Identifying a hop off-flavor

[Docjowles]

I've noticed a common off flavor in hoppier homebrews, both mine and those of a friend, and I'm just wondering what people think could cause it and why. All of them were extract + steeping grains, partial-boil brews. The batches in question used amarillo, centennial and/or cascade. Pellet hops.

Basically the beer ends up very harshly bitter (and more bitter than what I'd expect from the recipe IBU's), as well as having a kind of soapy flavor. These batches were done very simply; steeped grains and then boiled the extract the full 60 minutes, around 3 gallons in the pot. Then I chilled it down and topped up in the fermenter.

Any thoughts? Is the very concentrated boil totally screwing up hop utilization? I'm brewing all-grain with full volume boils now so this is just my curiosity, and also trying to help my buddy who's just getting started. I haven't done a hoppy all-grain batch yet to test my theory but it's coming up as soon as a keg comes free

 

[maltyPython]

Soapy flavors are usually caused by fatty acids as far as I know...these are possibly coming from the yeast.

In my experience, strong hop flavors need a very clean beer and off-flavors (like phenols of fatty acids) clash **badly** with real hoppy brews, so it's possible that you just NOTICE MORE the presence of unwanted fermentation byproducts with dry hopping but the problem may not be dry hopping itself but in the fermentation process more generally.

What yeast did you use, for how long, and at what temperature?

 

[Docjowles]

I wasn't as diligent with my records back then But here's what I have for one batch I remember being bit by this:

Wyeast 1056 (one smack pack, no starter)
About 10 days in primary, then racked to secondary for dry hopping
Fermented around 65 degrees (I did have a temp controlled fridge)

 

[maltyPython]

Well, the fact that you used temp control rules out the most likely cause of off-flavors! From what you write it seems reasonable to guess that yeast is not to blame...

Which kind and how much specialty grains did you use? I think that Crystal-type grains don't do too well with hoppy brews...

Also, you mention that this happened with partial boils, but if anything partial boils decrease the extraction rate, so I don't think that that's the cause. What about splashing the hot wort? did you avoid doing that?

 

[Docjowles]

To be honest I don't remember, as this was a LONG time ago. Although I doubt I'd even heard the phrase "hot side aeration" at that point. Perhaps the mystery will go unsolved The steeping grains were CaraRed and honey malt.

Thinking back on it I wonder if I was just a ******* and didn't bother looking at the alpha acid on my hops. Maybe I used 12% Amarillos whereas the recipe was written expecting 8%, or pellet vs. whole or something.