Hazy IPAs - PH and hop burn

[Brian66]

I've been working on perfecting my Hazy IPAs. Lately I've been getting a lot of hop burn. I'm thinking this could be due to the PH and/or maybe yeast choice? Lately I've been using Verdant IPA yeast.

I usually only pay attention to Mash PH and adjust that using Bru'n Water. I use distilled water and adjust to have the PH in the 5.3-5.4 range.

I'm wondering if maybe my post boil PH and post fermentation PH is too high and contributing to the Hop burn.
Could this be a contributing factor to the Hop burn?
For Hazy IPAs what should I target for post boil PH and post fermentation PH levels?

Doing some searches this is what I've come up with:

post boil PH 5.0
post fermentation PH 4.3

Are these levels good? Are they too high? What do you target?

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Those ph targets listed aren't bad, I like my post fermentation ph to be a little lower so that when I dry hop it will finish at 4.3 so I try to get my ph at 4.0 then dry hopping will bring it back up.

That said, what is your current cold side process? What temp are you dry hopping at? Are you using a different dry hop vessel to get the beer off the yeast before dry hopping or a conical to drop the yeast out? There could be other things contributing to your hop burn other then ph, any specific recipe with dry hop variety and hopping rates would help also.

 

[day_trippr]

Hop burn is due to excessive polyphenols still floating around in the beer. Some hops or certain hop years can be prone to this - around 4~5 years ago it was almost a lock with Galaxy. What strains of hops did you use - and how much?

Cheers!

 

[HM-2]

You're about where I end up for my hazies so I don't think it's pH related.

As above, walk us through your full process. Contact times, hopping temperatures, dumping trub/transferring to brite to condition, hopping rates, typical recipe...



Hop burn is a simple fact of life/chemistry/biology at very high hopping rates but will almost always subside with conditioning. I've had particularly heavily hopped hazy beers require as much as 10 weeks conditioning to really hit their prime.

 

[Brian66]

I have never taken a PH reading other than for the mash. The PH numbers I listed were what I was thinking I should be targeting and will take measurements and adjust with acid on the next beer.

My fermentation/dry hop process is to ferment at 68F.

Grain bill is Pilsner malt, Flaked Oats and a bit of Chit malt

When fermentation is done I transfer to a Keg and dry hop in the keg - usually same temp of 68F (except where noted). I dry hop usually 2 days - but have done 1 and 3 days as well. While in the keg I gently roll it every 12 hours to try and incorporate any settled hops.
After 2 days I transfer to a serving keg (the dry hop keg has a floating dip tube with a filter)

*Note I brew small batch 2 1/2 gallons. Fermenter/Dry hop volume is around 3 1/2 gallons

Hop combos I have used are (hop amounts in ounces)

Citra/Mosaic/Citra Cryo/Mosaic cryo WP-2/2/1/1 DH 1/1/1/1 Burlington Ale Yeast

Citra Cryo/Nectaron/Idaho 7 WP-2/2/2 DH 2/4/2 (this beer when young was good, aged with some pith to it but no burn) used London III yeast
same beer WP-2/2/2 DH 2/2/2 (this beer had hop burn) Verdant IPA yeast

Bru-1/Citra/Cashmere/Sabro WP-2/1/1/1 DH 3/2/2/1 (this beer had little to no burn) Verdant IPA yeast

Strata/Citra/Citra Cryo/Galaxy WP-2/1/2/0 DH 3/0/2/3 Verdant IPA Yeast

Motueka Lupulin/Motueka/Riwaka/Nelson WP 0/1/1/1 DH 0/2/1/1 Verdan IPA yeast Not as much burn
but still burn
Dropped Temp to 55F for dry hop

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I've been working on perfecting my Hazy IPAs. Lately I've been getting a lot of hop burn. I'm thinking this could be due to the PH and/or maybe yeast choice? Lately I've been using Verdant IPA yeast.

I usually only pay attention to Mash PH and adjust that using Bru'n Water. I use distilled water and adjust to have the PH in the 5.3-5.4 range.

I'm wondering if maybe my post boil PH and post fermentation PH is too high and contributing to the Hop burn.
Could this be a contributing factor to the Hop burn?
For Hazy IPAs what should I target for post boil PH and post fermentation PH levels?

Doing some searches this is what I've come up with:

post boil PH 5.0
post fermentation PH 4.3

Are these levels good? Are they too high? What do you target?

To minimize hop burn, I target a mash pH range of 5.2 to 5.4, as it appears suitable for both mash and post-boil pH levels, which I rarely check. A post-fermentation pH of 4.3 is also good. I do limit boiling hops to 20 minutes and whirlpooling hops to 30 minutes, at a temperature of 170°F to 160°F. It works out to boiling hops contributing 60% of the IBUs, and whirlpool hops contributing the remaining 40%. Oh, I also add Whirlfloc to the boil and cold crash to 36°F for a week before kegging.