Mellowing Hops and drinking beer young

[bhs668]

I have been brewing for almost 2 years now and lurking around here. My palate has changed dramatically since. Wasn't a BMC guy, liked craft beer but I would never even try an IPA for example. Now I can't get enough Hops in my beers. Arrogant Bastard has become one of my favorites, as well as Unearthly IPA.

I have since started making clones of these type beers as well as some IPA's in the recipe section. I typically leave my beer to ferment for three weeks. From there I rack to a keg, lucky enough to start out with a kegerator and never bottled, and let that age for 3 weeks at room temperature while priming with 1/3 cup sugar. Once needed the keg goes right into the kegerator. Give or take a few days on that secondary 3 weeks.

I have found that when I steal a sample during kegging, the beers have a nice hoppy taste and taste exactly what I'd like them to taste like, or expect them to taste like. However, by the time I pour a pint from the kegerator approx. 3 weeks later I find them to have mellowed quite a bit.

I'm now considering drinking my beers young to get that taste I'm really looking for. Is it me or do hops really mellow out that fast? Does anyone else drink their beer young for this reason? Suggestions?

 

[Yooper]

I leave my beers for about 3 weeks in primary, then keg them. I put them in the kegerator at 12 psi and 39 degrees, and then start sampling in about a week.

IPAs are fantastic that way (and I either dryhop at the end of primary, or in the keg, or both) but my AB clone was a bit harsh and needed a bit more time to smooth out.

If you have a lot of roasty flavors, or a lot of complexity, then keeping the keg at room temperature to age a bit is a good idea. But in my experience, IPAs are best when about a month old total, after a week of cold conditioning.

 

[SumnerH]

I have been brewing for almost 2 years now and lurking around here. My palate has changed dramatically since. Wasn't a BMC guy, liked craft beer but I would never even try an IPA for example. Now I can't get enough Hops in my beers. Arrogant Bastard has become one of my favorites, as well as Unearthly IPA.

I have since started making clones of these type beers as well as some IPA's in the recipe section. I typically leave my beer to ferment for three weeks. From there I rack to a keg, lucky enough to start out with a kegerator and never bottled, and let that age for 3 weeks at room temperature while priming with 1/3 cup sugar. Once needed the keg goes right into the kegerator. Give or take a few days on that secondary 3 weeks.

I have found that when I steal a sample during kegging, the beers have a nice hoppy taste and taste exactly what I'd like them to taste like, or expect them to taste like. However, by the time I pour a pint from the kegerator approx. 3 weeks later I find them to have mellowed quite a bit.

I'm now considering drinking my beers young to get that taste I'm really looking for. Is it me or do hops really mellow out that fast? Does anyone else drink their beer young for this reason? Suggestions?

I bought a gazillion women's knee-high nylon stockings for next to nothing. A week before I move a keg to the kegerator, I soak a stocking in star-san, fill with the hops and a sanitized spoon (or whatever--just for weight), tie off with sanitized nylon string, and drop in the keg. After a couple weeks, I pull it out by the string.

You still don't want them old (as Yooper points out), but dry hopping right near the end really helps with the freshness of the hops impression, IMO.

 

[Entropy]

I guess all beers are different and some age better than others. I brewed a belgian wit with some honey, at first, tasting the wort and off the primary, and again with the first bottle crashed for 20 minutes in the freezer a week after bottling, it only scarcely tasted liked beer, very... interesting, but the flavor was changing relatively fast.

I get what you mean. To me, the hops are bitter (I bit a pellet), but they kind of smell and taste like oregano and the pellet was not totally unpalatable. The beer fresh out of the fermenter almost had like... because of the hops flavor, and a very high yeast level still in suspension, I might call it a soup taste compared to any beer I'm use to. I had lots and lots of late addition hop particles floating in the beer so it perhaps dry-hopped it just a bit. After being carbed but before being refridgerated at length it was still very very unusual and interesting. Not bad perse but not much tasting like anything like any beer I've had.

After a few days to a week in the fridge it was tasting like beer. And good beer! It kept getting better for up to a month, month and a half maybe. I made a few unique mistakes in the brewing that might have added to it, I don't know.

Perhaps store it warm? Refridgeration really changed mine to be more normal beer-like.

Then it peaked and started getting more boring. After 4 months I've a couple bottles left, it's quite drinkable, a decent wheat, but it has mellowed out and blended and no where near as good. Maybe I just like fresh beers.

After about a month, it had a lot of fragrance and smells and complexity and some sweetness to it up front, when you had it in your mouth, but after you swallowed it had a bit of an aftertaste (in a good way!) that dried out on your tongue a bit with a hint of bitter and it followed very nicely. It was kind of explosive with flavor. High alchohol content, at least 6% based on gravity readings, you don't taste it but everyone who drinks it concurs it's at least double a light beer in strength. Lots of people said it was a bit sweet, a few (who I didn't tell what I put in) claimed they could taste a hint of the honey - I don't know about that but maybe, or maybe the esters produced something. A hint of maybe a citrus taste. One guy who only drinks tons of bloaty light beer thought it was too bitter (so not too sweet!). Most people I mentioned it to agreed with me that it was kind of sweet at first when you sipped, but had a mild hoppy bitter/dry following as you swallowed.

Now after 4 months it's just kind of boring and a bit blander, everything's mixed. It was possibly one of the better wit's I've ever had! Now it's still better I think than a Leiny's wheat IMO, but a against a Blue Moon I'd call it a toss up. Which isn't a bad thing really, I like Blue Moon. But I miss all those flavors that kind of seemed to be competing with each other but too close to call.