Beer a touch too bitter.............

[Drunkula]

@MmmmCitra pour a small glass of the beer, taste it, and if you've got some calcium chloride drop in a few crystals and swirl it - have another taste. If you haven't got it try some normal salt. See if it rounds the flavour out.

I've got to adjust a pilsner made with close to no minerals as I don't much like it so I've been adjusting it in the glass. Need to get some calcium chloride into the keg so I'm going to make a solution, fill a tube with it and then blow that throught the gas line.

Water chems might not be the solution for you but still might help.

 

[MmmmCitra]

@MmmmCitra pour a small glass of the beer, taste it, and if you've got some calcium chloride drop in a few crystals and swirl it - have another taste. If you haven't got it try some normal salt. See if it rounds the flavour out.

I'll certainly try that, I assume very little CC is needed even if its a full 500ml glass full so it will be interesting to see what happens. :small

 

[MmmmCitra]

I'll certainly try that, I assume very little CC is needed even if its a full 500ml glass full so it will be interesting to see what happens. :small

Well I tried it last night, nothing scientific but added a small flake of CC to 500mls of beer, I've got flakes rather than powder, and swirled it around until dissolved and guess what.................a noticeable improvement, the bitter taste had gone and the beer tasted SO much better.

Does anybody know what happens if you add CC to a beer that ISN'T bitter, will it change the taste ??
I'm tempted to add a little to each bottle at bottling time because I never know until the beer has carbed up if it's going to have the bitter taste, if I do this hopefully no more bitter beers.

 

[Marky B]

I used to get this all the time and it drove me mad so I took the plunge and got into the water chemistry side of brewing - my tap water PH was too high so i added around 35ml of AMS for a 28l full mash (no sparge I got a robobrew with a wort recirculator) along with Gypsum around 7g and a campden tablet to neutralise the chlorine. I bought aquarium kits to test the levels of calcium and alkalinity and found they were bang and surprise, surprise the horrid bitter taste was gone, every batch since has been great

 

[MmmmCitra]

Interesting stuff Marky, I find the whole water chemistry bit totally confusing but as I use bottled water I'm sure that makes things a bit easier, I just add a bit of gypsum and calcium chloride to my strike water, adjusted thanks to strange-steve so hopefully i'm slowly getting there.
My latest brew, bottling Saturday will hopefully tell me.

 

[Pennine]

I used to get this all the time and it drove me mad so I took the plunge and got into the water chemistry side of brewing - my tap water PH was too high so i added around 35ml of AMS for a 28l full mash (no sparge I got a robobrew with a wort recirculator) along with Gypsum around 7g and a campden tablet to neutralise the chlorine. I bought aquarium kits to test the levels of calcium and alkalinity and found they were bang and surprise, surprise the horrid bitter taste was gone, every batch since has been great

this is actually a good point about pH control and how it affects bitterness for more reading see,
http://scottjanish.com/a-look-at-ph-in-hoppy-beers/

 

[MmmmCitra]

this is actually a good point about pH control and how it affects bitterness for more reading see,
http://scottjanish.com/a-look-at-ph-in-hoppy-beers/

Well that's quite a hard read, not only do I have to get my head around water chemistry but now how dry hopping increases the ph of the final beer
Luckily it looks like pellets don't affect it as much as leaf and I only use pellets.
I do try to get the ph of the wort to around 5.4 ish but only use litmus paper so it's difficult to be accurate.

 

[Pennine]

Well that's quite a hard read, not only do I have to get my head around water chemistry but now how dry hopping increases the ph of the final beer
Luckily it looks like pellets don't affect it as much as leaf and I only use pellets.
I do try to get the ph of the wort to around 5.4 ish but only use litmus paper so it's difficult to be accurate.

what quantities and types of hops are using at flameout and 5 mins? then you also whirlpool at 65c. maybe you could drop the flameout and whirlpool only at 80c?

 

[MmmmCitra]

Maybe I didn't explain it but i'm not 100% certain what the difference between flameout and whirlpool is.
My 'technic' is, but it may change a touch, a few hops at 10 or 5 minutes but not always, a bigger addition after the boil has finished and I've cooled to 65c - 70 c for 30 mins, and then a biggish dry hop about 3 days before bottling.

Usual fruity hops, citra, mosaic, simcoe, etc etc in different combinations, always trying something new / different.