I've been brewing all grain for 2 years and I'm pulling my hair out over anything I do that's dry hopped completely losing flavour and transforming from a top brew to a flavourless, bitter brew within days.
Before you jump all over me with the obvious answers please read my process so I can convince you that it just can't be oxidation.
Google IPA flavour loss and most of the results talk about hop oxidation, infection or water issues. I'm aware of all these problems and have really tried to get anal on improving my techniques to avoid all these problems but nevertheless the hoppier ales I produce go from fantastic to boring within a short period. I'm aware also that hops will fade but I'm talking days here and not months.
I brew 6 gallons and generally get around 30 IBUS from the boil for a pale ale and then late hop with around 3.5 oz and then dry hop with another 3oz or so.
Maybe it's too little as I see now that people are going for 1oz dry hop a gallon.
To avoid oxidation my technique is to dry hop with a few points left and as I have one of those plastic Speidel vessels, I can cap it as they hold a fair bit of pressure. I then cold crash after 5-7 days and then transfer to my purged keg out from the spigot and into the out poppet on the keg. To be extra sure I even connect the 'gas out' to the top of the vessel so that the Co2 coming out of the keg is flooding the headspace as the vessel is being emptied.
I've considered infection but everything I do that is lightly hopped or dark (have a great Saison on tap) just gets better and better with age.
One thing I've noticed so I'm wondering if this is where the problem lies, is that
the first few pints from the keg are really fantastic to drink. They're like pure tropical juice! But the first few pints are also really cloudy and have lots of hop bits in them, then as the beer clears so goes the flavour. So I'm wondring if I'm not getting full extraction from my dry hopping and that the oils are locked into the hops bits that I'm tasting with the first pints. It's like my beer isn't homogenized.
I know that breweries agitate the hops by using Co2 or pumps but they can drop the yeast first so I'm wondering how to match this technique on a home brew level.
Another thing I'm going to try is Vinnie's method of chilling the beer to around 10 c to let some of the yeast fall out and the dry hop. This could help with extraction as I'm wondering if the flocculating yeast is taking the oils with it.
One more thing that I notice I do that could be wrong is that I usually take my hops from the freezer and dry hop almost directly so it could be that the frozen hops are sinking straight away and piling up on top of each other.
I'm going to try leaving the hops out for a while (in the vacuum pack) first and see if this makes a difference.
Big thanks in advance for all tips and advice.
Before you jump all over me with the obvious answers please read my process so I can convince you that it just can't be oxidation.
Google IPA flavour loss and most of the results talk about hop oxidation, infection or water issues. I'm aware of all these problems and have really tried to get anal on improving my techniques to avoid all these problems but nevertheless the hoppier ales I produce go from fantastic to boring within a short period. I'm aware also that hops will fade but I'm talking days here and not months.
I brew 6 gallons and generally get around 30 IBUS from the boil for a pale ale and then late hop with around 3.5 oz and then dry hop with another 3oz or so.
Maybe it's too little as I see now that people are going for 1oz dry hop a gallon.
To avoid oxidation my technique is to dry hop with a few points left and as I have one of those plastic Speidel vessels, I can cap it as they hold a fair bit of pressure. I then cold crash after 5-7 days and then transfer to my purged keg out from the spigot and into the out poppet on the keg. To be extra sure I even connect the 'gas out' to the top of the vessel so that the Co2 coming out of the keg is flooding the headspace as the vessel is being emptied.
I've considered infection but everything I do that is lightly hopped or dark (have a great Saison on tap) just gets better and better with age.
One thing I've noticed so I'm wondering if this is where the problem lies, is that
the first few pints from the keg are really fantastic to drink. They're like pure tropical juice! But the first few pints are also really cloudy and have lots of hop bits in them, then as the beer clears so goes the flavour. So I'm wondring if I'm not getting full extraction from my dry hopping and that the oils are locked into the hops bits that I'm tasting with the first pints. It's like my beer isn't homogenized.
I know that breweries agitate the hops by using Co2 or pumps but they can drop the yeast first so I'm wondering how to match this technique on a home brew level.
Another thing I'm going to try is Vinnie's method of chilling the beer to around 10 c to let some of the yeast fall out and the dry hop. This could help with extraction as I'm wondering if the flocculating yeast is taking the oils with it.
One more thing that I notice I do that could be wrong is that I usually take my hops from the freezer and dry hop almost directly so it could be that the frozen hops are sinking straight away and piling up on top of each other.
I'm going to try leaving the hops out for a while (in the vacuum pack) first and see if this makes a difference.
Big thanks in advance for all tips and advice.