eventful brew-day.... probably too many hops

[dontbother]

Yesterday decided to do another extract brew, this time boiling the full volume rather than topping up with cold water (last time was 5L boil and 12L into the FV)

I had some new toys:-
15L+20L stainless steel stock pots (from ebay)
home-made immersion chiller

All went smoothly until pulling the immersion chiller out of the stock pot covered in hops. I'm not sure why I didn't figure that one out when planning
Got the worst off, then found the muslin bags didn't quite fit over the fermentation bin (and I didn't have 3 hands or any help to hold things in place).

In hindsight I should have nipped to Tesco and got a really big sieve, instead I decided to pout into the FV to filter out the hops... but I'd forgot to put the plastic on the back of the tap so the tap got clogged. Before long the arm was washed in anti-bacterial cleaner and in the fermentation bin undoing the tap and then getting wort over the floor I suppose the good news is fermentation seems underway.


The other mistake, is I doubled the hops used last time the hop s up based on final volume (I2L -> 22L). Looking at Beersmith afterwards I have 78.2 IBU... so higher than Punk IPA but nowhere near Hardcore IPA. The wort sample was pretty vile.
The hops: 50g Northern Brewer at 60 mins, 40g Cascade at 30 mins, 40g Cascade at 15 mins.
The other stuff: 2.5Kg of spraymalt, 600g crystal (steeped for 30 min before boiling) and Safale-S04

Should I have patience and wait until it's had chance to condition, or any suggestions for ways of calming the bitterness down?


Adam

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Just give a long time to mature.

[WishboneBrewery]

Give it time, let it ferment... might be a winner!!

[dontbother]

patience isn't my strong point.

[dogchillibilly]

Some one with more knowledge than me may contradict, but you could brew the same beer and hardly hop it.
Then blend the 2 batches.

That should equalise out the IBU.
A few breweries blend old and new ales to create quite nice flavours.

[dontbother]

Some one with more knowledge than me may contradict, but you could brew the same beer and hardly hop it.
Then blend the 2 batches.

That should equalise out the IBU.
A few breweries blend old and new ales to create quite nice flavours.

That sounds interesting....

I guess what I'm not sure about is how important timing would be... the longer the decision to blend gets put off then the more time it has to (maybe) condition into a stunner. But if it's something to do sooner rather than later then I'll have to order some more ingredients


Adam

[yashicamat]

It may need some maturing time because of the IBUs, but don't throw it away at any point unless it is definitely getting worse. Very very hoppy beers are either loved as they are (by me for instance) or some people like them to sit until they smooth out. This can take anything from weeks to even years. What was your OG? The beer should keep well with all those hops in it at least!

[dontbother]

It may need some maturing time because of the IBUs, but don't throw it away at any point unless it is definitely getting worse. Very very hoppy beers are either loved as they are (by me for instance) or some people like them to sit until they smooth out. This can take anything from weeks to even years. What was your OG? The beer should keep well with all those hops in it at least!

OG was 1048.... just realised I have a packet of spraymalt left over, I was aiming for 1.056 originally.



Adam

[yashicamat]

It could be worse. 1048 - it could yield a drinkable beer still. See how it goes, you may be surpised!

[Zatoichi]

You might be surprised, I've brewed beers with similar IBU levels and they have tasted gorgeous in 5 - 6 weeks...... but then again I am a self confessed Hophead!

[dontbother]

An update on where this went in the end..... I decided to experiment a little (I figured it could have all been ruined so nothing to loose).

After fermentation finished on the over hopped beer split it into 20 bottles and the keg.
Instinct was to add CO2 to the keg to purge out the oxygen (only have the 8gm CO2 bulbs).

Then got on with a 12L brew, it /was/ going to be super light on hops but then I didn't want to waste what I had left (ended up about 40IBU).

Experimented with lemongrass during the boil, but didn't seem to get much of a citrus flavour (in the end added some fresh lemon juice while boiling the priming sugar). My technique for blending the beers wasn't any more sophisticated than syphoning the new beer straight into the keg (moving the syphon tube around a little, instinct told me not to stir the beer).

Then took 16 bottles out of the keg (the plan was 20 but I got frustrated after the syphon kept stopping)

After a week took a pint out for a taste, not exactly bowled over... but the steak/ale pie made was spot on
2 weeks on and I tucked into the keg and pretty happy with the result.

Mistakes aside, I think I like the approach of brewing a base beer and then blending a second beer with a few experimental tweaks in a week or so later.