Hop fade

[BeerAndTele]

I enjoy dry-hopped American IPAs. And I bottle. When I open my first few bottles (anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks after bottling), I am met with glorious floral, piney aroma. Love it. I give a way a few bottles, but I don't have scores of friends so it takes me a while to go thru the 47 or 48 bottles that my 5 gallon batches yield. Inevitably, with time, the hop aroma fades somewhat. What I'm left with isn't bad or off-putting, it's just not as glorious.

So my question to the forum is: how long after bottling (or kegging, assuming no dry hopping in the keg) do you feel that the hop aroma fades to a noticeable point?

And, follow-up question, do you feel that the answer to the first question varies based on the yeast? It may be my imagination, but I feel like the fade is quicker if I'm using a malty English yeast like WLP002 or 005 or 007 than if I use good ol' WLP001.

Thanks.

 

[tdf]

Oxidation is the #1 cause of lost hop aroma. There's a great thread here about bottling techniques to mitigate this problem as much as possible.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...dspace-o2-in-a-bottle-conditioned-ipa.653784/

 

[RM-MN]

I have a simpler method to avoid a big hop fade in my APA. Instead of 5 gallon batches I do 2 1/2 gallons and do them more frequently. Now my beer doesn't have to stay in the bottle and lose the hop aroma, I get fresh beer.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Additional topics at Homebrew Talk on the idea of bottling NEIPAs that stay fresh for 40+ days.

• How to bottle NEIPA (without kegging)
• NEIPA Bottle Oxidation and alternatives?
• Purging headspace when bottling
• A thought experiment for reducing oxygen naturally when bottling
• Bottling tips

 

[Panderson1]

I've just overcome my struggles with no hop aroma... and I keg. I've lost all hop aroma in a matter of days after dry hopping. Am talking about dry hopping on day 6, and by day 15, I lost all aroma due to oxygen exposure. Cold crashing was #1 killer. I started using the cold crash guardian (Google it I forget the company) and it's helped tremendously. also a spunding valve on my other fermenter (firmzilla) helps even more it seems.

I can't imagine moving beer to a bottling bucket and retaining hop aroma. I'm mind boggled that you get aroma weeks after bottling. Good job

Btw. Drinking my 1st homebrew ipa and it smells like a fresh bag of hops. 1st time this has happened in 50+ batches. Very satisfying

 

[tyrub42]

Basically you're looking to limit two things:

-oxygen
-time at room temperature

If you can refrigerate them as soon as they're carbed up they'll keep well. If you can do that while limiting oxygen exposure, they'll keep even better (a good start for this is to just bottle with almost no headspace). Otherwise, there's unfortunately no secret trick to keeping hop aroma in beer

 

[BeerAndTele]

Thanks everyone for the replies; much appreciated.