Black ipa gets less bitter after first sip

Hi all,

So I am running into this issue where I drink the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle after I pour the beer and the beer tastes wonderfully hoppy. Then I take the first sip out of the glass and it is again wonderfully hoppy. After that it fades a lot. It still tastes good, but it tastes more malty and grainy than hoppy at that point. It is still delicious... but I am confused as to why that is the case. The recipe is as follows:

5 gallon batch, 90 min boil

9lbs Muntons light malt extract (dry)
1 lb american crystal 60l
1 lb carafa III
1/2 lb american crystal 80l
1oz columbus 90 min AA 13.9
1oz nugget 75 min AA 13.3
1oz magnum 60 min AA 14.7
1oz columbus 45 min AA 13.9
1/2 citra 30 min AA 14.1
1/2 citra 15 min AA 14.1
1 oz citra dry hop

Nottingham dry yeast packet

OG was 1.085
FG was 1.020

Thanks for any info you can give!

Just a guess, but I think it has to do more with your perception. I don't think it's possible for the beer to lose it's hoppiness after just one sip like that

I'm pretty sure that with the beer being a black IPA, after you have had a few sips of the beer your mouth becomes coated with some of the resins from the hops along with a mucous barrier that is a natural action of your body.

Similar to eating foods, especially heavy foods. The first bite may be absolutely delicious and brimming with flavor, but by the end of the meal even though the food may still taste good the flavor would have diminished.

Remember also, the beer is probably warming up slowly and the malt flavors are opening up.

I is lol'ing......

Obviously bitterness does not escape from the beer over the 15 minutes you are drinking it

I think it is more an issue of normalization of sorts where you have the initial shock of bitter then you get used to it and your tastebuds look past the bitterness for something else and it latches onto the malty characteristics.

cheezydemon3 said:

I is lol'ing......

Obviously bitterness does not escape from the beer over the 15 minutes you are drinking it

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Let me enlighten your feeble mind. The bitterness does not escape, as you put it, but is, in reality, pulled into an alternate universe of existence that parallels our own. It is a land of ghosts and wind, where up is down, black is white and Budweiser tastes better than any lager found in the heart of Bavaria!

Shooter said:

Let me enlighten your feeble mind. The bitterness does not escape, as you put it, but is, in reality, pulled into an alternate universe of existence that parallels our own. It is a land of ghosts and wind, where up is down, black is white and Budweiser tastes better than any lager found in the heart of Bavaria!

Click to expand...

I is shutted up. I is thankful for enightfulness!!!!

cheezydemon3 said:

I is shutted up. I is thankful for enightfulness!!!!

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Are you slowly morphing into Butterfly McQueen?!?!?