overhopping, astringency

I recently made a batch that I am stumped on why it turned out the way it did. It's an IPA, and appears to have massive astringency. I have done nothing different between it and other batches so one of the main culprits I'm looking at is overhopping.

Does anyone know particularly when overhopping is an issue? Is it the bittering? flavor? or dry hops? I aggresively dry hopped it (almost 1 oz. per gallon) and I'm wondering if that's the cause. It tasted pretty solid before the dry hopping.

One of my brew buddies has noticed this effect in his beers too, when he puts large amounts of dry hops his turn out similar tasting. Is that all it is?

what's the hop schedule?

Do you keg? I just had this issue with an English Pale Ale that I kegged and it was only overly bitter/astringent on the first day I kegged it. after letting it set overnight it mellowed out substantially.

It was a 3.5 gallon batch
Hop Schedule:

.7 oz Warrior at 60 min.
.5 oz Cascade and Amarillo at 30 min.
.5 oz Cascade and Amarillo at 0 min.

Total in boil = 2.7 oz.

Total Dry hop = 3 oz.

OG = 1.06

The grainbill was essentially 90% two row with 10% crystal.

To nickharbour, the beer has been kegged for 2 weeks now, so it should have mellowed a little if that was the issue. But it hasn't.

1 oz per gallon in the dry hop is probably the issue.... especially if the exposure to the beer was prolonged. I've over done it to the point where it gets vegetal from all the plant material and hop tannin.

How long did you dry hop it? I have a feeling that is your culprit.

Dry hopped it for 10 days on .75 oz. and then a second dry hop for 5 days of 2.25 oz.

Like I said, it tasted great before dry hopping. I don't recall if it tasted odd after the first dry hopping. I just know that before kegging it was slightly off, and when it was kegged and ready it was very off.

I did end up getting quite a bit of the hops into the keg, which I think could be an issue. The diptube got clogged twice. so perhaps the hops sticking around in the keg hurt it. This has never happened before, it was a new issue for me.

Ok so when this happens, what can you do about it? I recently kegged/bottled a batch with this exact issue that I let dry hop for too long. Will astringency coming from dry hopping too long with whole leaf Amarillo hops ever age out of the beer?

Overhopping? I read the words but they have no meaning.....

Denny said:

Overhopping? I read the words but they have no meaning.....

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Ahhhhahaha! I know right!? I could never have too much hop in my beer until now that I note something other than the hoppy gloriousness coming from it.

Question still stands though, will this astringent mess age out? I hope so because this recipe make my single favorite beer to drink...

DerCribben said:

Ahhhhahaha! I know right!? I could never have too much hop in my beer until now that I note something other than the hoppy gloriousness coming from it.

Question still stands though, will this astringent mess age out? I hope so because this recipe make my single favorite beer to drink...

Click to expand...

Hops don't cause astringency, at least not to my knowledge or in my experience. Dryhopping too long may cause a grassy or vegetal flavor, but not astringency.

Water chemistry, however, does cause some astringency in highly hopped beers. Alkaline water, especially, + highly hopped beers can create astringency or a very "harsh" bitterness. That will not fade, at least not in a reasonable amount of time.

I think the polyphenols in hops can cause astringency. I also think that different people have differing levels of sensitivity to them. Personally, even when I can detect some astringency from high hopping, I prefer having the hops there to not having a bit if astringency.

Denny said:

I think the polyphenols in hops can cause astringency. I also think that different people have differing levels of sensitivity to them. Personally, even when I can detect some astringency from high hopping, I prefer having the hops there to not having a bit if astringency.

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Hmmm- I guess I would just say that I must not have much sensitivity to them, then!

I do get some harshness from some very highly hopped beers, but not in an astringent way. I've had very highly hopped beers that haven't had it also, and found that in my own brewing that I like less gypsum in my IPAs for a strong but smoother bitterness.

I have noticed some vegetal flavors in beers that have been dryhopped, though.

This has got to be about the amount if time it was dry hopped. I've made this exact beer, this exact way a bunch of times only difference being I blew off bottling for almost a month after the 21 day dry hop I normally do. This flavor is a harsh, almost burning yet dry and pucker'y feeling one. Not bitter, well maybe a little extra bitter but I'm not complaining about that bit except as it applies to the rest of it all.