Centennial SMaSH has heavy grass taste

[BeeGeeBrew]

I just brewed a marris otter centennial smash and finally kegged a couple days ago. I dry hopped it for 2.5 days with 0.5 oz and I tasted a sample from the fermentor and it tasted like straight grass. I could see hop particles in the hydrometer tube so I figured that was it. I filtered them out with a coffee filter and tasted again....GRASS is all I taste. I cold crashed it for about a day and a half before kegging hoping that would help. Kegged it last night, and I took a sample today so the beer had been chilled in the keg for about 18 hours. There was some small hop particles still in the glass, the beer was very cloudy, and still very grassy.
How the hell did I get all this grass with only a 1/2 oz dry hop for 2 days? I dry hopped my amber ale for 2 days with a whole oz of cascade and even the sample straight from the fermentor wasn't grassy at all. What gives?

I tasted again today (about 3 days in the keg now) and the grass did seem SLIGHTLY less prevalent and the beer was much clearer, maybe even a grapefruit like quality, but still not appealing by any means too overpowering. I let my wife taste it and she says it taste like if you ate potpourri???

I did post this on a Reddit thread and people seemed to think my hops may have been oxidized. I then remembered squeezing the hop bag before opening and air came out like there was a pin hole in the bag, and the hops smelled a little funky to me when I brewed, but since I'm a beginner I thought maybe Centennial just smelled like that.

Is that batch worth trying to save? Will oxidized hops just ruin the beer totally?

 

[MagicMatt]

My guess is you're just tasting the greenness of the beer. Some things that stand out to me:

- You only dry hopped with 1/2 oz. As you stated, this is hardly anything in a 5 gallon batch (assuming this is the batch size?). Generally my dry hop amounts never dip below 2oz/5gal, tending toward the 4oz/5gal ratio.

- You only just kegged the beer last night. It's too green! It's not carbonated yet, which does alter the taste. Also, CO2 leaves a bit of a bite in the first several days after carbing that can taste weird, slightly metallic or grassy perhaps.

- You say you filtered the beer through a coffee filter? If so, you just oxidized the hell out of it! I'm not even sure how you accomplished this without making a complete mess. This is likely going to lead to way more off flavor than the dry hop.


I generally cold crash for 3 days prior to kegging, and I have yet to see any hop particles in my kegs/pints.

In any case, I think your best bet is to just wait it out. Give the keg time to carb and condition for a couple of weeks, and then try it again. My guess is the flavors will have rounded out more, and perhaps the tastes you are experiencing will dissipate.


Also it may be helpful if you post your recipe to see if there is anything else that could contribute. How many batches have you done following the same routine?

 

[BeeGeeBrew]

- You say you filtered the beer through a coffee filter? If so, you just oxidized the hell out of it! I'm not even sure how you accomplished this without making a complete mess. This is likely going to lead to way more off flavor than the dry hop.

oh no no, I meant I filtered just the sample I took from the fermentor through a coffee filter to taste it.

My recipe was the following:

11 lbs Marris Otter

mashed with 4 gallons at 154 deg for 60 min
-held temp pretty well, dropped to 153 after about 40 min, then was 152 for the last 5-10 min (my cooler lid doesn't seal that well)

Sparged with 5 gallons at about 165 deg
Collected around 6 gallons in the pot


60 min boil with the following hop additions


1.00 oz Centennial (60 min)
1.00 oz Centennial (15 min)
1.00 oz Centennial (5 min)
1.00 oz Centennial 1 min)
0.50 oz Centennial (Dry Hop 2.5 days)

Got just over 5 gallons into the fermentor

Fermented in a swamp cooler for 2 weeks kept at about 60-63 deg with frozen water bottles for the first 3 days or so, then just let it ride and it stayed about 65, so I assume the fermentation temp was upper 60's low 70's inside the bucket.

used S-05 yeast

This is my second batch using this routine. I brewed a Brown ale before this.

 

[kylelp]

I understand this taste. I recently did the triple hopped Miller lite clone where'd I dry hoped for 10 days and have this taste as well. Even after 2 to 3 weeks in the bottle.

My solution or plan for next time is to not dry hop or dry hop for a shorter duration. I don't have enough experience to say a solution but I can let you know your not alone, lol

 

[MagicMatt]

Yeah that all looks good. I'm not seeing anything that would necessarily cause what you describe. I'd just wait another week and give it another try. Worse case is it's a drain pour, so it won't hurt to wait if it's not to your liking yet.

 

[BeeGeeBrew]

I understand this taste. I recently did the triple hopped Miller lite clone where'd I dry hoped for 10 days and have this taste as well. Even after 2 to 3 weeks in the bottle.

My solution or plan for next time is to not dry hop or dry hop for a shorter duration. I don't have enough experience to say a solution but I can let you know your not alone, lol

It's a bummer. I really just don't understand what caused it. I dry hopped with more Cascade for slightly longer in my amber ale, and I had no grassy flavor whatsoever. Even straight from the fermentor.

 

[plazola86]

I've gotten this exact same flavor when I tried keg hopping and got mixed results:

The first with Cascade and got the exact same flavor you're describing.
The second with Citra and Mosaic and got a perfect flavor/aroma.
The third with Belma and got the grass taste again.


Maybe some hops just give this flavor off compared to others? I have never gotten this flavor out of dry hopping in the fermenter only keg hopping though. Once I pulled the keg hops out the flavor mellowed out within a couple days.

 

[BeeGeeBrew]

Here's a update, with potentially good news.....I tasted a sample today at lunch, and although the beer was still pretty cloudy there is noticeably much less grass. It's still there but not near as bad. I'm leaving town for work for a week so hopefully it's ready when I get back.

On a side note this is my first go at kegging a beer, and the force carb method seemed to work perfectly because the beer has pretty good carbonation at 3 days. Turned up to 30 psi (40 deg) for about 18 hours, then purged and down to about 10-12 psi for the past two days.....good bubbles

 

[shortyz]

ya dude, i find if you dry hop in the keg the first week can be super grassy. after about a week itll go away and be fine. i think dry hopping at room temp might be a better option.

 

[BeeGeeBrew]

ya dude, i find if you dry hop in the keg the first week can be super grassy. after about a week itll go away and be fine. i think dry hopping at room temp might be a better option.

I actually did it in the fementor for the last 2 days before kegging.

 

[BeeGeeBrew]

So with another full week in the keg the beer is now pretty delicious. The mouthfeel from the Marris Otter is great, sweet and malty forward and the bitter bite at the end. Instead of grassy the bitterness is more grapefruit to me, but I don't have the most refined pallet so I dunno......either way RDWHAHB, worked out

 

[pepindavid]

I also brewed a Maris Otter / Centennial smash (no dry hop) a few months ago. I was bottling at the time. Mine wasn't "grassy", but there was a weird harshness that I wasn't able to really understand. After 2-3 weeks of conditioning (in bottles, at room temperature of about 62), it really got better.

Maybe the Centennial hop is a bit fussy, and needs more conditioning than other hops? Just speculating, obviously...

 

[thenugsmoustache]

Maybe the Centennial hop is a bit fussy, and needs more conditioning than other hops? Just speculating, obviously...

I agree with this idea. My centennial SMaSH seemed to get better after a couple weeks in the keg. I'd also say it aged better than some of my other hoppy brews.

 

[Weezy]

Grass is pretty common out of fresh hop beers. I've also gotten it out of heavy and long dry hops. I assumed it was volatiles related to freshness of the hops. If you think about, grass smells like grass until it was cut and laying and for a day. But I really don't know and you didn't over hop. Did you taste it before the dry hop?

 

[Oldskewl]

I also brewed a Maris Otter / Centennial smash (no dry hop) a few months ago. I was bottling at the time. Mine wasn't "grassy", but there was a weird harshness that I wasn't able to really understand. After 2-3 weeks of conditioning (in bottles, at room temperature of about 62), it really got better.

Maybe the Centennial hop is a bit fussy, and needs more conditioning than other hops? Just speculating, obviously...

I agree with this idea. My centennial SMaSH seemed to get better after a couple weeks in the keg. I'd also say it aged better than some of my other hoppy brews.

I brewed the Two Hearted Clone recipe a few months ago and experienced the same thing. Harshness that faded after a couple weeks in the Keg. Also aged well. Just finished the Keg a couple,weeks ago and it was still good pushing 4 months.

 

[BeeGeeBrew]

So using a calculator this beer has an IBU around 64, which appears to be about what the IBU of celebration pale ale is. This beer's bitterness is very tart to me (unlike celebration), and my buddy described it the same way. Does anyone else find a beer heavily hopped with Centennial to be a tart type of bitterness?

 

[BeeGeeBrew]

Figured I would update this since the beer has now been in the keg for about a month. Now the beer has mellowed substantially. It still has a very strong grapefruit note, which from what I have read is what you are supposed to get from Centennial. I would probably skip the dry hop if I did this one again, or maybe move the 60 minute addition down to 0.5 oz