Why is my beer so bitter ?

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

3.6% SMASH beer with mosaic cryo hops AA 0.213
added as below

2 gm 15 mins 3 gm 10 mins 5 gm 5 mins and 15 gm 3 mins

I calculate IBU as 12.5

cooling down to 30 C 4 hours then down to 18 V in 10 mins

thanks

 

[Much2Brew]

3.6% SMASH beer with mosaic cryo hops AA 0.213
added as below

2 gm 15 mins 3 gm 10 mins 5 gm 5 mins and 15 gm 3 mins

I calculate IBU as 12.5

cooling down to 30 C 4 hours then down to 18 V in 10 mins

thanks

Are you talking about the wort or the finished beer? You don't comment on the fermentation so it appears you are tasting the wort, it will always taste much more bitter. Wait until after fermentation. Apologies if I am misunderstanding.

 

[mac_1103]

batch size?

cooling down to 30 C 4 hours then down to 18 V in 10 mins

Might that slow initial cooling extract more IBUs than a claculator would suggest?

 

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

22 litres 10 days in bottle tasted yesterday I could have been clearer 1 protofloc tablet last 5 monutes

 

[mac_1103]

Isomerization decreases rapidly at sub-boiling temperature, but I have read that it doesn't stop completely until the wort is below about 50C. This online calculator suggests that a four hour slow cool to 30C will put you over 30 IBU instead of the 12.5 you were shooting for. I've never used it before so take it with a grain of salt. Anyway, that still isn't all that bitter a beer, so it's certainly possible that something else is going on.

 

[lumpher]

You'll get very little IBU out of adding hops in the last 15 minutes, so almost all of that went to aroma and flavor. Cryo hops are also about 2x as strong as pellet hops. That's a lot of hops for a 3.6% beer, and Mosaic is flavorful anyway.

 

[rburrelli]

Your water profile greatly affects your results. What is your source and do you treat it in any way?

 

[mac_1103]

You'll get very little IBU out of adding hops in the last 15 minutes, so almost all of that went to aroma and flavor.

You'll get very low utilization in the last 15 minutes, but like you said, "That's a lot of hops for a 3.6% beer" and a little bit of cryo hops goes a long way when your target is 12.5 IBU. 21.3% is a lot of alpha acids even if most of it never gets isomerized. Brewer's Friend says that hop schedule in that volume of that wort is >14 IBU, and that doesn't account for any additional isomerization during that 4 hour slow cooling period. Even another 1-2 percent might be significant when there's that much available. 25 grams of 21.3% might give you 12+ IBU in a one hour hopstand at 80C.

I've never brewed a 3.6% ABV beer, so maybe 14 IBU actually is too much?

 

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

my water is treated the same as the local microbrewery - I am really asking with such low calculated IBU why does the beer taste so bitter ?

 

[mac_1103]

I am really asking with such low calculated IBU why does the beer taste so bitter ?

If it truly is hop bitterness that you are tasting, then there are only two possible answers. One is that your calculation is wrong. The other is that you really, really, really don't like hop bitterness and should use an even lower IBU target. Either way, the solution is the same - use less hops for less time and chill faster.

 

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

thanks, Mac. I used an IBU calculator I found on the internet. I think I am ok with bitterness, but with the beer in question, I was aiming for mainly flavour and aroma.