My beer tastes like grass!

I brewed a double partial mash batch, 5 gallons + 5 gallons, both got a mixture of Amarillo and Cascade as FWH, both used Sorachi Ace as bittering 60 minute addition and one got a 1 oz of Cascade at 5 mins, the other 1 oz Amarillo. I dry hopped the Cascade one with Cascade and the Amarillo one Amarillo (!) both 1.5 oz pellets 10 days and then I kegged with 1/2 once of Cascade in one and 1/2 oz Amarillo in the other whole hop flowers.



OK so now the Cascade brew tastes like grass! I certainly hope it will mellow, it's only been a couple of days, but this is not at all what I expected. The Amarillo one is decent. I wonder if it is the hop flowers or the pellets? I have in all me billions of dry hopped beers never used Cascade to dry hop so I wonder if this is it!! Does Cascade dry hopped taste like this? It is not very nice. Or could the hops be suspect? I am not sure how to fix this. I thought I liked Cascade but clearly dry hopping aint terribly good with this hop variety by itself.... thoughts? Similar experiences? Differing experiences? I'd be grateful for some insight here.

The big irony is that I have 3 lbs of cascade pellets and I have in primary a Cascade SMaSH I was going to double dry hop. I am now leaning towards dry hopping with a different variety of hops or a mixture...

i havent dry hopped with cascade but i have put them in at late addition (flame out) and have noticed a grassy flavor once in a while. For my higher to mid alpha cascades i have been using them more for bittering.

I have gotten grassy flavors from my homegrown cascades. I've been avoiding them since.

Damn. I have 4 Oz of whole Cascade flowers and I am pretty sure it is these that are grassing up my brew. Weird. I'll stick em in the composter.

Now my question is: is it Cascade or Whole hops that is likely to give me this taste? This was the first time for both for me, first time dry hopping with Cascade, first time dry hopping with whole hops. I up till now I have had wonderful aromatic brews dry hopping with pellets (Simcoe, Amarillo, Chinook, EKG.)

I've used Cascades a bunch, both late kettle & dry-hop. They should be citrusy, grapefruit kind of aromas & flavors.

I started growing my own hops last year and have heard from several sources that hops that are picked too young, will turn out 'grassy'. Also, this could happen if they are not dried thoroughly before packaging.

So, it may just be that particular hop source, this particular season. You might try searching through the 'hop growing' forum here, and see if there are any ways to improve the hops you already have.

You could also try to come up with a great recipe for grassy hops!

Good luck!
--LexusChris

p.s. Also, you always want to store your hops in the freezer, and sealed in air-tight or ziplock bags. When you do take them out, don't let them sit in direct sunlight during your brewday.

LexusChris said:

I've used Cascades a bunch, both late kettle & dry-hop. They should be citrusy, grapefruit kind of aromas & flavors.

I started growing my own hops last year and have heard from several sources that hops that are picked too young, will turn out 'grassy'. Also, this could happen if they are not dried thoroughly before packaging.

So, it may just be that particular hop source, this particular season. You might try searching through the 'hop growing' forum here, and see if there are any ways to improve the hops you already have.

You could also try to come up with a great recipe for grassy hops!

Good luck!
--LexusChris

p.s. Also, you always want to store your hops in the freezer, and sealed in air-tight or ziplock bags. When you do take them out, don't let them sit in direct sunlight during your brewday.

Click to expand...

Well I guess its OK since I'll drink anything! Grassy is not my favorite though that's for sure. Thanks for the tips!

I've gotten this when I over did late additions of low alpha hops. Just let it age awhile. It turn into a VERY nice flavor.

Ya know... I love grassy aroma. I work to try to achieve a good dose of it.

I am embarrassed and confused to say my grassy beer is now tasting quite good! Confused because I thought it was the whole hops I tossed in the keg, embarrassed because I *know* after all this time the beer tastes best after 3 weeks or so in the keg. Thing is that 100% of the time up - till now that is - it also tastes pretty fine after 3 days.

So I am wondering if it is the pellets, or perhaps the fact that I poured the cold+hot break and troub into the fermenter instead of whirlpooling and discarding the gunk like I usually do?

I tell you, the trouble with this stuff is that there are too damn many variables to get a really good answer unless you are super disciplined and precise...!

I have a similar problem with a batch I have in the keg right now. The flavor is odd and sometimes isn't too bad but sometimes really sticks out.

this was the recipe:

For ~5.5 gallons:

10# Vienna
.5# Cara-Pils

.5oz columbus @ FWH
.5oz columbus @ 60
.5oz columbus @ 30
1oz cascade @ 20
.5oz columbus @ 10
.5oz columbus @ 0

Nottingham Dry Yeast




It fermented real cold (mid 50's for a bit) and it ended up with this grassy taste. I also added a bunch of dry hops but I forgot exactly which ones. I blame the flavor on the hop schedule. We will see.

LexusChris said:

I've used Cascades a bunch, both late kettle & dry-hop. They should be citrusy, grapefruit kind of aromas & flavors.

I started growing my own hops last year and have heard from several sources that hops that are picked too young, will turn out 'grassy'. Also, this could happen if they are not dried thoroughly before packaging.

Click to expand...

Thanks man - you are correct! It is the whole hop flowers and I bet one of these two issues are the problem. I am relieved this is not from my 3 lbs of cascade pellets. I found this out today when I decided to re-infuse my cascade ale with whole hops in the keg. I put more in and a couple of hours later - grass!

FWIW and YMMV,
Steve da sleeve

Grrr, guess I should have read up a bit more. My all Cascade Pale with 1/2oz dry hop tastes like fresh mowed grass. Same as the original poster, my bottles usually carb in 3-5 days so I decided to test one early and UGH. It is well carbed but my god the green flavor is really up there.

I did a cascade SMaSH with a 3 oz flameout addition and 2 ounce keg addition.

At 7 days it was at it's best. Bright floral aroma. After 2 weeks the aroma and flavor favored orange and citrus, IMO not nearly as good as the fresh vibrant aroma.

I tell you, the trouble with this stuff is that there are too damn many variables to get a really good answer unless you are super disciplined and precise...!

I Have to agree with that. I just try to have fun and not get too tied up in the science.