What Happened??

[wyowolf]

I have been brewing about 4 years or so now. maybe 50? brews and some wine. Today was the first time I can honestly say my beer is terrible!! I brewed the Row 2 Hill 56 clone listed here 4 times. The last 3 were perfect my fav beer actually.

The last time a couple weeks ago, exact same eBIAB process as before, same pound of hops I started with even. But this one is SUPER bitter?? I have NO IDEA how or why but its very tough to drink... and i made 10 gal of it!!

Hopefully maybe it will age a bit in the keg and get better...

sorry for the whining rant... just hugely disappointed...

 

[kh54s10]

You did something different. Or something was spoiled. You will have to be the one who figures out what it was. Or we will need to have a lot more details to make a diagnosis.

 

[wyowolf]

Yeah, I know, was just whining/venting. The ONLY thing that changed was i used a SS Hop basket before, and now I just throw them in and strain them out with a filter before the plate chiller. But I have made other brews and they have all come out like i would expect until this one.

For some reason the bittering seems WAY off...

 

[izg]

Is it possible this is simply caused by an infection in the beer? The first bottle I tried of an IPA I made a month or so ago was almost undrinkable with a sour, overly bitter taste. I was lucky in that the infection seems to have only been in that bottle only - all the others I've had have been fine. But it did confirm to me that bitterness (of a non-hops sort) can definitely be caused by a slight slip up in sanitation.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Bottled? Kegged? I've had a few IPAs that I kegged that were over the top bitter...almost burned the mouth...for the first few beers. After 3-4 more days, they were great. Just too much hops in suspension that needed to settle and get flushed out.

 

[LarMoeCur]

Here's a list of guesses. With out knowing more they are just guesses.

Hop utilization could have increased based on the boil.
-to include hop spider/basket.
Beer is infected and lowered your FG.
Brewer error.
-mis-measured hop addition.
-used the wrong hops.
-boiled longer or held above 140F longer isomerizing more AA.
-Pitched to more yeast and beer attenuated more than last batch resulting in a lower FG.
-use same hop but different source with higher AA.
-grain bill mistake resulting in lower SG and lower FG.
-gain bill mistake forgot crystal malt or cara-pils.
-mashed at way lower temp resulting a more fermentable wort lowering FG.

 

[wyowolf]

Is it possible this is simply caused by an infection in the beer? The first bottle I tried of an IPA I made a month or so ago was almost undrinkable with a sour, overly bitter taste. I was lucky in that the infection seems to have only been in that bottle only - all the others I've had have been fine. But it did confirm to me that bitterness (of a non-hops sort) can definitely be caused by a slight slip up in sanitation.

That is possible, yesterday i went downstairs and hooked everything up and filled with water and PBW and cranked it to 180 and let it run for 20 min or so, pump filter plate chiller hoses everything...

 

[wyowolf]

Bottled? Kegged? I've had a few IPAs that I kegged that were over the top bitter...almost burned the mouth...for the first few beers. After 3-4 more days, they were great. Just too much hops in suspension that needed to settle and get flushed out.

kegged, i stopped bottling some time back. I "think" somehow the first hops became more bitter somehow... but its just a guess...

 

[wyowolf]

Here's a list of guesses. With out knowing more they are just guesses.

Hop utilization could have increased based on the boil.
-to include hop spider/basket.
Beer is infected and lowered your FG.
Brewer error.
-mis-measured hop addition.
-used the wrong hops.
-boiled longer or held above 140F longer isomerizing more AA.
-Pitched to more yeast and beer attenuated more than last batch resulting in a lower FG.
-use same hop but different source with higher AA.
-grain bill mistake resulting in lower SG and lower FG.
-gain bill mistake forgot crystal malt or cara-pils.
-mashed at way lower temp resulting a more fermentable wort lowering FG.

Hops were all from the exact same pound I started with....
temps were all spot on...

brewer error... highly probable!!

Im thinking i somehow messed up the hop additions... but I honestly dont know how.

this weekend I hooked everything up chiller filter hoses pump and ran some pbw heated to 180 for about 20 min or so just in case...

 

[LarMoeCur]

It sounds like you have some of the hops left. Weigh what's left, add what your think you used in the two batches, if it doesn't equal a one pound. Then you know you mismeasured some how. Adding your 20 minute addition at 30 would not make to big of difference. But if you some how doubled up your 60 minute addition yeah that's a problem.

If the beer is infected only time will tell. You will know in a week or two at the latest. The good news is hop flavor and bitterness will drop out of solution relatively quickly. So, in a month or two it could be the best beer you've ever made. So, do not throw it out. Give it sometime and taste it again in a week or two.

BTW Bottled or kegged?

 

[wyowolf]

It sounds like you have some of the hops left. Weigh what's left, add what your think you used in the two batches, if it doesn't equal a one pound. Then you know you mismeasured some how. Adding your 20 minute addition at 30 would not make to big of difference. But if you some how doubled up your 60 minute addition yeah that's a problem.

If the beer is infected only time will tell. You will know in a week or two at the latest. The good news is hop flavor and bitterness will drop out of solution relatively quickly. So, in a month or two it could be the best beer you've ever made. So, do not throw it out. Give it sometime and taste it again in a week or two.

BTW Bottled or kegged?

maybe an ounce or two left... i dry hopped in the keg in a SS basket.... I have one keg left that i havent dry hopped yet. 10 gal batch...

im drinking it... its just not as good as i remember the other batches...

 

[wyowolf]

I think i can rule out infection, at least from the equipment. I just tested a porter I made right after this, but before I cleaned it. It was fine.
For some reason the hops I used, from the same bag, vac sealed were a lot more bitter/sour than the rest... maybe age??

 

[Miraculix]

Na.. Age makes them less bitter. Maybe some mix up during packaging the hops?

 

[wyowolf]

Na.. Age makes them less bitter. Maybe some mix up during packaging the hops?

If you mean from me no, I just resealed the same bag using the vac sealer...this is all from the same pound of Simcoe I started with...

 

[Miraculix]

No, I meant at the farm or whoever packed those bags before selling.

 

[wyowolf]

Possible I guess. I bought a new pack of simcoe to dry hop the other keg with, i will use that and see if there is any difference...

 

[Yooper]

What about water? Did you have some weather issues or something that would have changed the water make up that you typically brew with? The reason I ask is that is what happened to me. For some reason, my water changed (before I bought the RO system) and a stout I made was awesome but an IPA wasn't. I found out that my water system had changed a well or something and it made a huge difference.

 

[wyowolf]

What about water? Did you have some weather issues or something that would have changed the water make up that you typically brew with? The reason I ask is that is what happened to me. For some reason, my water changed (before I bought the RO system) and a stout I made was awesome but an IPA wasn't. I found out that my water system had changed a well or something and it made a huge difference.

Nothing out of the ordinary, I had my water tested by ward labs and it was pretty good so I just use beersmith to change it to whatever profile I want...
Had a lot of rain from Irma, but that was long after I brewed this.

Im going to dryhop the second keg with the hops I bought recently and see if there is any difference... it wont effect the bittering I know, but maybe thats not what I am tasting... cant hurt anything. the other keg is in the fridge downstairs..