 1kg
500g LDM
250g dark crystal
US-05

30gm PoR @ 60mins
Amarillo - 16g @ 20, 16g @ 10, 25g @ 0, 16gm in primary after day 7.

After tasting a few hydro samples Ive concluded this beer is far too bitter for my liking. I know it is still fermenting, but I am sure the extreme bitterness will remain after the condition.

After all the Amarillo Ive used in this batch, I cant really taste much of that either, nor does it have the Aroma. Is this something that will balance out after a month of conditioning?

Is there anything I can do at all to reduce the bitterness? This batch is around 39-41 IBU.

Cheers.

 

[BjornJ]

one option would be to do some quick calculations to see if you could dilute with water.

You take the values you have and multiply with current volume, then divide by a new volume you choose to see if you like the new values.



Say you know your current volume is 20 litres and your bittering is 40 IBU.
you want to know the result if diluting to 25 litres.

you take the

40 IBU x 20 litres / 25 litres = 32 IBUs.

but then you have to consider if thinning it out will make it too thin,
so do the calculations with your OG and FG, pretending you added the water before fermenting.

say you had an OG of 1.044, here we then use 44 in the calculations

44 OG x 20 litres / 25 litres = 35.2 OG (OG would have been 1.035).

So you would then dilute the beer to be a beer that started out as OG 1.035 which may be a bit low for a full strenght, but would be a nice mid-strenght.

so you choose a volume to dilute to and play with the numbers to see where you would be happy with the OG/FG (not making it too watery/thin) as well as alc % and IBU.



thanks
Bjorn

 

[felten]

Just remember that hydro samples are more bitter than the final product will be, when the yeast drop out they take some of the bittering compounds and other junk with them.

 

[manticle]

Bitterness will settle out so my first bit of advice will be to leave it. It will also integrate as it matures so let it condition well.

If you are truly concerned, you could add some malt extract as sweetness will balance perceived bitterness. I wouldn't dilute with just water as this will thin the beer. Mix up a couple of litres of same gravity extract wort, boil it, chill it and add it in.

 

[earle]

Alternatively, bottle it and if it does turn out to be too bitter make and bottle another brew with very low bitterness and mix a bottle of each for drinking.

 

[Aaron86]

Hi all thanks for the responses.

It is now day 14 of fermentation and after another test sample I must say it has mellowed out quite a bit more. I think the extra week in the fermenter does it the world of good. Always made the mistake of bottling as soon as FG was reached, and the brew always had sharp acetone like flavours.

Will chuck in the finings tonight and bottle in a few days.

:icon_chickcheers:

 

[felten]

Acetone or nail polish remover can be a sign of an infection, there was some talk about this a month ago in another thread [post="0"]here[/post]. I had always wondered what caused it myself, good to know what it is and how to get rid of it.

 

[Aaron86]

Id be pretty disappointed if it was an infection. Im extremely cautious when I brew. When it comes to sanitation I probably go overboard.

I guess Ill have to wait and see in a couple of weeks. Im dropping the finings in tonight and will bottle in a few days.

:beer: