Why does beer have bitterness
Bitterness is one of the most important characteristics of beer. The bitterness of beer comes from hops. Under normal circumstances, the normal bitterness of beer will soon disappear, giving people a refreshing feeling after drinking, leaving no aftertaste. However, in the production process of beer, if the process conditions are not perfect, the quality of raw materials is defective, and the process sanitation is poor, the bitterness of beer will become rough, bitter and long after bitterness. The following are the reasons for the bitterness of beer.
Why is some beer so bitter?
1. Use bad hops
The bitterness of beer comes from hops, which is commonly known as A-acid. If the factors such as high water content, high ambient temperature, sunlight and poor packaging are encountered during storage, the oxidative polymerization of A-acid will be accelerated. The bitter substances in hops will be gradually oxidized and polymerized to form hard resin with low bitterness. Therefore, such a beer will appear after the bitter situation!
2. Excessive additives or improper methods for hops
When you make beer, if you add too much hops, it's too bitter. At the same time, the adding method of hops is also very important. If hops are added too early, the utilization rate of bitter substances is high, and the bitter quality is not very satisfactory; if hops are added too late, the utilization rate of bitter substances will be affected.
3. The alkalinity of brewing beer is too high
Brewed beer with alkaline water can dissolve more bitterness and bring bad afterbitterness to beer: brewed beer with brewed water containing higher bicarbonate not only affects the activity of enzyme, but also makes hop bitterness rough and produce afterbitterness and astringency.
4. Yeast autolysis
If the external environment is unfavorable or the nutrients of yeast are insufficient during yeast fermentation, the phenomenon of yeast autolysis will occur. When the content of amino acids is high, it will bring unpleasant aftertaste to beer.
In addition to the above reasons for different degrees of bitterness in beer, there are also many factors that can bring different degrees of afterbitterness to beer, such as insufficient boiling strength of wort, excessive washing of spent grains, poor separation of solidified substances in wort, weak fermentation, etc.