First AG

[Username69]

I brewed my first AG batch and went big with a 9.32% IIPA with 5.5 oz of citra and falconers thrown into the boil and 4oz for the dry hops. Mash temp was 152. I tasted the beer from week 1-3 in the bottle and it tasted exactly how I wanted it to but there was EXTREMELY little carbonation. I shook one bottle up and set it upside down for 3 days. Then I put it right side up for another 3 days and let it sit for a week. Now it is SLIGHTLY more carbonated but has changed colors and tastes like a premature barleywine. All the hop flavor and aroma that was there from week 1-3 is no longer there. It only tastes like slightly bitter alcohol. Has any one else had this happen? And is waiting the only thing I can do to fix it?

 

[helibrewer]

Wow, that's more like a triple IPA.....at 9.3% it is going to take awhile to carb that in the bottle...couple months maybe

 

[doug293cz]

The color change and loss of hoppiness are symptoms of oxidation. Shaking to rouse the yeast probably accelerated this, but the O2 was in the bottle, so this bottle was gonna go south fairly quickly anyway.

Highly hopped beers, especially those with lots of late hops and dry hops are very sensitive to oxidation. To make these successfully, you need to learn how to minimize O2 in the package. This is not trivial.

It sounds like in your case the yeast at bottling were pretty stressed out (probably from the high ABV), which is slowing down your carbonation. Normally, the yeast will metabolize the dissolved O2 into compounds much less detrimental to your beer, but if the yeast aren't fermenting, this won't happen to the extent it needs to.

I fear this is not going to be one of your favorite batches. as there is a good chance all the other bottles will also suffer from oxidation.

Brew on