Too much hop flavor

[Garak]

My first two all grain brews have over powering hop flavor, way too much for the styles and my friends taste. Its not overly bitter, just the hop flavor is over taking the malt so that both beers taste very similar but are very different styles. Both used Hall Trad hops.

I'm wondering if the lack of filtering/screening at the end of the boil is the issue. I'm getting a lot of hops in the fermenters. Where I don't have a pump yet I'm not whirl pooling. I'm just using an auto siphen after the wort is chilled to rack into carboys.

I don't recall exactly how much hops went into this beer I'm tasting. I think both beers were around 20g 60min boil and 20g 5 min for 5 gal batches. Maybe I'm using too much for the late addition?

The first beer started as a blonde and then I messed with the recipe lots:
3.5kg 2 Row
340g Cara-pills
500g Special Aromatic
500g Crystal 30L
Hall Tradition 25g boil 1hour 15.2 IBU
Hall Tradition 20g boil 5 min 2.4 IBU
Yeast was dry Danstar Nottingham

The one I just tasted was based on Hangin' Johnny Irish Red:
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Which I messed with by changing the hops to what I had on hand and recalculated using brewtarget. Unfortunately I didn't save and I don't know the exact amount of hops that I added.

[LiverDance]

Too much hop flavor does not exist, it's and old brewers myth Not sure why your getting all that flavor cause that's not much hops at all. Leaving them in the fermentor may add a small amount of flavor but not much i wouldn't think.

[mr x]

That doesn't seem overly hoppy to me at all, but taste is really subjective. Not even an ounce at 5 minutes shouldn't overpower a hummingbird, lol....

Maybe your scale was off? I just don't see that as being overpowering in any way, even if it gets in the fermenter. All you can do is try again and scale back until you get your system dialed in to the way you brew.

[LiverDance]

Was it a full boil, or maybe concentrated? I found i got more hop flavor when I used to do concentrated boils. Did you hit your volumes and OG? That may cause and increase in flavor as well?

[akr71]

Is it a 'grassy' flavor you're getting?

I've had hop sludge from pellets get into the fermenter and even a little into the bottles. It added a grassy note to the beer, but only if I did a hard pour and the sediment ended up in my glass, though I wouldn't have described it as overpowering (plus I like the grassy flavor in the right beer).

[Garak]

Grassy might be the word to describe it. Its not overly bitter, its just covering up the malt flavors.

I hit the OG pretty close, volumes were off but I started wth too much water if anything. I've been lazy and haven't put markings on my HLT or make a dip stick for my kettle. I've just been assuming 75% efficiency and estimating how much water is in my 5 gallon pyrex HLT for dough in and sparging.

Another theory is that the flavor that I'm blaming on the hops may be coming from over shooting mash temperatures. My HLT is not insulated and I'm heating the water in the kettle so I overshoot my temperatures to make up for the loss. Then I dough in slowly stiring well to release the extra heat. I've hit 156F each time after stiring in the crushed malt. I also only add about 2/3s the mash water volume from the start so if it drops too low I can add more to bring it up. The first bit of grain to hit the water is getting as hot at 170.

[NASH]

I don't think you'd be replicating hop flavour by overshooting mash temps

if you think it's too much hop flavour with what you used, just drop the 5 minute addition altogether. that will tell you if you it's the hop flavour or not. or bring me a bottle, no 4 bottles! Also, use a big spoon or spatula to whirlpool.

[LiverDance]

Try and best describe the taste your gettting? Is it like green apple?

[KMcK]

Just imagine all the flaws you have the potential to cover up with all that hop flavour.

[mr x]

lmfao

[moxie]

The only time I've ever noticed too much hop flavour was when using Summit! As it turns out, I can't stand Summit hops!

Will try warrior for ultra-high AA% next!

[Garak]

I'm going to bottle some and bring it to the next brewnosers meeting. Play a little game of whats wrong with this brew. I should also have a smoked ale to bring which uses different hops.