I've done extensive amount of research and still can't come up with anything definitive on what is causing all of my IPAs to taste about the same. I thought I was on to something when I started looking at my water profile so the last IPA I did I used distilled water and added chemicals to make it "McDoles Pale Water" per the GBA Brewing Water Chemistry Primer. I also fermented that IPA at 65 degrees for 10 days and then 68 for 10 more days per a recipe on MoreBeer's site. Nope, still tasted like all the others. Maybe slightly smoother, but that's about it.
Anyway, so all my IPAs (13 of them and counting) come out spicy/peppery no matter what hops I use or what hop schedule I follow. My dream IPA has citrusy notes and gives me what I call "hop burps".
Just about everyone else that likes IPAs thinks my beer is fine, but I want citrus dammit! And I want my beer to all stop tasting the same whether I use Simcoe or Citra.
I've tried different grain recipes, hopbursting, adding gypsum, adding 5.2 powder, extract only, more or only late addition hops, etc. Only my last IPA did I try using distilled water so maybe it is the combination of water issues and other things? I'm wondering if prolonged wort cooling times plays a role because depending on when I brew it can take over an hour to cool the wort. It makes sense to me that it would isomerize the hops, but some of my beers have not had prolong cooling times so either it is water playing a role or something else. My water profile is: 9.7 pH, 11 Na, 4 Ca, 1 Mg, 2 SO4, 7 Cl, 9 CO3, 22 HCO3 and I have run it through a cartridge filter for several years (the water profile is after running it through a filter). Everything I've read said that water is only good for dark beers so I get where my early beers wouldn't be like I want, but I can't explain the extract beer or the distilled water beer not cooperating.
I've mashed at various temperatures from 154 down to 149. Would a higher mash temperature even affect the character of the hop or just of the malt flavor??
All other styles of ales come out fine, other than a couple of times my dark beers have turned into gushers. I have no idea if that is related. Oh and usually I keg my IPAs, not bottle them...
Of course I want to keep trying things but I'm not certain which way to go now and I feel like Charlie Brown with that darned football! Either I'm just missing the right combination of things to do or I'm out to lunch all together.