Pale Ale Not Hoppy

[bol]

I brewed the 'Good Life Pale Ale' out of Papazian's book back in January.

The brew went great, hit gravity and volume dead on and I was really excited about this beer. The recipe calls for 1.7 oz of Fuggles(60min) and 1 oz of Goldings(30min) as boiling hops with 1 oz of Goldings(3min) as aroma.

I did a long primary (3 weeks) and for the last 2 weeks the beer was dry hopped with 1/2 oz of Cascade pellets. The beer was fully fermented after 1 week down to 1.013 and tasted very very bitter, almost unpleasant.

I kegged the beer and naturally carbonated it. 2 weeks have passed and I took a sample last night. The beer is carbonated, very clear and clean tasting but almost flavorless. Zero hop aroma and only slightly bitter. There are no off tastes it's merely lacking the taste I would expect.

What do you think the problem may have been? Stale hops seems to be the only possibility I can think of (I used pellets in this beer.)

In addition to figuring out what the problem was, is there any way I can 'rescue' this beer and add more hop aroma? Brew a low gravity mash with a bunch of 'C' hops and add it into the keg and let it ferment a little more?

 

[Irrenarzt]

add a sanitized hop bag to the keg with an ounce of whole leaf Amarillo, a half ounce of whole leaf Citra, and a half ounce of whole leaf Simcoe and you'll be all set in about 2 weeks.

 

[TheAleMaster]

I wouldn't blame using pellet v. whole leaf hops. You might have had old hops, sure. But saying there is a lack of bitterness/flavor/aroma because you used pellet hops is not accurate.

So get some fresher hops (pellet, plug, whole, whatever) and add them as recommended to see if that helps.

 

[wyzazz]

What was the AA of those hops? If it was fairly low you may not be getting as much out of them as expected.

 

[legaleagle]

If you really want BIG clean hop flavor, the secret, imho, is "late wort hopping" - read all about it here: http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.htm

In my own long ago experience, the difference it made was significant (more so than any other variable I attempted to manipulate - i.e., old v fresh, pellets v whole leaf, noble v non-noble, etc.). But be forewarned, if you are not really a hop head (or have a SWMBO with a BudMiller palate drinking your beer), you prolly don't wanna use this method.

 

[Brew-boy]

a 1/2 is really small for dry hopping. get yourself up to 1-2 oz per 5 gallons when dry hopping.

 

[ajf]

So you brewed an English style Pale Ale (with a dash of cascades).
These are very different than the typical American Pale Ales. The English hops are subtle and delicate compared to the "in your face" character of the "c" hops.
In particular, they do not like being chilled too much. Try serving at 13 - 14C (55 - 57F), and see if you can notice the difference. Serving too cold, masks the subtle flavours, and does result in what appears to be a flavourless beer.

Of course, if you don't like the idea of drinking warm beer, you could always send it to me.

-a

 

[david_42]

Fuggles and Goldings come through at cellar temperatures and will never be hoppy by Left Coast standards.