Extended the shelf life of IPA

[Hsuan-Tso Shen]

Hi All

I have the question about hot to extended the shelf life of IPA, and prevent oxidation. For the current process, what I did is as follows.
However, it didn't go well which the taste did have big degrade after only 1 months into the keg.

1. Added the hop during the mesh to decrease the iron ions as per the Scott Janish concept
2 Added the ascobic acid 4g during the mash
3. Keg close transfer (Before doing this, fill the star san in the keg, and pump the star san out to make sure no oxygen in the keg)

I am thinking about to add brewtan B ? However, I did do some research that it might not good for the IPA.
Any suggestion or process which I can do.

Thanks

 

[kevin58]

One month in the keg for an IPA is a long time. Hop character is going to fade over time no matter what you do.

 

[HM-2]

One month in the keg for an IPA is a long time. Hop character is going to fade over time no matter what you do.

Strongly disagree.

3+ weeks of cold conditioning in keg is basically mandatory for extremely heavily dry hopped IPAs. I've stored IPAs in keg at room temperature for up to 12 weeks with no significant degradation in aroma or flavour.

If you're experiencing significant degradation of your IPAs after four weeks, then it's likely down to some element of process.



Areas I would be considering:

Dry hopping: how are you dry hopping to minimise exposure?

Getting beer of trub/hop matter: are you dropping yeast, transferring to secondary, or just letting beer sit on the hops and for how long?

Closed transfer: is your keg absolutely full to the brim of starsan, or did you leave head space? Did you purge your transfer lines too?

 

[jdauria]

3. Keg close transfer (Before doing this, fill the star san in the keg, and pump the star san out to make sure no oxygen in the keg)

With a closed transfer system, instead of Star San, I recommend using Five Star's low foam product Saniclean. Star San will leave some foam behind in the keg and I did hear a podcast (forget which, but probably Brulosophy) one time where they were questioning if the air in the foam bubbles could lead to oxidizing a beer and the recommendation was to use Saniclean instead.

 

[HM-2]

With a closed transfer system, instead of Star San, I recommend using Five Star's low foam product Saniclean. Star San will leave some foam behind in the keg and I did hear a podcast (forget which, but probably Brulosophy) one time where they were questioning if the air in the foam bubbles could lead to oxidizing a beer and the recommendation was to use Saniclean instead.

One workaround to this is adding your starsan once the keg has been filled to basically the brim and then gently shaking to mix, which seems to largely suppress foam creation.

 

[wepeeler]

I add 1/2 tablespoon of ascorbic acid to every keg, and I have fresh IPA for months. Currently on the last few pours of an all Nectaron hazy that's 3 months in the keg. Still plenty of hop punch.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Hi All

I have the question about hot to extended the shelf life of IPA, and prevent oxidation. For the current process, what I did is as follows.
However, it didn't go well which the taste did have big degrade after only 1 months into the keg.

1. Added the hop during the mesh to decrease the iron ions as per the Scott Janish concept
2 Added the ascobic acid 4g during the mash
3. Keg close transfer (Before doing this, fill the star san in the keg, and pump the star san out to make sure no oxygen in the keg)

I am thinking about to add brewtan B ? However, I did do some research that it might not good for the IPA.
Any suggestion or process which I can do.

Thanks

You mentioned pumping the starsan out. Hopefully, you used CO2 to purge the lines and push the starsan out. And you mentioned adding hops to the mash, but you didn't mention adding any hops to the kegs for dry hopping. If that is the case I'm guessing the hoppy flavors degraded after a month, since you didn't say the beer tasted bad. Oxygenated beer will have an off flavor and turn darker over time. Maybe you need to add more hops to your recipe next time? I say this because I'm drinking a beer that I brewed on March 6th, and after six and a half months, it still tastes fresh, and the color is the same.

 

[Hsuan-Tso Shen]

Strongly disagree.

3+ weeks of cold conditioning in keg is basically mandatory for extremely heavily dry hopped IPAs. I've stored IPAs in keg at room temperature for up to 12 weeks with no significant degradation in aroma or flavour.

If you're experiencing significant degradation of your IPAs after four weeks, then it's likely down to some element of process.



Areas I would be considering:

Dry hopping: how are you dry hopping to minimise exposure?

Getting beer of trub/hop matter: are you dropping yeast, transferring to secondary, or just letting beer sit on the hops and for how long?

Closed transfer: is your keg absolutely full to the brim of starsan, or did you leave head space? Did you purge your transfer lines too?

Thanks for the comments

Dry hopping: I used tri clamp with dry hopper to do the dry hop
Getting beer of trub/hop matter : Yes, I did dropping the yeast ; However, we use the wine cooler to do the fermentation, and the temperature can be reached around 6 degree C. The temperature might not that cool to drop the yeast completely.

When I do the cold crashing, I did purge the CO2 to around 5 psi make sure O2 not suck into the fermenter.
During the dry hop process, I did keep around 5 psi.

For this batch of IPA, I did do the kep hopping. I do close transfer to the beer from fermenter to 15L keg. After 1 weeks of keg hopping, I transfer it to the several 3.6L minikeg. (I just have only one 15L keg)

Closed transfer: Yes, the keg is completed to fill the star san.

 

[Hsuan-Tso Shen]

I add 1/2 tablespoon of ascorbic acid to every keg, and I have fresh IPA for months. Currently on the last few pours of an all Nectaron hazy that's 3 months in the keg. Still plenty of hop punch.

Thanks for the information ! I will try it next time !

 

[Hsuan-Tso Shen]

With a closed transfer system, instead of Star San, I recommend using Five Star's low foam product Saniclean. Star San will leave some foam behind in the keg and I did hear a podcast (forget which, but probably Brulosophy) one time where they were questioning if the air in the foam bubbles could lead to oxidizing a beer and the recommendation was to use Saniclean instead.

Thanks for the information! I will try it next time !!!

 

[Hsuan-Tso Shen]

One workaround to this is adding your starsan once the keg has been filled to basically the brim and then gently shaking to mix, which seems to largely suppress foam creation.

Kind of shake that the foam will lead the oxidation !