Really disappointing IPA

Here's the situation: I've been brewing for a year and a half and probably averaged about 1 batch per month, so I'm reasonably experienced. I had one batch earlier this year that was definitely infected. It's still in bottles, but they have a very obvious sour flavor that was not intended (I don't think I've had a Flanders APA yet!). So I'm not pretty paranoid about off flavors in batches brewed since then.

I opened up the first bottle of my most recent IPA a little while ago. Recipe was 12.5lb Maris Otter, 1lb Carawheat, 8oz Munich, 8oz Crystal 80L.
Mash hopped with 1oz Amarillo.
1oz Chinook at 60min
1oz Cascade at 15min
1oz Amarillo at 10min
1oz Cascade at 5min
Dry hopped with 1oz Amarillo + 1oz Cascade.
Used WLP051 with 1.5qt starter.

Beer sat in primary for 3 weeks, then I added dry hops to the primary. I got busy and didn't have a chance to bottle when I planned to, so dry hops were in the fermenter for 17 days.

The beer looked nice and clear and had a good color, but it just didn't taste good. It was incredibly bitter with no real hop flavor or aroma. There really wasn't much maltiness to support that much of a bitter flavor. (OG was 1.066, FG was 1.013 at bottling. Also checked SG out of the bottle and got 1.012.) It tasted a bit better as it warmed up, but it was incredibly one-dimensional. I've got thin bitter hop water. I didn't detect any sour notes, but I can't imagine what could have chewed up all my hop flavor that quickly. It's now been in the bottle right at 4 weeks. Does this sound like any standard infection, or is this more like oxidation or dry hopping too long?

Grain bill seems about right for an IPA. What temp did you mash at?

Also, you did a pretty big bittering addition. I think you should lower your bittering hops and up your late additions to get more hop flavor/aroma. Although you should have plenty of aroma from the dry hops.

How old were the hops?

Mash temp of 153deg. I actually only had the 1oz of Chinook for bittering. Mash hops count as finishing hops. I was targeting around 60-65 IBUs. My hops are starting to get a bit older. The cascade is probably 6-8 months and the others are a bit younger, but I keep all my hops in a deep freezer.

I would tend to think that leaving the dry-hop for 17 days is a little much. After a week of so, the hops tend to leach out more of a 'grassy / earthy' flavor and the real hop goodness fades.

DocBrown said:

Mash temp of 153deg. I actually only had the 1oz of Chinook for bittering. Mash hops count as finishing hops. I was targeting around 60-65 IBUs. My hops are starting to get a bit older. The cascade is probably 6-8 months and the others are a bit younger, but I keep all my hops in a deep freezer.

Click to expand...

Yeah, sorry, I missed that the 1oz of Amarillo was a mash hop addition. Were the hops stored in a vacuum sealed bags? I've heard even when stored vacuum sealed and in a freezer, they can start losing their potency after 6 months or so.

Another question. When did you sample the beer? Had you eaten/drank anything else that may have masked the flavors of the IPA?

Heh. There should be so much hop flavor in that thing that it would take some really strong food flavors to hide it! But no. There's nothing out of the ordinary. I actually have a IIPA brewed using some of those same hops about 1 month earlier that tastes pretty decent. It looks like that one also ended up on the dry hops for 17 days (I know that's far from ideal - this fall got really busy and I had trouble finding time to bottle). The recipe is nearly identical to an IPA I brewed back in the spring just with very minor changes to grain bill and hop schedule. I think it has to be one of the following:
1) Infected batch.
2) Bad bottle (I doubt this, but I have another bottle chilling and I'll probably drink it tomorrow and see).
3) Oxidation (not quite sure what this tastes like, but I have the impression it would give the stale dimensionless tastes I'm experiencing, but I don't recall doing anything with this batch that would encourage oxidation).
4) Old hops (possible, but they still seem fine in my other batches).
5) Dry hopped too long.
6) ???

Local homebrew club meeting is next week, so maybe I'll get some additional feedback then.