chumpsteak
Well-Known Member
I've been trying to figure out how to make my beers, specifically IPAs, taste more like commercial IPAs for months now and can't seem to figure out why the bitterness in mine is so much different than commercial or even local micro brewed IPAs. My IPAs are nice and bitter and have very nice hop flavor, and everyone who drinks my beers think they taste great and always ask why my beers don't leave a bad vomit like aftertaste in their mouth. The thing is, I want that vomit aftertaste. I want that deep, smooth, rich, lingering bitterness that I taste in almost all commercial IPAs. My IPAs have a very strong and sharp bitterness in the front and finish very smooth and even sweet sometimes. This happens no matter what recipe I make and no matter what hops I use. My IPAs also finish very clean with almost no residual taste. While this is nice and most people like it, I'm still frustrated when I taste commercial or local micro brewed IPAs that have a deep rich warm bitterness that lingers. I've made 20 IPAs in the last year or two with some being clone recipes and some being originals, and all have that same sharp early bitterness. It's almost a tart or sour taste as soon as the beer hits your tongue and then it usually turns fruity and pleasant. My IPAs usually end up tasting more like fruit juice than beer. I've had my water tested and it is slightly soft, but not too bad. It has low sulfate so I have experimented with making the beers with anywhere from 25 to 300 ppm of sulfate without getting my desired results. I batch sparge in a cooler and almost always do a 60 minute boil. I've tried first wort hopping, mash hopping, lots of early additions, lots of late additions, and everything in between with the hops. I don't have a pH meter, but I use the spreadsheets and usually add 1 to 2% of acidulated malt to all my IPAs to try and get the mash pH right. I dont do a proper mash out, but I usually batch sparge with about 190 degree water to get the grain bet up to 168 ish. I've batch sparged with 165 to 205 degree water with no noticeable difference in taste though. I do check mash pH with strips, but who knows how accurate they are. I'm never over 6 though, so I figure it's close enough. Also I have a temperature controlled fermentation chamber that I can keep within 1 degree of setpoint, so fermentation temps aren't an issue. I usually use S04 or US05 dry yeast or 1056 in all my IPAs too. I don't get any detectable off flavors in my beers either.
Anyway, sorry for the run on, just trying to include as much info about my process as possible. I'm not in a brew club and I really don't get to taste any other home brewed beers, so maybe this is normal for homebrewed IPAs, but as far as I'm concerned I should be able to make my beers taste just like the commercial IPAs I try to clone and that just isn't happening. In fact, since I get such a sharp bitterness at the beginning of my beers all my IPAs seem to taste kind of the same no matter what hops I use. I get different aromas and subtle hop flavors, but the central bitterness is sharp in all of them. Also, one more thing that separates my IPAs from commercial beers is that commercial IPAs typically taste like beer to me, like they all have some pilsen malt in them or something. Whereas my IPAs mostly taste like fruit juice with alcohol. Again, a lot of people prefer mine to commercial versions, but I am just frustrated because I'm not able to exactly reproduce the flavors I taste in commercial IPAs.
Again, sorry for the length of this, but has anyone had similar issues or possibly know what the problem might be? I was leaning toward water additions, but I recently asked a brewer at a local micro about their water and he said they use straight tap water with no additions at all.
Anyway, sorry for the run on, just trying to include as much info about my process as possible. I'm not in a brew club and I really don't get to taste any other home brewed beers, so maybe this is normal for homebrewed IPAs, but as far as I'm concerned I should be able to make my beers taste just like the commercial IPAs I try to clone and that just isn't happening. In fact, since I get such a sharp bitterness at the beginning of my beers all my IPAs seem to taste kind of the same no matter what hops I use. I get different aromas and subtle hop flavors, but the central bitterness is sharp in all of them. Also, one more thing that separates my IPAs from commercial beers is that commercial IPAs typically taste like beer to me, like they all have some pilsen malt in them or something. Whereas my IPAs mostly taste like fruit juice with alcohol. Again, a lot of people prefer mine to commercial versions, but I am just frustrated because I'm not able to exactly reproduce the flavors I taste in commercial IPAs.
Again, sorry for the length of this, but has anyone had similar issues or possibly know what the problem might be? I was leaning toward water additions, but I recently asked a brewer at a local micro about their water and he said they use straight tap water with no additions at all.