Avoiding grassy taste

[dbkdev]

So the two ipas ive brewed had a grassy taste, the zombie dust clone on here included. Used pellet hops, dry hopped for 7 days both batches. I want to make a pliny clone, which I think has 12 oz, and I'm scared of getting that grassy off flavor again. Ive had hundreds of different commercial ipas and dont recall ever tasting this. Anything I can do to avoid it?

 

[samuryan]

Dry hop no more than 5 days. I get grass when leaving it much longer

 

[Calichusetts]

Dry hop no more than 5 days. I get grass when leaving it much longer

This...even shorter is fine, 3-4 days. And I don't think the amount will matter much. I do 4oz in several of my 1-gallon IPA/IIPAs, with no grass. Though 7 days should not get you grassy notes. How where the hops...old? Stored well?

 

[dbkdev]

This...even shorter is fine, 3-4 days. And I don't think the amount will matter much. I do 4oz in several of my 1-gallon IPA/IIPAs, with no grass. Though 7 days should not get you grassy notes. How where the hops...old? Stored well?

Hops were fairly fresh and refrigerated. I'm concerned about this as well, because every pliny the elder recipe out there (including the one from Russian River) says to dry hop their beer for 2 weeks.

 

[hlm123]

What if you have a recipe that calls for double dry hopping, for example 7 days+7 days?

 

[brettg20]

Dry hop 7 days, rack it then repeat


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[dbkdev]

Dry hop 7 days, rack it then repeat


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Pliny calls for 10 days dh, then another 5 days dh

 

[brettg20]

Pliny calls for 10 days dh, then another 5 days dh

So follow the recipe lol


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[bja]

I've dry hopped in the keg and left it in there until the keg was gone. Up to 6 weeks and have never experienced grassy flavors. I think a lot of these claims are peoples imagination working overtime.

I don't know. If grassy flavors do exist, I think the type of hops has more of an effect than the duration.

 

[kombat]

I usually dry hop for 7 days, and a few times, I've noticed a grassy flavour when racking to the keg. But every time so far, it's gone away within a week and mellowed into a typical hoppy character.

I would be hesitant to rack in a multi-step dry hopping process, because I already rack it once before the first dry hop (after clarifying with gelatin). For the Pliny recipe I'm doing right now, which calls for a triple dry hop, I'd be racking the beer 3 times, transferring progressively less beer each time (losing some to the dry hop trub), so by the time it's in that fourth carboy, there'd be an awful lot of headspace. I'd be much more worried about oxidation than grassiness.

 

[samuryan]

I've dry hopped in the keg and left it in there until the keg was gone. Up to 6 weeks and have never experienced grassy flavors. I think a lot of these claims are peoples imagination working overtime.

I don't know. If grassy flavors do exist, I think the type of hops has more of an effect than the duration.

I never get grass with dry hopped keg in fridge, but at room temp anything over 5 days starts to take on fresh cut grass flavors, and not the good kind

 

[bja]

I never get grass with dry hopped keg in fridge, but at room temp anything over 5 days starts to take on fresh cut grass flavors, and not the good kind

I've dry hopped several times at room temp for 14 days and never had a problem.

 

[Austin_]

I try and not dry hop for more than 4 days. Five at the most. I also add them in when fermentation is slowing. Any longer and any later in the process and I find it too grassy. People who have tried my grassier beers have been split. Some pick up on it. Others don't. Maybe some people are more sensitive to that flavor. I can't stand it and pick up on it easily.

 

[dbkdev]

I try and not dry hop for more than 4 days. Five at the most. I also add them in when fermentation is slowing. Any longer and any later in the process and I find it too grassy. People who have tried my grassier beers have been split. Some pick up on it. Others don't. Maybe some people are more sensitive to that flavor. I can't stand it and pick up on it easily.

Same here. . I dumped some of my zombie dust clone because of it, others thought it was great.

 

[jessup]

i've been finding that when i keg hop with pellets, the grassy flavor starts to dissipate after about a week, and then the flavor becomes much better. could be particulates and/or hop sediments that are cold crashing or clearing from the beer as it's drank.

dry hopping in primary or secondary has the opposite effect, though. too long in there and the grassy flavors start. as 'bja' pointed out the type of hops used really can be the X factor with the grassy flavor.