Too bitter?

[floydmeddler]

Brewed with Northern Brewer hops on saturday and because they were Young's hops, there wasn't any indication of alpha acid content on the packet. Anyway, I guesstimated them to be around 7% and have just found out by email that they are actually 10.5%!! This means my brew is a whopping 63IBU. Will this be undrinkable? Are there any commercial brews that are this bitter? Would be good to try something that will give me an idea as to how bitter this will actuall be.

Many thanks

[Zatoichi]

Dont worry it should be fine 63 IBU is not that high really, I recently brewed at 98 IBU and the results were stunning
It all depends on the style really, some American IPA's go up to 120 IBU!!! personally I think highly hopped beers work better if the majority of the hops are added late (20min - 15min) as it gives a smoother bitterness and more flavor.

[coatesg]

And if it turns out too bitter, just let it age until the bitterness mellows out - may turn out even better that way too There are plenty of brews far more bitter than 63IBU - some of the big IPAs have theoretical values well over a hundred, but aging helps it all mellow out nicely.

A lot depends on the gravity too.

[mysterio]

Depends on the original gravity, what was it?

If you age the beer the bitterness will drop out. Also using finings significantly pulls down a lot of bitterness in my experience.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers lads. Not worried anymore now. I think the gravity was around 1052-1054. Don't have my notes at hand so can't be entirely sure.

Let's hope it turns out good.

[haz66]

If you can just leave it to mellow,i did an IPA that was very bitter after the normal
4 weeks of conditioning, but now 3 months down the line its lost a lot of the bitterness
but retained a lot of nice flavour, still a bit too bitter for me so i`ll just leave it another
couple of months and it should be about right