Hop Character gone after one week!?

[jvetter]

My last brew was a Belgian IPA, very similar to Flying Dog Raging ***** or Stone Cali-belgique. It stayed the fermentor for 3 weeks, had a full day of carbonation and then was kegged. At the unveiling it was hoppy goodness. Full of hop flavor with balanced bitterness and decent aroma. Much of the Belgian character was masked by the hops.

A week later the beer now has little of the hop character that was in it before and don't understand what happened. Belgian character is most prominent, with the hops mostly masked.

I've made 4 Really hoppy beers thus far. Three of which (including this one) had a similar problem. The first two (Fresh Hop Ale, Double Quad IPA), were both awesome in the first week, but the hop flavor actually changed into something nasty that I couldn't drink. Since these were in the same keg that had never fully been cleaned after arrival, I assumed this was the problem. My next beer, which I called Random Hop IPA, was placed in a different keg and the hop character lasted as you would expect. No problems. Now with this one I have the problem again. The weird thing is the keg was fully disassembled and soaked in concentrated star san before use. So unlikely to be bacteria from the keg at least

What is going on? Can oxygen degrade the hops that fast? Could it be my CO2 or beer lines? Maybe my ball locks? Other beers don't seem to change, just seems to be the hoppy ones. Maybe leftover sanitizer in the keg? I'm at a loss here....

One final note. It was a 10 gallon batch and the beer is split between two 5 gallon cornies. The one on tap is noticeably less hoppy then the on in storage. Not sure if the storage one has changed (maybe a little), but there is a gap between the two.

Very disappointed and need serious suggestions. I feel like not making hop bombs anymore, which would be sad

 

[xeerohour]

Couple thoughts here-

First, I'm really curious what the 'nasty' flavor you're describing is. No matter how many hops you have, if you've added an infection or have oxygenated your beer, you're going to get a nasty flavor.

Second, yes, hops will fade over time. However, it's not a matter of weeks - it takes months to years to truly fade. If you've ever bought a bottle of an IPA in a store, that bottle is probably several weeks old (at a minimum) yet still has a solid hop flavor/aroma/profile.

One last note - if you think you have an infection in your keg, you probably want to use something outside of just sanitizer. I'd suggest PBW or Oxyclean or something similar.

 

[jvetter]

First, I'm really curious what the 'nasty' flavor you're describing is. No matter how many hops you have, if you've added an infection or have oxygenated your beer, you're going to get a nasty flavor.

I perceived it as a change in the hop character only. It first started to disappear, then at some point start to taste weird enough that I couldn't drink it. I had a few friends that were not bothered by it and even took the kegs. But the key was that those first two completely different beers (one with fresh leaf hops at 7-8% and the other 20% with tons of pellot hops) ended up with the same weird hop flavor.

As a side note, I just cleaned this keg a few weeks ago after letting it sit for over a year and when I opened it, it smelled like a flanders red. So it was definitely had some funk in it.

I've never oxygenated my final beer, that's just silly. Maybe oxygen gets in somehow, but I'm not trying to do it. Also, I can't imagine any oxygen that accidentally gets in would be enough to cause this much damage.

Second, yes, hops will fade over time. However, it's not a matter of weeks - it takes months to years to truly fade. If you've ever bought a bottle of an IPA in a store, that bottle is probably several weeks old (at a minimum) yet still has a solid hop flavor/aroma/profile.

I am fully aware that hops change over time, but I am talking about a 75% degradation in only one week of being on tap. I tasted it all through fermentation too and it was hoppy the whole time, so it definitely seems to be something with the kegging or kegerator.

So far this beer still tastes good so I'm not worried yet, but the disappearing character just doesn't make sense to me.

One last note - if you think you have an infection in your keg, you probably want to use something outside of just sanitizer. I'd suggest PBW or Oxyclean or something similar.

All the kegs I was cleaning were new (accept for the one from the first two beers) so they got a full scrub down with Bar Keeps Friend, PBW soak, 3x concentrated star sar soak, and warm water rinse to remove the extra acid. The contact parts (dip tubes, posts, poppets, o-rings) were rinsed and put in a 1 x star san solution before being put into place.

Between brews I rinse each keg out, soak with pbw, then soak with sanatizer (usually one step, but sometime star san).

 

[bja]

This has happened when I dry hopped in the keg (left the hops in there until keg was empty). Though it never tasted bad, it just changed after a couple weeks.

 

[jvetter]

I could understand some of the hop aroma disappearing, especially from dry-hop, but I'm talking a complete hop bomb that masks everything, to a Belgian ale that has very little noticeable hops.

Literally talking 5-7 days too.

 

[mychalg9]

Maybe post the recipe(s)?

 

[iijakii]

We're you just leaving the hops in there? Plenty of dry-hopping advice on this forum that says leaving hops in there for multiple weeks will lead to a vegetable flavor.

 

[jvetter]

In this case I had no dry hop. Only the first one had dry hops. Last three had none.

Recipes are quite different. First two had pellets. Second two had leaf. My boil kettle now has a false bottom, so none of the hops from the last twp hoppy beers had any hops in the fermentor.

 

[thetmaxx]

Did this ever get worked out? I also had a problem with the hop aroma leaving my Black IPA in about 2-3 weeks, there was nothing left. And it was great the first couple of weeks.

 

[boogyman]

I have had similar issues as well - never did resolve it. curious to see if this got resolved too.