Brewed an imperial amber ale. At bottling (2.5 weeks ago) had a fantastic aroma due to an abundence of dry hops. Tasted beer today and there is absolutely NO hop aroma. The beer appears fully carbonated. The hop aroma is replaces by tons of fruity-ness on the nose. It is hard to describe the flavor. What is going on here?
What replaced my hop aroma?
- Thread starter pulseyou
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Holy_Hops
Well-Known Member
Hard to tell without your recipe, but did you put a lot of caramel malt in the beer? That could do it.
I had an amber that I dry hopped with 3 ounces. I tasted it at bottling and thought it was awesome. I tasted it out of the bottle at 3 weeks and thought the aroma was too low. At 6 weeks however, it was great, hit its stride. I'd give it some time. More carbonation and bottle conditioning can meld the aroma better. Just my experience.
No caramel. But I am curious, why would that do it?
10 lbs 16.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 73.3 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 16.7 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 10.0 %
42.52 g Nugget [13.00 %] - First Wort 20.0 min Hop 4 36.7 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 5 -
28.35 g Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 18.2 IBUs
14.17 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 7.3 IBUs
28.35 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 5.3 IBUs
35.44 g Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 10 -
42.52 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
42.52 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop
Holy_Hops
Well-Known Member
Mistake I made a few years back. I made an amber IPA with over 2.5 lbs of caramel 40 & 120 and the only thing I could taste or smell in the beer was caramel. I learned after that one...
Looks like you were trying to clone Nugget Nectar, or at least product something similar.
Try dryhopping for shorter time frames in 2 or 3 stages. Use pellets for a quicker release of hop oils. Also, load up on 0 min hops and forget the emphasis on 20-5. Flameout additions are still added to piping hot wort and they strip less character from the hops than 20-5 minute additions. Long, warm whirlpool additions used in tandem with hot flameout additions offer another layer of hop aroma.
As far as tasting the beer 2.5 weeks after bottling, it's still quite young. Give it another week at room temperature and then an additional week in the refrigerator. At that time, pour carefully into a glass, avoiding yeast sediment and report back.
If you are still underwhelmed, then something must have gone wrong with your yeast temperature and/or pitch rate. What temp. did you ferment at and how long did the beer sit in the primary before bottling? Are you sure that 1 packet of US-05 was enough for the Imperial gravity?
Try dryhopping for shorter time frames in 2 or 3 stages. Use pellets for a quicker release of hop oils. Also, load up on 0 min hops and forget the emphasis on 20-5. Flameout additions are still added to piping hot wort and they strip less character from the hops than 20-5 minute additions. Long, warm whirlpool additions used in tandem with hot flameout additions offer another layer of hop aroma.
As far as tasting the beer 2.5 weeks after bottling, it's still quite young. Give it another week at room temperature and then an additional week in the refrigerator. At that time, pour carefully into a glass, avoiding yeast sediment and report back.
If you are still underwhelmed, then something must have gone wrong with your yeast temperature and/or pitch rate. What temp. did you ferment at and how long did the beer sit in the primary before bottling? Are you sure that 1 packet of US-05 was enough for the Imperial gravity?
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