NE IPA

[hayden5757]

Well here it is, another guy ask about NE IPA stuff. Before I ask, I’ll tell you quickly about my experience with the style.

This is my 3 version of this IPA style and the best so far. I have avoided asking the beginner stuff in the forums until now.

I cannot shake that hot,green,bitterness on the back of the tongue with these IPAs. What is the usual culprit? I have good water chemistry, I introduce as little post ferment oxygen as possible, and I’ve changed up my hop additions several times.

I went from FWHing my el dorado hops to now only boiling 2 oz for 10 min. Everything else goes in the hop stand and fermentor.

Hopping schedule:

2oz el dorado @ 10 min

Hop stand 170F 30min:

1oz el dorado
1oz mosaic cryo
1oz mandarina Bavaria
2oz Simcoe

Dry hop 5 days:

1oz of each hop listed above at high krausen

The vegetal, hot bitterness usually fades a bit in the keg. But while I wait for that to fade it loses those fresh hop aromas.

I visit a brewery near me with fantastic NE IPAs and I have never tasted that in their beer.

The aroma is very much there. Strong passion fruit bubblegum ice cream. But then the sip leaves you with just harsh plant matter.

 

[Smellyglove]

To much green matter into the final bottle/keg. It will drop after a day or two, but also as you say the freshness will also drop.

I'd look into dry hopping temps, dry hopping time, CC-time, "aging" (from 12 to 48 hrs) to settle things.

 

[hayden5757]

To much green matter into the final bottle/keg. It will drop after a day or two, but also as you say the freshness will also drop.

I'd look into dry hopping temps, dry hopping time, CC-time, "aging" (from 12 to 48 hrs) to settle things.

I should have mentioned, this time I did crash for 2 days at about 20F. It is noticeably less harsh than previous batches.

So it is just one of those things that will just happen when you dry hop?

 

[Smellyglove]

I should have mentioned, this time I did crash for 2 days at about 20F. It is noticeably less harsh than previous batches.

So it is just one of those things that will just happen when you dry hop?

It will happen until you experiment and find own your techniue, which requires experimentation within your own setup. 20F? that's really low.

 

[hayden5757]

Yeah lol. It’s a super old fridge that can only be changed using a wrench, so I have to guess at the moment. I’ll be setting up a digital thermostat this summer. So it could have been more in the 40s. The beer stayed nice and hazy.

 

[PsychoBiter]

Do you dry hop in a bag? We do for our NEIPA and it turns out awesome.

I am a believer that hop matter and just a little oxygen can cause that darker color.

 

[hayden5757]

I have the bags but they don’t seem very efficient. But I’ll probably pick up some marbles to sink them. I’ve used a bag but it’s was less flavor with just as much butter flavor.

This color is deceiving too. It looks like yours in real life. Idk if it’s the wine glass or what.

Thanks. I’ll be trying it with a bag in the future.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I just drop my hops in loose (both in the kettle and the fermentor). I cold crash to 34 degrees for two days, then keg and force carb. I've found that the first 5-7 days after kegging I get that same harsh burn from the hop matter. After about 7 days, it hits a sweet spot that's good for about 2-3 weeks, then the hop flavor slowly fades. The beer is still very good at 6 weeks.

One thing I changed that helped: I used to go through a 2 week process of fermentation and dry hopping. Throw in a week to carb and clean up and it was 3 weeks after brew day that I'd be getting good beer. After realizing that I was at FG after about 3 days, I cut my fermentation process in half. Instead of two dry hopping phases, I drop it all at about 24 hours (my fermentation has slowed considerably by then). I raise the temp at the same time to help the yeast clean up after themselves. After 3 days I cold crash, keg 2-3 days later.

I still have that week of harsh hop water burn, but after that the flavor is fresh, intense and....well....amazing. The only thing I'd change in my process at this time is to possibly add a dry hop to the serving keg in a hop spider. As a side effect, I'm at 14 days grain to glass.

One other thing I've thought about: I use sanke kegs, so I've thought about leaning the keg over at about a 20-30 degree angle while I carb. The theory is that the hop matter will accumulate at one edge instead if in the center depression where the beer is drawn from. I'm hoping to get earlier "clear" (no hop matter) beer by doing that.

 

[hayden5757]

I got no visible hop matter after the cold crash this time. My process is the first one you listed. It’s now been about a week in the keg and it’s working out to a little green peppery flavor and very slight hop matter on the back end. Which I’m happy with. I think the green pepper thing is a hop characteristic. The Simcoe is the only NEW hop to this version.

It’s very chewy in mouthfeel. I love it. I think it’s about to hit that sweet spot. Other guys in my homebrew club get that same hot bitterness on their NE IPAs.

I think I’ll just keep rolling with it, if this is normal for the style.

 

[hayden5757]

I got no visible hop matter after the cold crash this time. My process is the first one you listed. It’s now been about a week in the keg and it’s working out to a little green peppery flavor and very slight hop matter on the back end. Which I’m happy with. I think the green pepper thing is a hop characteristic. The Simcoe is the only NEW hop to this version.

It’s very chewy in mouthfeel. I love it. I think it’s about to hit that sweet spot. Other guys in my homebrew club get that same hot bitterness on their NE IPAs.

I think I’ll just keep rolling with it, if this is normal for the style.