Grassy/weird aroma in Black IPA

So I've got a black IPA I've had on tap for 12 days that seems to be developing an off aroma.

I dry hopped in the keg (cold with exception of 1st half day as it was cooling to serving temps) with 1 ounce of cascade whole leaf hops when kegging and even as little as 3 days ago it smelled floral, citrusy, and great. Well today I went to add an additional ounce of the same hops and noticed that the aroma had somewhat changed.

It now smells a little more grassy and very similar to what I've smelled with New Belgium's Ranger IPA lately. I wouldn't say it's horrible just not as good as it was at least to me. I added these loose since I have a dip tube screen and now feel like I might have to bottle the beer to get it off the hops since I don't have another keg and don't want the aroma to get worse and ruin my beer.

Anybody else have this happen and will it mellow with time?

I think it will mellow. I've had that problem before and it got better. It never totally went away, but it wasn't as noticable after a few months. Did you taste it, or just smell it? How does it taste?

How long was it dry-hop'd?
It's off the hops now I assume?

b-boy said:

I think it will mellow. I've had that problem before and it got better. It never totally went away, but it wasn't as noticable after a few months. Did you taste it, or just smell it? How does it taste?

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I tasted it too and it tasted fine just the aroma was off.

Like I said it wasn't horrible but faintly noticeable. I went ahead and threw the other ounce of hops in there since I had already opened the bag so I guess we'll see.

If it gets any worse then I'll probably go ahead and bottle it off since I was planning to do that anyway to make room for a witbier I'm bout to brew but wasn't really planning to do that for another 2 weeks. I guess I'll bump that if I have to especially if the other ounce gets it smelling right again I'll go ahead and get it off the hops.

I guess I just didn't expect it to get grassy as quick since it was being cold hopped.

acidrain said:

How long was it dry-hop'd?
It's off the hops now I assume?

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Only 12 days so far all in the keg in the kegerator at around 36-38 degrees with the first day prob in the 40's since it wasn't cold when I put it in.

No it's still on the hops for now at least.

Try not to dry hop longer than 3-5 days. If you go longer you can start to pull that "stem" and grassy flavors your talking about. I used to dry hop for longer periods and I read about guys on here going long on dry hops all the time but I get better results with shorter soaks than longer ones.

TahoeRy said:

Try not to dry hop longer than 3-5 days. If you go longer you can start to pull that "stem" and grassy flavors your talking about. I used to dry hop for longer periods and I read about guys on here going long on dry hops all the time but I get better results with shorter soaks than longer ones.

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Yeah this is my first time dry hopping and I thought it'd be cool to do it in the keg.

Everything I read said dry hopping cold in the keg took longer than at room temperature and that two weeks usually worked. A lot of guys were saying that typically 3-4 weeks was fine too which is what I originally planned but I'll definitely be doing it differently next time.

While I might still dry hop in the keg I'll be putting them in a bag from here on out so I can remove them when I want to avoid what I've got going on now.

7 days is pretty standard, and never longer than 2 weeks is the rule of thumb.
I would transfer off the hops now if you're getting grass flavor.

I just finished off my black ipa that had zythos. It didn't have the aroma I was expecting, it had that grassy almost herbal smell. It also took it a few days for the aroma to kick in, all in all it was a strange hop in my opinion. It was a great beer, just aroma was off. I won't use it again for dryhopping.

What did you dry hop with?

Definitely related to the dry hop. Five to seven days and then remove, and you still might have some grassy flavor.

Late hops additions is an alternative. A lot of pro brewers are moving to it to avoid the grassy flavors in their beers. Add a large amount of hops at zero in the boil and let them steep about 45 minutes before you chill your beer. I just put them in my brew pot with a sanitized lid over the top right at flameout and let them steep (this is easy with BIAB method). For a typical 5-6 gallon batch, you'll have to use 2-3 ounces of aroma/flavoring hops which seems like a lot, but it really works. I just had a friend hook me up with some Belma hops which smells like strawberry starburst candy. I can't wait to try this out as an aroma/flavoring hop.

Honestly, 3-4 days is all you need. If you want to avoid the grassy flavor and extract all the aroma out of any hops, just dry hop for short periods. I usually rack to secondary and age two weeks. The last 3-4 days I add the dry hop, then rack off into a keg or bottle. Since switching to this method I always get great aroma and don't get any off flavors. I heard about it on a beersmith podcast with Mitch Steele, the brewer for Stone. He point out that the newest research and studies pointed this out and what a lot of commercial guys are doing is multiple dry hops where they add a batch of dry hops, leave for 3-4 days then remove them and repeat. I know that's what Firestone does on one of its beers as well. I wanna say the Union Jack but I'm not sure right now.

Thanks for all the responses everybody.

Since I just added a fresh ounce of cascade hops yesterday I'm gonna prob let it sit til Sunday and then go ahead and bottle it off.

Now just gotta figure out where I'm gonna put two cases of bottled beer.

Looks like I'll be drinking a lot over the next few days and at 8% ABV it should be interesting.