Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

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A community dedicated to homebrewing beer, mead, wine, cider and everything in between. If it ferments, bring it over here.

Share recipes, ideas, ask for feedback or just advice.

Some starting points for beginners:

Introduction to Beer Brewing

A basic mead primer

Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine

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Unhopped ale (lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I normally don't drink beer or ale because I find it too bitter. I have no problems with malt though (I actually think it's pretty interesting). Would I be correct in thinking that unhopped beer is less bitter?

Also does anyone have any advice for brewing my first ale? I have made fruit wine, mead, and cider before but never beer. I have some kveik yeast and spray malt from other brews that I can use so I am thinking of using that. The closest I have gotten to brewing ale or beer is making bochet braggot so any help is appreciated.

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[–] h0rnman 3 points 1 year ago

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"