Bitterness is in the palette of the perceiver
Looking at the recipe again, it's a considerable amount of Cascades into a fairly small batch. I would hope it tastes like Cascade all over.
But without knowing how sensitive your palette is to bitterness in general it's pretty tough to say.
BeaverBarber wrote:With an OG of 1.080 and an FG of 1.012, your ABV is 9%. It would be very difficult to make a beer too bitter with that ABV.
Not really. Malt sweetness & ABV are completely different things & it's quite simple to make a high alcohol, insanely bitter beer. Most every triple IPA fits in that category. Again, palette sensitivity is the key here. If I were to taste this sample, I might not find it bitter what so ever. But I drink a lot of APA & IPA's, especially compared to someone who's never tasted one.
BeaverBarber wrote:The thing that would concern me is that you're at 85% attenuation which would be very hard to attain under normal circumstances. I'm thinking that the off-flavors that you're perceiving as too much bitterness is really some other sort of off-flavor caused by too high of a fermentation temperature.
Again, not at all. 85% is easily obtainable considering the lack of specialty malts & a few other factors. I would expect it more with a lower mash temp, but then again we don't know the calibration history on any of the instruments taking measurements. The 154 mash ending at 150 could easily be off by a couple degrees, increasing attenuation considerably. As for too high of a fermentation temp, 64 is not too high in anyone's book for that strain, no matter how high they are at the time. Besides, higher temps don't automatically mean a greater attenuation as much as how fast it gets there. Take the forced ferment tests, for example, when you take a small sample of the wort after pitching & ferment it out in a day or 2 at high temps. It's an old school method of determining your approximate fermentability & FG.
All in all, I'd say stick to your original plan, pull a Jen Talley & dry hop the shit out of it. You made no mention of obvious off flavors, only mentioning that it tastes bitter which I'm assuming is just how you're perceiving it from lack of exposure to over the top west-coast hop bombs. The dry hops won't increase the bitterness, & in an all Cascade brew, they might actually help as I find they lend a slightly sweet flavor note. If the first bottle is still a little over the top, just wait a little bit & the flavors will start to mellow & come together a bit more. Again, since you're not drinking this type of beer all the time, I'd recommend going a little light on the carbonation as well. It'll take some of the sharpness off the final product & might help you get into the style a little easier. You'll be begging for Pliney recipes before you know it.
-Slainte! FloggingPorky
BN Army // 13th Mountain Division 
