Muted Flavors

[IloveWorts]

So I'm having problems with getting any flavors to come through in any way. All my beers have a certain taste to them. My IPAs have zero hop flavor and zero hop aroma. My pale ales come out very light and easy to drink yet I wouldn't call them "crisp". I use US-04 and use accurate yeast pitch rates, fermentation chamber that is very accurate.

Does anyone have any ideas or what I should look into? My wort always tastes excellent to me, the only thing I can think of is I'm not filtering my water prior to brewing. I treat my water prior to brewing with a Camden tablet but honestly the taste just doesn't seem right to me. I just purchased a water filter and I'm hoping this helps bring out the flavor in my final product. If anything id say my biggest problem is that no matter how much hops I seem to use I can not get any flavor or aroma, it seems like theres something "blocking it." If this makes sense. I have been trying for months to figure out why my beers lack any flavor.

 

[Cyclman]

Try bottled water...

 

[IloveWorts]

Yeah man I don't want to be that guy but I honestly think its my damn water

 

[LarMoeCur]

It's your Chloride to Sulfate ratio.

Have you downloaded your local water report? Without knowing what's in your water we would be just making educated guess if we told you what to put in your water to fix it.

http://www.lbcwd.org/your-water/water-quality-report

The OP didn't say if you made any water adjustments. So, I'm guessing that you are not making adjustments to your water. That being said, I'd bet your chloride to sulfate ratio is around 1:1. Which is a balanced tasting beer water profile. You need to get the Chloride to sulfate ratio to 1:1.5 or above to start enhancing the hop character. Using your local water report, plug the numbers into Bru'nWater then add enough gypsum to get your ratio to 1:1.5 or above. If your local report is all over the place with ranges or has 2 year old readings like the one I posted appears to have. I would start with 100% RO water and build it up with Bru'nWater to hit a ratio above 1:1.5. I target 1:3.5 CL 110 Sulfate 350 for my IPAs but I'm a huge hop head.

http://beerandwinejournal.com/chloride-and-sulfate/

 

[IloveWorts]

So I do use gypsum in the mash determined from EZ Water. Yet...my water report is kinda flakey says most people because 1. Its old and 2. Apparently the city is doing work on it and its inaccurate anyways.

I'm trying to determine if this sounds like a water problem or if I'm over looking something else. The beers are definitely drinkable just not "balanced" at all. They are obviously home brewed is the best way to define the taste. Not yeasty, not fruity not spicy not medicine just "muted and off"

 

[griffi]

Try a batch of pale ale or ipa with RO water built up to a pale ale profile using a spreadsheet like brun water. Also, don’t use SO4. Try SO5 if you want to stick with dry yeast or get a good liquid yeast like white labs 001 or 007... just my 2 cents

FWIW, I made an IPA recently with White labs 002 (similar to SO4) and despite picking a pale ale profile and using plenty of Mosaic hops, I find the hop bitterness and flavor muted.

 

[IloveWorts]

Try a batch of pale ale or ipa with RO water built up to a pale ale profile using a spreadsheet like brun water. Also, don’t use SO4. Try SO5 if you want to stick with dry yeast or get a good liquid yeast like white labs 001 or 007... just my 2 cents

FWIW, I made an IPA recently with White labs 002 (similar to SO4) and despite picking a pale ale profile and using plenty of Mosaic hops, I find the hop bitterness and flavor muted.

Definitely going to build up from RO water on my next run. That something new I haven't heard before...? So did using a different yeast really help those flavors come through? I mean I think its water anddd something else so this sounds like its plausible.

 

[griffi]

Definitely going to build up from RO water on my next run. That something new I haven't heard before...? So did using a different yeast really help those flavors come through? I mean I think its water anddd something else so this sounds like its plausible.

For nearly all IPAs I’ve brewed in the past I’ve used wlp001 or SO5. The hops have always been more pronounced — I just decided to experiment with the English yeast this time

 

[Smellyglove]

What are your means of packaging? Bottles, keg? Oxygen is the biggest bandit when it comes to stealing flavors out of your beer. Also dullness is imparted by oxygen, before going so far that it's becoming stale.

 

[IloveWorts]

What are your means of packaging? Bottles, keg? Oxygen is the biggest bandit when it comes to stealing flavors out of your beer. Also dullness is imparted by oxygen, before going so far that it's becoming stale.

So my process is kegging. I know its said to put a Co2 blanket over the beer but i dont have a way to do it and ive kegged many times before without a problem. BUT, it could be my problem. I wouldnt say that it tastes stale though.