Hop addition flub

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lelandmccann

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Hello all,

First time brewer and poster. While making my first IPA I read the directions wrong and made a 2nd hop addition too early in the boil. Any way to neutralize or soften up some of those IBU's? It's in primary now, was planning on racking to secondary and dry hopping in a week or so. Any sage advice would be great.

Cheers!
 
Could you post the recipe. My first thought is let it ride and learn from this. But damn if its an ipa I think the more the merrier. I love a bitter floral ipa. So continue like usual after beer is done fermenting and cleaned up. dry hop for a week then bottle or keg.
 
The only thing I can think of is to make another similar beer without that hop addition and mix them at bottling time. I would NOT recommend this. I am with the previous poster. Let it ride. To me it sounds like it is better than the original.

Keep in mind that there is a hop threshold that you can't get above. You simply cannot add more hop oils after a certain point. So likely you just got marginally close to that point. Especially if this was a partial boil.

No worries. I'm sure it will be drinkable.
 
It was a 3.5gal boil

8oz Carapils
8oz Crystal 60
8oz Victory
8.6lb LME

The additions were intended to be:
1oz Columbus (60min)
2 oz Centennial (15min)
1 oz Cascade (5 min)
1 oz Centennial (Knockout)

I flubbed and put the 15min addition in at 45min (whoops), then pulled the Cascade back to 10min and the Centennial to 5min in effort to balance the flavor a bit.

Dry hop addition is listed to be 1oz leaf Centennial.

Thanks for the help!
 
yup, let it ride - what's done is done, and is now a lesson learned.

you IPA will come out more bitter than the recipe intended, and potentially a little less on the hop flavor side.

feel free to increase that dry-hop, if you've got the hops. 1 oz in 3.5 gals isn't bad, but you could easily do 2 oz. doesn't need to be centennial, you can mix it up (cascade or columbus would work just fine).
 
Yikes - well, moving that Centennial from 15 to 45 will result in a lot more IBU's. And then, moving the 5 to 10 and knockout to 5 will also result in, you guessed it, more IBU's! That'll result in a bit less hops flavor and aroma (basically, a bit less of the citrus that cascade and centennial are known for) and quite a bit more bitterness.

If you let it age a bit it should mellow some - consider giving it longer than that week or so that you're considering before you dry hop it (dry hop character will tend to fade quickly, so you don't want to dry hop and then age). Alternately, you may pull a sample in the next week or two and find you really like it, and away you go!
 
1 oz in 3.5 gals isn't bad, but you could easily do 2 oz.

I topped it off to 5gal after the boil. Upping the dry hop addition seemed like the way to go. Does 3oz on 5 gal seem reasonable? I love a good bitter IPA but would like to balance it as much as possible.
 
Yikes - well, moving that Centennial from 15 to 45 will result in a lot more IBU's. And then, moving the 5 to 10 and knockout to 5 will also result in, you guessed it, more IBU's! That'll result in a bit less hops flavor and aroma (basically, a bit less of the citrus that cascade and centennial are known for) and quite a bit more bitterness.

Thanks for the reply! My post-panic logic of moving the two late additions was in thought that some flavor intended hops would balance better than aroma. So rather than being a hop-bomb that smells good, it would be closer to just a big IPA. I realize this thinking may have been completely wrong, would you say so also?
 
Since you added the cascade with 10 mins left in the boil you will have hop flavor, its just going to be pretty bitter. Nothing you can do now. It might turn out great!
 
Your priming sugar is going to be fermented out, so if you're looking for more sweetness to balance the bitterness, or more body, you won't get it there. There are options for non-fermentable sweeteners, or additions to increase the body, but honestly, I'd just let it do its thing, add the normal amount of priming sugar, and bottle. It will be fine.

Just give it some edgy name a la Flying Dog (Raging Snake Dog ***** IPA or something), and advertise it as a in-your-face bitter explosion, like you meant it that way.
 
Would a particular priming sugar help also?

Yes, priming with DME will leave some unfermentable sugars behind, since there's some in the DME. Use a priming calc like the one at TastyBrew.com to determine how much for your beer.

Oh, and another vote for your IPA will be just fine. It's IPA, bitter and hoppy is the goal.
 
I topped it off to 5gal after the boil. Upping the dry hop addition seemed like the way to go. Does 3oz on 5 gal seem reasonable? I love a good bitter IPA but would like to balance it as much as possible.
yup, 3 oz for 5 gals should do you good and give you some nice hop aroma.

do let us know how it turns out. like many others here, i suspect it'll be damn tasty.
 
I don't think there is a need for complaint!
Sounds fantastic :)
Id be happy if it were hop czar bitter
 
This turned out to be not bad at all. Surely bitter as expected. I decided to dry hop it with 4oz of whole leaf Sorachi Ace so the flavor and aroma are great. An encouraging liftoff beer at any rate. Cheers

image-510715965.jpg
 
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