Uncomfortable Bitterness Of Beer

It is believed that many people love to drink beer because of its refreshing and comfortable bitter taste. This wonderful bitterness must be just right: soft and comfortable, it feels right in the mouth, and dissipates quickly, without any bitterness afterwards. If you encounter a beer that is not delicate in the mouth, has a rough bitter taste, makes people uncomfortable, and has obvious after-bitterness, it is recommended that brewers can analyze the reasons from the aspects of raw materials or production processes. How do we maintain the comfortable bitterness of beer and improve the quality of beer?

We now analyze and explain to you from two aspects of raw materials and technology.

1. Raw materials

1). The quality of hops is poor; or long-term storage causes aging, the content of ɑ-acid decreases, and a large amount of β-acid is oxidized, etc., resulting in bad bitterness and astringency.

2). The malt quality is poor, the skin is thick and rough; or the pulverization is too fine, a large amount of polyphenols are leached from the husk during saccharification and lees washing, and tannins are oxidized and polymerized at higher temperatures, which makes the beer produce obvious bitterness .

3). High levels of magnesium, iron, manganese ions, sulfates, carbonates, residual alkalinity and total hardness in the brewing water will also cause bad bitterness and astringency in beer.

2. Process

1). Bad bitterness and astringency formed during saccharification

* Wort filtration time is long, excessive tannins, anthocyanins and fatty acids enter the wort, which will increase the uncomfortable bitterness of the wort;

* The filtered wort is turbid and unclear, and the wort has too much oxygen during feeding, stirring and pouring, and polyphenols react with oxygen to increase the bitterness of the wort;

* Too long washing time and high temperature of washing water will cause the wort to produce bitter and astringent taste;

* In order to reduce costs, the waste water from the previous batch is used as the feed water for the next batch of saccharification. The waste water is prone to contain various bitter substances such as tannins and phenols, which brings bitterness to the new wort. .

(5) The boiling strength of the wort is not enough, and the content of coagulum is increased, so that the tannin and protein in the hops and husks are not sufficiently flocculated, which will increase the bitterness and astringency of the wort;

2). Bad bitterness and astringency formed during fermentation