Hoptimistic
Well-Known Member
Have you tried cold crashing with gelatin? I find it strips some of the harsher hop flavors and leaves the more delicate citrus/fruit character.
i have had the same results
Have you tried cold crashing with gelatin? I find it strips some of the harsher hop flavors and leaves the more delicate citrus/fruit character.
I've kegged my IPAs in all instances except Jamil's Evil Twin. I transfer to secondary after 10 days and the FG hasn't moved for a couple of days. I dry hop in secondary usually for 10 days and then transfer off the hops into a keg immediately. Carbonation takes about 7 days, but you know I'm tasting the whole way through and directly out of secondary and I have yet to have those citrusy notes so I doubt they were ever there.
So it sounds like I need to triple my dry hoping. I thought dry hoping mostly gave an aroma? My IPAs always smell amazing, but it doesn't translate into the taste.
Maybe if the kettle had a lid/shield that you attach to contain the blast. After the blast, it would settle out into nice, cooled wort ready to pitch. Hmmm.. somebody somewhere has to try this out in a lab somewhere.
I've kegged my IPAs in all instances except Jamil's Evil Twin. I transfer to secondary after 10 days and the FG hasn't moved for a couple of days. I dry hop in secondary usually for 10 days and then transfer off the hops into a keg immediately. Carbonation takes about 7 days, but you know I'm tasting the whole way through and directly out of secondary and I have yet to have those citrusy notes so I doubt they were ever there.
So it sounds like I need to triple my dry hoping. I thought dry hoping mostly gave an aroma? My IPAs always smell amazing, but it doesn't translate into the taste.
. . . I have read that if you dry hop more than a couple of days that you can get some off flavors and I think you said you go a week so maybe cut that back. . . .
With the kegging system as a possible cause, have you made any non IPA's that you have thrown through the same kegs/lines? Does this spicy flavor follow to other styles?
How do the gravity reading samples taste? Is the spicy note there as well?
Here's one:
What are you fermenting in?
Glass is the only fermenters I have that don't end up giving me your problem.
fermentation temps? O2? Pitch rates? Seems like a fermentation problem and not a recipe problem.
Only reason not to would be for post boil hops addition.
If I could cool instantly to whatever temp I wanted, I would cool first to 170-175 and add post-boil hops, hold temp for about 5 minutes, then cool instantly to pitching temp. Actually, maybe you could just add the hops right after boil and you'd only need to hold for like 20-30 seconds.
Someone needs to come up with an instant cooling device..
I'm curious as to the age of your hops and when you are using pellet and when whole leaf or nuggets.
I have found that despite my best preservation efforts, (freezing in vacuum sealed bags kept in dark bags), the hops still lose some effectiveness so I tend to have to increase the hop amounts as they age.
I'm worried about a plate chiller and hops getting stuck in there.
I always use pellet hops . . .
I had another thought as well. Are you dry hopping at room temp? If you're dry hopping cold, you won't get as much oil extraction.
I've done both methods of dry hopping. At room temp in the carboy and in a keg while on draft.
Yes, but IME most of what it strips are the harsher flavors. If you're going for aggressive throat-burning bitterness, don't use gelatin. However, I've found that with these harsher flavors removed the fruity/citrus flavors shine through.
What cleaner and sanitizer are you using? Peppery/spicey notes for me came before I started using campden tablets to rid the water of chlorine(or chloramine, can't remember which). Since you built your water up on the last beer from distilled you can rule that out, but maybe the chlorine is still the culprit from your cleaner/sanitzer? Maybe there are something in your keg/lines bottles?
Cooling faster is ALWAYS a good idea.
Almost all IPA's taste the same. Call it American Pale Ale, American IPA, etc... and hop the ever living S... out of it with cascade and what do you get?
The same beer that everyone else is brewing in America.
Has it really come to this? That we are a hops nation? America = way hoppy beer? Don't get me wrong, I like a hoppy American pale ale or IPA occasionally, but is that all we've got? We really need to come up with styles that represent more than just over the top bitter hoppy beer.
Am I alone?
Almost all IPA's taste the same. Call it American Pale Ale, American IPA, etc... and hop the ever living S... out of it with cascade and what do you get?
The same beer that everyone else is brewing in America.
Has it really come to this? That we are a hops nation? America = way hoppy beer? Don't get me wrong, I like a hoppy American pale ale or IPA occasionally, but is that all we've got? We really need to come up with styles that represent more than just over the top bitter hoppy beer.
Am I alone?
This was my initial thought too. Even the batch with distilled water could have been tainted if distilled water wasn't also used in the sanitizer solution for the fermentors and kegs. The chlorophenols caused by trace amounts of chlorine and chloramine often have a spicy or peppery flavor.
Almost all IPA's taste the same. Call it American Pale Ale, American IPA, etc... and hop the ever living S... out of it with cascade and what do you get?
The same beer that everyone else is brewing in America.
Has it really come to this? That we are a hops nation? America = way hoppy beer? Don't get me wrong, I like a hoppy American pale ale or IPA occasionally, but is that all we've got? We really need to come up with styles that represent more than just over the top bitter hoppy beer.
Am I alone?
Maybe you should step back from trying to clone a beer, or make a big hop bomb beer, and make a few SMaSH batches. That way you can adjust just one thing per batch, and trace the source.
If you really want to find out the exact spot where things are going "wrong," the only way to do it is break down your process and analyze every step.
You need to find a process that works for you, and STICK to that process. I tried making a few big IPA's and they sucked, so I took a step back, and started breaking it down, and doing SMaSH batches so I could analyze how every step, ingredient, temperature, etc. was contributing to the final beer.
And a big perk is that SMaSH beers can be delicious.
I also think you aren't adding enough dry-hop. Biologically speaking, aroma (smell) is just as important to taste as actually tasting. Maybe you need to up the dryhop until you find a level that works for you. And there is no doubt that dry hopping changes a beer. I brewed an amarillo-vienna smash, and dry hopped half, and left the other not dry-hopped. The difference was astounding; so much so that the dry-hopped version has been drank and gone, and the non-dry-hopped is sitting around, and I don't think I'll ever drink it.
tl;dr-
Simplify your brew until you know what everything do!
a la everything west coast circa 2005.I do enjoy a good single hop IPA.
All centennial is definitely my favorite (herbal/floral a la Two Hearted). All citra is pretty good too (citrusy a la Simtra). All Cascade is a classic (piney a la... ?).
So if I were to do a SMaSH batch, would everyone recommend centennial or citra? Or what? I think when the hop is described as "piney" it tastes spicy to me. Thanks for the comments! This is really the only style that continues to be just out of reach for me to make exactly what I'm trying to make.
Centennial or Citra would be a good choice. Neither strikes me as piney or spicy at all. Centennial is more floral and a Citra is more mango to my taste.
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