Lack of hop bitterness

[FullPint]

Hi,

I brewed my first AG beer back in June and haven't been able to start another as I've working away from home for months.
But,... now I'm looking to get cracking on 2 new brews before Xmas however I want to iron out a few creases with my process first.

My first brew was a Summer Lightning clone.

The result was a well conditioned and pleasant beer, but with 2 unplanned properties:

- stronger (ABV) and initially too sweet
- lack of hop bitterness (and come to think of it aroma)

Factors I think may have contributed to this are:

- hard water area (South-east england)
- water treatment: pre-boiling water, nothing else.
- higher mash efficiency than planned (OG was more like 1050 after watering down wort when it was supposed to be 1040)
- yeast used: S04

Does anyone have any quick tips or ideas on what might be up?
Maybe try different yeast?
Maybe add some more water treatments?
Just use trial and error and learn more that way?

Ideally I'd like to hear from others in hard water areas with experience of the same, but all suggestions more than welcome.

Thanks,

FP

[6470zzy]

Since you are brewing all grain , and are concerned about the hop bitterness and aroma issues, I would be interested to hear from you exactly what was on your hop bill and what sort of schedule did you use for the additions? After hearing that I think that we can better address your concerns. Above all .....keep faith

Cheers

[OldSpeckledBadger]

It's a long shot but are you sure you put the right amount of hops in?

[mysterio]

To echo the last post, my first thought was 'use more hops'.

You've already explained the sweetness, caused by a higher than expected mash efficiency. Easy to remedy for next time.

[Whorst]

In my great, yankee doodle opinion, Safale-04 mutes hop flavor, aroma, character, etc. About the only thing I'd use it for is a Mild or Porter.
If you want vibrant hop character all around, you go with UK-05. No, it's not as easy to work with, but you guys like to age your beers anyway. Drops out nicely with gelatin, and I'd imagine isinglass would also work well.

[Digby Swift]

Just to confirm you can get 05 perfectly clear with isinglass

[yashicamat]

A good alternative to US-05 is Nottingham. Not quite as good as US-05 at letting the hops through, but a lot better than S-04, plus Nottingham is pretty flocculant so you should have bright beer in 7 to 10 days in the cask without finings.

Your point about equating hop bitterness to hop flavour is a valid one; I used to find my beers too "sweet" but I discovered it wasn't a lack of IBUs, but more a lack of aroma hops. I now bung at least 50g of aroma hops in for a 5 gallon beer.