Heavy dry hopping results when bottling

[thehaze]

Hello,

A few weeks back, I brewed 4 batches of beer and 1 was a heavily dry hopped beer, with Pilsner, Wheat and Flaked wheat. Columbus, Citra and Galaxy ( all pellets and from 2016 ) in the boil, whirlpool and around 12 oz for the dry hopping.

This is not a NEIPA, so the dry hopping was once charge, once the fermentation was over. I bottled it, without splashing and trying to minimize oxygen exposure ( I know it will still be oxidised at some level ).

7 days in the bottle it was great, still young and had a bit of bite. 14 days and the beer turned a bit darker, but the flavours are still OK.

I think it is quite oxidised at this point, but it baffles me or maybe it should not.

Other beers which had only like 8-9 oz hops for th dry hopping never had this issue, but apparently when going strong on the dry hopping, this happens.

I think I will stick to dry hopping with less hops and go heavier on the late additions and whirlpool.

I am kinda sad at this point, but I guess it is part of the learning process.

 

[RM-MN]

Hello,

A few weeks back, I brewed 4 batches of beer and 1 was a heavily dry hopped beer, with Pilsner, Wheat and Flaked wheat. Columbus, Citra and Galaxy ( all pellets and from 2016 ) in the boil, whirlpool and around 12 oz for the dry hopping.

This is not a NEIPA, so the dry hopping was once charge, once the fermentation was over. I bottled it, without splashing and trying to minimize oxygen exposure ( I know it will still be oxidised at some level ).

7 days in the bottle it was great, still young and had a bit of bite. 14 days and the beer turned a bit darker, but the flavours are still OK.

I think it is quite oxidised at this point, but it baffles me or maybe it should not.

Other beers which had only like 8-9 oz hops for th dry hopping never had this issue, but apparently when going strong on the dry hopping, this happens.

I think I will stick to dry hopping with less hops and go heavier on the late additions and whirlpool.

I am kinda sad at this point, but I guess it is part of the learning process.

Oxidation should take more time than that to show up. I think the darkening of the beer is from the hops and yeast settling out. Your initial sample at one week had so much suspended matter (microscopic) that it reflected the light hitting your beer, making it look much lighter. It should take 2 to 3 months or more for oxidation to cause loss of hop aroma.

 

[day_trippr]

Well, I have to disagree with ^that^. It's pretty clear oxygen can kill a juicy NEIPA quite quickly, as there are threads on this forum showing oxidated darkening with accompanying testimony of severely attenuated hop presence in much less time - like a couple of weeks...

Cheers!

 

[IloveWorts]

yeah but did he cold crash or anything? what temp did the bottles condition at?

 

[thehaze]

I cold crashed for 2 days. The bottles sat at around 70F ( 21C ) and I got carbonation at day 5-6 in the bottle.

The beer is not a NEIPA, as it was not dry hopped during fermentation and only had one big dry hopping charge after it had fully fermented.

The beer was and still is cloudy due to the wheat and flaked wheat.

 

[IloveWorts]

How did the taste change? Ive heard not to bottle IPAs before but I just like kegging anyways. I mean the most possible problem is oxygen.

 

[brew703]

It doesn't have to be a NEIPA to get oxidized. I had one turn in about 1.5-2 weeks after bottling. Matter of fact, I brewed a Session IPA, which was the last beer I bottled, get oxidized.

 

[thehaze]

The colour got darker and the flavours are slightly changed, more bitter and possibly slight tangy. The aromas are still there.

This summer I made 2 IPAs ( 1 fermented with S-33 and 1 with K-97, as experiments ) with Amarillo, Simcoe, Citra for around 8 oz in the dry hopping and they turned out great. Great colour, great aroma and flavour ( grapefruit and grapefruit rind ) and they did not go bad.

The only things I did different with this batch was the much higher dry hopping charge and the lack of Crystal malt in the grain bill. ( I usually have a 5-7% CaraBelge malt in the grainbill for better colour and stability )

 

[thehaze]

Also, the one I just brewed had very little late additions at 10 and 5 minutes, so the flavour is very weak.

I just realised going thru my notes that the 2 IPAs I made this summer had more late additions, starting at 20 minutes left in the boil and the flavour was very good on those.

 

[thehaze]

So I opened a bottle today at 18 days from bottling.

The aromas are there. The flavours however changed a bit.

I think RM-MN might be on to something, at least in my case.

The colour has somehow stabilised and does not seem that dark. The flavours are fruitty, dank and spicy, most likely from the Columbus and Galaxy. It is quite good at this point.

I will open some bottles again in a few days, most likely during Xmas time and see what's what.

But I might have jumped the gun... It seems the beer needs a bit more in the bottle. This might explain why the people that got beer from me said they were good. I only drank them in the first 7 to 20 days at most and they actually had some bottles beyond that point. I will report back.