Awhile back I posted on hopping to taste - particularly in the finish. I tried it out, and even posted that I thought it worked out well (and I was probably a little proud of myself).
But as it turned out, what tasted about right at the end of the boil, turned out to be “not enough” after conditioning.
And further, a previously brewed beer (lager) that seemed over-hopped after 2 months (possibly initiating my hypothesis) became awesome at 5 months.
So, I’ve been thinking that I should share (confess) that I didn’t know didly-squat, and that “hopping to taste” is way more difficult than I foresaw, and I’ve since abandoned it.
I notice this often, When I taste the wort out of the kettle it is often WAY to bitter but that mellows out alot during fermentation. I suspect alot of the ‘bitter’ blows off either with the co2 or with the krausen. Doesn’t mean you can’t do it, you just have to get a feel for it. When making icecream base I find that it has to be super sweet, too sweet, in order to get the right level of sweetness in the finished product. I say you should keep trying if it’s something you want to be able to learn. If nothing else it will improve your recipe formulation skills.
When the Krauesen forms, you will see a brown material initially. This is the Braunhefe (brown yeast), which is very bitter stuff. Some of the bitterness falls out with the trub.
What the wort’s bitterness tastes like, and what the finished beer’s bitterness tastes like are two different things in my experience.
Yeah, the tastes may be totally different before and after ferm but one should be able, with lots of practice, to learn that pre-ferm taste A = post ferm taste B