"Debugging" a bitter DDH NEIPA

Question

I brewed a DDH NEIPA recently and it was a great learning experience.

I got the aromatics I was looking for but the flavor was bitter. The batch was bound to be wonky because of size limitations because I could only brew a 3-gallon batch on a stovetop. The final beer was SUPER cloudy and had some sediment in it and when bottling a lot ended up settling out of the beer.

Primary fermentation was at 72°F then down to 68-66°F then sat at 64-62°F during dry hopping. This was all done in a cool midwest basement with low humidity.

Overall the beer wasn't quite a NEIPA, not really juicy and had sediment.

My question is what variables should I tweak to produce a better result, with less bitterness and smoother body, on my second attempt?

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Recipe Details:

BREW INFO:

Brew Method: BIAB

Batch Size: 3 gallons (ending kettle volume)

Boil Size: 3 gallons

Boil Gravity: 1.060

Efficiency: 65% (ending kettle)

YEAST:

Wyeast - London Ale III 1318

Starter: No

Form: Liquid

FERMENTABLES:

6 lb - American - Pale Ale

0.6 lb - Flaked Wheat

0.6 lb - Flaked Oats

0.4375 lb - American Carapils

HOPS:

El Dorado [15.7% AA]

Citra [11% AA]

Galaxy [14.25% AA]

BOIL:

Mashed at 149°F for 60 minutes

HOPS SCHEDULE:

FWH 0.15 oz El Dorado, Citra, Galaxy

40 minutes whirlpool 0.2 oz El Dorado, Citra, Galaxy

20 minutes whirlpool 0.45 oz El Dorado, Citra, Galaxy

20 minutes whirlpool is shut off 0.6 oz El Dorado, Citra, Galaxy

DH for 8 days with 0.65 oz El Dorado, Citra, Galaxy

DH for 4 days with 1 oz El Dorado, Citra, Galaxy

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List of Possible Pain Points

• Efficiency miscalculated
• The total amount of hops was too high
• Dry hopped for too long
• Too much yeast for the batch size
• Hops scaled incorrectly (should I have used the total AA% to scale?)
• Lack of a cold crash
• Grain bill was miscalculated
• FWH could have been too low/high
• Get a finer mesh hop bag (I had the white one from Northern Brewer)
• Split hops into smaller bags per variety

These are just the issues I've drawn up/done some research on but I'm not too sure what the main culprit could be.

Answer 1

Less bitterness - I would drop some of the interim hop additions, I would stick with the FWH just to reduce foaming, and I would eliminate the 40min 0.2oz and 20 min 0.45 oz additions. If you want more flavour just up your dry hopping to get the flavours and aromas from the oils without the bitterness from the isomerised alpha acids.

And to further reduce bitterness if this is not enough then switch the FWH from 11-14%AA hops to a lower 3-5% hop variety.

Also, did you do an iodine test on your mash at 60min to ensure full conversion of starch? Can affect the body a bit.

Do you use any kettle finings such as Protofloc? This can help reduce sedimentation in FV and subsequent bottling.

Answer 2

I didn't plug it into any hop utilization software, but those hop quantities don't look very aggressive for a 3 gallon batch. Any chance that you have some hop material getting into the final beer? If any of that "sediment" in your brew was hop material, then you will get a harsh bitterness even in a very low IBU recipe. Not sure how you dry hop, but using paint strainer bags can help quite a bit.