Yes. Previous answers are correct. Less hops; if you use honey, be patient and let it age properly. It’s a great adjunct. Avoid corn sugar at all costs.
The concept you might consider, however, is one that balances the bitterness of the hops with the sweetness of the malt. More malt; more hops. That can be lots of fun. As is the art of brewing. It’s a balance thing; a matter of your own taste and personality.
Cheers.
December 15, 2008
axelpeddle @ 3:32 pm
Adding more sugar to beer, especially honey, will just make you a dry, alcoholic beer. Honey, despite its aromatic flavor, is a simple sugar and will ferment out very easily, leaving you a dry, unsweet beer.
For a less bitter beer, use low alpha acid hops, or less hops altogether. Also, make beers with grains that aren’t roasted so much (such as roasted barley, special B, kiln coffee, etc). Maltier grains will give you a sweeter flavor, especially caramel, munich, or dextrin malts. Adding malto-dextrin or lactose sugar to your beer will also make it sweeter, as all of these provide unfermentable sugars.
If this doesn’t make your beer sweeter, experiment with decoction brewing. Partial mash and All-grain brewing is the best way to utilize this. The decoction process lets you boil a portion of your grains, (about 1/3, without liquor, and similar to lumpy oatmeal) so that you can caramelize your starches/complex sugars and darken the color of your malt, depending on how long you boil your decocted grain.
Adding unfermentable sugars, using caramelized/dextrin grains (high in unfermentable sugars), and doing a decoction, are all a way to add beer sweetness (maltiness) to a beer. The sweetness will cut the bitterness, and/or help balance out your bitter grains and excess hops.
Either cutting back hoppiness, strong grains, or adding malt will balance out your beer to be less bitter.
December 17, 2008
dogglebe @ 10:25 am
Cutting back on the hops is the simple solution, but it’s not the best. Some styles of beers are more bitter than others; you should look for those styles that are less bitter. I’m not a hop-head, myself, so when I brew, I brew scottish and british ales. These beers are malty by design should be more to your liking.
December 20, 2008
AleSmith @ 6:16 am
Axel’s answer is spot on. It’s obvious that altering your hop additions will change the bitterness but people quickly forget that bitterness is also imparted from high kilned grains. Adding simple sugars won’t do anything aside from drying out your beer and making it boozy, it actually may make you perceive a greater degree of bitterness by making for an astringent mouthfeel.
oikos @ 6:08 pm
Either:
1) Reduce the amount of hops
2) Use hops with a lower %AA
3) Boil the bittering hops a shorter time (add them later)
4) Balance the hop bitterness with malt [I am not fond of hoppy beer either but I find a good barleywine to be tasty, despite its being loaded with hops.]
5) Switch your style of beer to bocks, brown ales, scotch ales, wheat beers ….
Comments on how to make my homebrew less bitter?
more sugar sweetens everything.
just add 1 teaspoon honey per glass
More malt, less hops!
Yes. Previous answers are correct. Less hops; if you use honey, be patient and let it age properly. It’s a great adjunct. Avoid corn sugar at all costs.
The concept you might consider, however, is one that balances the bitterness of the hops with the sweetness of the malt. More malt; more hops. That can be lots of fun. As is the art of brewing. It’s a balance thing; a matter of your own taste and personality.
Cheers.
Adding more sugar to beer, especially honey, will just make you a dry, alcoholic beer. Honey, despite its aromatic flavor, is a simple sugar and will ferment out very easily, leaving you a dry, unsweet beer.
For a less bitter beer, use low alpha acid hops, or less hops altogether. Also, make beers with grains that aren’t roasted so much (such as roasted barley, special B, kiln coffee, etc). Maltier grains will give you a sweeter flavor, especially caramel, munich, or dextrin malts. Adding malto-dextrin or lactose sugar to your beer will also make it sweeter, as all of these provide unfermentable sugars.
If this doesn’t make your beer sweeter, experiment with decoction brewing. Partial mash and All-grain brewing is the best way to utilize this. The decoction process lets you boil a portion of your grains, (about 1/3, without liquor, and similar to lumpy oatmeal) so that you can caramelize your starches/complex sugars and darken the color of your malt, depending on how long you boil your decocted grain.
Adding unfermentable sugars, using caramelized/dextrin grains (high in unfermentable sugars), and doing a decoction, are all a way to add beer sweetness (maltiness) to a beer. The sweetness will cut the bitterness, and/or help balance out your bitter grains and excess hops.
Either cutting back hoppiness, strong grains, or adding malt will balance out your beer to be less bitter.
Cutting back on the hops is the simple solution, but it’s not the best. Some styles of beers are more bitter than others; you should look for those styles that are less bitter. I’m not a hop-head, myself, so when I brew, I brew scottish and british ales. These beers are malty by design should be more to your liking.
Axel’s answer is spot on. It’s obvious that altering your hop additions will change the bitterness but people quickly forget that bitterness is also imparted from high kilned grains. Adding simple sugars won’t do anything aside from drying out your beer and making it boozy, it actually may make you perceive a greater degree of bitterness by making for an astringent mouthfeel.
Either:
1) Reduce the amount of hops
2) Use hops with a lower %AA
3) Boil the bittering hops a shorter time (add them later)
4) Balance the hop bitterness with malt [I am not fond of hoppy beer either but I find a good barleywine to be tasty, despite its being loaded with hops.]
5) Switch your style of beer to bocks, brown ales, scotch ales, wheat beers ….