How to get that fresh hop flavor?

[jambafish]

I brew big IPAs with tons of late additions, I rack to primary for 2 weeks, secondary for 10 days with 2-6 oz of hop additions and rack to CO2 filled keg with fresh hops, but while the beer is always good, it never tastes like the beers I love to drink.

Everyone tells me oxygen is a hop killer, but I've done what I can to limit oxygen.

Surely many of you get the best hop flavor to your beers. Can it be that this is only achievable with all grain brewing or do I need to think about removing trub or something else?

 

[jessup]

Do you do late extract additions for better hop utilization? That's a big difference for extract brews!

 

[daksin]

If you've tried EVERYTHING else, I might look at your water chemistry if you're not already.

 

[Yooper]

A couple of things- lots of late hops additions to the boil kettle and then quick cooling even with 0 minute additions. Then, I only dryhop for 3-5 days (not 10) as it seems to provide lots of hoppiness that way. And lastly, dryhopping in the keg works well at fridge temps so in a beer that isn't quite hop-forward enough for me, I'll dryhop at kegging and keep the keg in the kegerator until empty.

It's weird- when I dryhop at room temperature it seems like the sweet spot is no more than 5 days to preserve that great hop aroma. But at keg temperatures, it never gets grassy and continues to give hops flavor and aroma until the keg is gone.

 

[Malticulous]

The thing I think matters most is how good and fresh the hops are.

 

[jambafish]

Great ideas.

I do late additions, but I've never done 0 minute additions. I'll try that. My water is local spring water without a lot of minerals. I've not done an analysis on it, but the local brew store tells me it's excellent.

Yooper, do you dry hop for under 5 in secondary and then also in the keg or just in keg at low temps? It's interesting you say that about warmer temps. I had a brewer here tell me I wouldn't get as much from my hops if I only hopped at low temps. I'll try adding to a chilled keg.

So one more question. I've been thinking about tweaking an extract kit by shortening the boil time and adding the DME/LME and extra hops either at the end of the boil or at flameout. If the only reason for the 60 minute boil on an IPA is to gain bitterness, and bitterness is something I've achieved in spades with extra hops, then it seems a shorter boil might help both with reducing some bitterness and also with helping late additions to remain more grassy?