Soapy flavor in my IPA..

I brewed what was supposed to be a Two Hearted Ale clone about a month ago, dry hopped it for 14 days. It has a great color, very very close to the original, but the after taste is this strange soapy finish. I'm not sure if this was a result of the fermentation being on the high end for that yeast, around 71- 72 degrees or if using whole leaf hops over pellets changes something.

Any thoughts?

What'd you sanatize with?

I had a beer taste like that, after 3 months it was actually pretty tasty. I hope you have the same luck. It was really disgusting the first taste I had though.

I've heard people describe the taste of centennial hops like that when they are used for bittering, but I don't recall any other details about why. If it's still green then hopefully it will improve. I made a clone myself recently using all centennial and it turned out great.

Don't use so much hops, man. More is not necessarily better. Chill out with the hops.


TL

Do you know your water profile? Do you brew hoppy beers normally and this is a first for you? Water can be a major issue with off flavors.

+1 on it probably being the hops. Seem to remember having that happen a long time ago when I used a ton of Columbus. If memory serves, it'll clear up a bit.

All of my pales and IPAs have been soapy tasting until I addressed my extremely low sulfate (S04) problem in my source water.

I used bottled distilled water, so I'm a bit stumped there. It was the same ingredient list as NB three hearted kit, so the hops weren't excessive. It appears I need to just wait this one out and see if it improves.

I sanitized with Starsan, no bubble.

Why stumped? Both Bobby M and myself mentioned water. You need to build up distilled water into something that will work with your beer. At the very least you need Gypsum. Look into using Brewater 3.0, a free download or one of the other water programs to help you. I use the Moshers Pale Ale formula and have not had any issues you describe.

Ya... I noticed a very improved hop flavor once I built up my naturally soft water to include more Mg, Ca and S04.

It made all the difference in the world.

To the OP. I've had similar experiences w/ Centennial Hops. I did a Knot Head IPA clone from a kit as one of my first brews and got the same taste (centennial). That improved quite a bit over time. This was brewed w/ bottled spring water.

Over the weekend I had a Two Hearted Ale from the tap and had a similar taste. In the past when I've had Two Hearted bottled I didn't pick up on this flavor.

I brewed a two hearted clone a few weeks back and am hoping that I missed the soap. This last brew was a Partial Mash w/ the bulk of the fermentables coming from 2 row and I built up my home water w/ some gypsum in the mash and boil. So we'll see.

Bobby_M said:

All of my pales and IPAs have been soapy tasting until I addressed my extremely low sulfate (S04) problem in my source water.

Click to expand...

Can you tell us how low was low?