Excellent hops flavor turning too bitter quickly?

[dude1]

Just wondering:

I brewed a clone of the Tröegs Nugget Nectar, which had a superb hop flavor when I tasted it after 2 weeks in the bottles and for about 3 weeks.

Now, the last 3 bottles I tasted are extremely bitter and quite unpleasant.

Can the hop flavor evolve so quickly?

I store my beers around 68°F (20°C) without light.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[invictusbrew]

Hmm... So assuming all things being equal, hops do not normally get more bitter with time - the opposite in fact being true. So we must assume that this is something else than simply time. Were these bottles some of the last to be bottled and therefore might have more hop material in the actual bottle? Did you maybe get a less than perfect mix of priming sugars in these bottles as compared to the others and what you're actually dealing with is the bite perceived from a more carbonated beer?

On the subject of time and carbonation, perhaps the first of these you had were slightly undercarbed or not finished carbonating and now you are (similarly to above) perceiving the bite of carbonation as bitterness?

That's what came to mind for me at least.

 

[Callacave]

Could be oxidation. Hop flavors stale/dull/change, and the bitterness will come to the front.

Could also be the last three bottles had some extra hop particles / sediment that maybe slipped into the pour? I'll get that with pellets even when I'm doing my best to rack into a keg. The first handful of pours have some very fine hop particles that are hard to see unless it's held up to a light.

 

[lolcats]

It could be that you had uneven hop flavor in a batch. It happened to me once. Never understood why some bottles had a great aroma and flavor, other's were more watered down and flavorless.

Could be oxidation, uneven carbonation, sanitization in some bottles...

 

[derekcw83]

Do you cold crash? How are your hops stored and their age? Is aroma gone along with the bitterness increasing?

I've dealt with a similar issue for a while, just a little more rapid change. Stopped cold crashing and now using freshest hops possible with dramatic improvements.