RUNNINGDUMMY
New Member
Could you have had some bottles laying down in the fridge and others standing and settled. The yeast could be mixed up and messing with the taste when you open. Just a thought.
I'm with smokinghole on this one. Day to day, and even within one day, fluctuations in your own senses can really change your perception from bottle to bottle, especially on a hoppy beer. I've noticed on some of my hoppy beers that they'll taste spot on one day, then lackluster another day, then fast forward a few days and they're spot on again. And this is all from one keg.
It can depend on time of day, what you had to eat that afternoon or even morning, smoking, if you were congested on one day b/c of a cold or allergies, etc. etc.
Not saying some of these other factors might not be at play, but your senses can often play tricks on you...
I am having a similar problem with a batch that is finishing in secondary.. I made a hoppy IPA, around 80 ibus, primaried it for a week, then transfered to secondary over 2.5 ounces of hops..
i tasted it about a week later ( i know, shouldnt have but couldnt resist since it did taste so good after the first week of primary) and now the hop flavor is almost gone!!! i am planning on kegging it in 5 days, and although the beer is good (i dont think there is an infection, besides the abv at the point of transfer was 7.7), its not the IPA that I was hoping for..... I did use some irish moss, maybe too much? the guy at my lhbs said to use the amount I have listed below with my recipe:
10 lbs light lme
12 oz dark munich
12 oz crystal 60
2 oz victory bicuit
boil at 60 1 amarillo, .75 centenial, .25 columbus
15 mins .75 cascade .75 centenial, .5 columbus, 1 tbsp irish moss
5 mins .5 centenial, .5 amarillo, .75 cascade, .25 columbus
dry hop with 2 centenial, .5 columbus
Is there a way to fix this before kegging it??? I was thinking of buying some more hops and making a Hop tea to add to the keg before racking it... anyone have any luck with this??
the fact that this seems to be an on-again/off-again problem for your beers, PLUS the fact that you're tasting variability in commercial beers makes me think the source of the issue here isn't the beer - it's you. i don't know enough about the mechanics of tasting, and what you might be doing that is affecting your sense of taste, but it really sounds like you can be more or less sensitive to hoppiness depending on the day.Well, as a small update, the rest of the bottles tasted fine.
I also had Racer 5s and Union Jacks with the same problem. Some of the bottles were good, others had a weird cloying, not-so-hoppy flavor, like my problem beers.
So I guess this happens even with some of the big boys...
Six weeks is IPA life expectancy.
Enter your email address to join: