this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider
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Yes, the bitterness comes almost exclusively from the hops. More specifically, high temperatures cause isomerization of hop oils which contributes to the perception of bitter. The longer you boil, the more bitterness you’ll achieve. Inversely, the less time at high temperatures the hops remain, the less bitter the beer will be. To reduce bitterness (and to increase aroma + juiciness) brewers will add hops near the end of the boil, or even after as the wort is cooling down.
Bitterness from hops is measured in IBUs. A beer with 10 IBU or less is not bitter, 50 is often pale ale / IPA territory and fairly bitter; 100 would be a highly bitter IPA. There are many calculators that will help you estimate IBUs. Note that IBUs are only the scientific measurement of how bitter the beer should be, but the perceived bitterness may be different if the beer is sweet, for example.
You can also add hops at the end of fermentation. This is called dry hopping and will only contribute to aroma and juiciness, and will not introduce any true bitterness. There are modern IPAs out there that are 0 IBU: they only use hops in dry hopping.
Bitterness can also be contributed by roasted malts, where very dark malts, depending on how they’re used can also taste bitter (think bitter chocolate or coffee).
The other thing to consider with bitterness is that bitterness presents differently depending on the other components of the beer, such as the SG:IBU ratio (or IMO the more accurate FG:IBU ratio) - the sweetness of the beer will counteract the bitterness, leading to the beer tasting less bitter or more bitter, even when at the same IBU.
OP, If it is the not the hops bitterness that is specifically unpalatable for you, but the hops flavours, you might be interested in Gruit, as it replaces the hops with herbs for the bittering component, replacing grass, pine and/or resinous bitter notes with spice at the end of the palate, or a Graf, which combines beer with cider, where the Malic Acid in the apples helps to balance the sweetness of the beer, reducing the amount of hops bitterness needed. You could even combine these two styles, making a spiced apple juice beer that does not use any hops to balance the grain sweetness at all.
This is an amazing bit of advice that every home brewer needs to understand. IBU only tells part of the story, and you have to understand that there are other factors that go into perceived bitterness. Many of your darker beers have higher IBU values, but the non-fermentable sugar and the other roast flavors counter the hop bitterness. Adjuncts like lactose can also smooth out some of the sharper hop notes (again, non-fermentable sugars). I found a guide that shows ibu ranges for a bunch of styles and you can see that a lot of heavier beers are rather high in IBU even though you'd never call the style "bitter" or "hoppy"