My NE IPA is too bitter.

Some aroma hops can have fairly high AA (IBUs)...try cooling the wort down to < 170*F before adding the bulk of your hops...or wait and see if the bitterness fades a little.

 

Tell us your recipe, especially timing of hop additions. Are you using a recipe calculator that predicts IBUs? To my palate, I taste little bitterness in late addition and whirlpool hops, so if it were my recipe, I would focus on reducing ibus on 60 min addition hops. Your mileage may vary.

You said you didn't use hop bags. Hop bags are known to cut back on measured IBUs. Presumably they reduce the amount of hop particulate in your beer too. Going with that presumption, I think it is plausible that hop particles might add some bitterness. With time, these particles may settle. Similarly, iso-alpha acid bitterness may fade with time. Unfortunately, NE IPAs are typically consumed young to capitalize on aromatics, so allowing time for bitterness to fade may be counter-productive to the aroma you seek.

 

Those are all high alpha acid hops, and the exposure time at near boiling conditions was the culprit.

 

I bet he used like six oz too.

 

Could it be water? I've brewed beers that were too bitter before getting my chloride sulfate ratio balanced out. I think too much magnesium can make it bitter too...

 

Yep, more time exposing hops to boiling wort lends to more bitterness.use low ibu hops for boiling/bittering then add hops as recommended. Personally, I get all the aroma I want with dry hopping.

 

Yeah, it could be your water. Water profile seems to be pretty important for this style. I would use distilled or RO water and build your profile. You need to have your Cl levels up to about 125, and SO4 to be in the 50-75 range. Have you looked at the Averagely Perfect NE IPA in the recipes folder? That is a solid recipe.

 

I think they meant 2 different additions (remove fermentation hops when adding 2nd dry hop)

 

Could it be a bitter astringency from residual hop debris on the palate?

Non-cold-crashed beer 4 days after dry hop will have a lot of hop particulate in suspension. On the palate this can come off rather bitter and harsh.

I would say to try two things next time. Hop stand at a cooler temperature and cold condition before bottling.

Cheers

 

You guys are all high. A 30 min hopstand above 180 and another 20-30 minutes of chilling and you guys are lamenting about water chemistry? With five oz of high aa hops? Serious?

 

liking chavinparty's advice to look at your water...having dealt with hard water for years trying to brew a Weihenstephaner clone and never figuring out why the beers aways turned out so incredibly bitter...despite adding almost no bittering hops, the only reasonable explanation was the very hard water. Using a good water calculator like MpH found on here on BA can help with that. I use like 1-2 tsp 85% phosphoric acid per 5 gallons brewing water for beers like IPAs to help get my alkalinity & pH down. I understand that a lot of flameout hops are going to provide bitterness, but don't find it the same as the sharp, chalky flavors that highly alkaline water (with lower much calcium than burton water) provides.

 

Yup...seriously

 

Doing a rough calc (someone correct me if wrong)...

2.5oz of those hops split evenly in 5 Gal of ~1.060 wort, and a hopback/whirlpool with 10% efficiency, gives an estimated 45 IBU...


It's going to taste bitter

 

Are you sure you are not confusing the bitterness with some kind of hopburn?

 

He used 5 oz at FO, double those numbers.