IPA brew turned out unpleasant: need advice

[00Seven]

I brewed this IPA https://www.northernbrewer.com/kama-citra-session-ipa-recipe-kit

Brewed everything by recipe on 4/24 OG right where it needed to be at 1.050. I moved to secondary and dry hopped on 5/2. Pulled gravity sample today and it was 1.008 which is where it should be. Sampled from the cylinder and this thing has a really unpleasant fore and after taste. Tastes kind of like oil from hops or something I'm guessing. The clarity of the beer and body of it was fine. Recipe calls for a lot of hops plus 2 oz dry hopped. Is there something I can do to clean up the flavor? I'm not in any rush to get it in the keg so I can leave in secondary for a while longer, airlock still bubbling some not that that really means much. Any ideas?

 

[ProblemChild]

sounds right. gravity samples will not always taste ambrosial. They can easily taste bitter, astringent and diesel-y.

Package it and let it carb and condition. I will bet good money that after a month in the bottle, it tastes as it should

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

I brewed this IPA https://www.northernbrewer.com/kama-citra-session-ipa-recipe-kit

Brewed everything by recipe on 4/24 OG right where it needed to be at 1.050. I moved to secondary and dry hopped on 5/2. Pulled gravity sample today and it was 1.008 which is where it should be. Sampled from the cylinder and this thing has a really unpleasant fore and after taste. Tastes kind of like oil from hops or something I'm guessing. The clarity of the beer and body of it was fine. Recipe calls for a lot of hops plus 2 oz dry hopped. Is there something I can do to clean up the flavor? I'm not in any rush to get it in the keg so I can leave in secondary for a while longer, airlock still bubbling some not that that really means much. Any ideas?

I would give it another week in the secondary - seems like Citra and a lot of similar hops need a good two weeks to come into balance. In fact, a couple of people mention that in their reviews on the NB site.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

This kit was my second brew and I bottled on Monday (5/7) after a little over two weeks in the fermentor. Didn't rack to secondary just dropped them dry hop pellets right in the primary after a week, let it sit another week (technically 9 days) with the dry hops and racked into the bottling bucket.

I tasted several times and can say that it tasted good to me however even the sample I tasted on bottling day did have quite more bitterness then I expected (front end). I would say as an IPA fan it tasted close to style, I am just kind of hoping a week or two of bottling will mellow 'er out.

That being said I find patience is the hardest thing to learn as a brewer and if it doesn't seem right to you let it sit a bit.

 

[brewgar]

Andrew, you wrote a great wisdom in your post - "let it sit a bit." Thank you very much for stating that.
No beer can be it's best before it's time.

 

[00Seven]

I went ahead and kegged, carbed, and letting it chill. I’ll wait a week or two to tap it though and see if it improves. Thanks for the advice. Any preference on carb volume for IPAs? I’m shooting for about 2.5-2.6 currently. Hoping a bit extra carb will help with the flavor some

 

[GoeHaarden]

People that say their hydrometer samples taste delicious are liars! Sometimes they taste good and sometimes they don't, but young hydrometer samples are never really a true reflection of what the beer will be...

Give it time...

Carbonation level is personal preference, but I usually aim for 2.2-2.3

 

[A_McG]

I agree GoeHaarden, it used to mess with me when first started brewing and my hydrometer reading beer didn't taste fantastic and others claimed their beer was. Now when I taste my hydrometer readings I look forward to what the beer will be when the flavors meld together and mellow out.

 

[00Seven]

After carb and chill the beer turned out fantastic. It’s a little cloudy but maybe it will clear in a day or so. I didn’t use any whirloc so that may be part of it but it was pretty clear when I kegged it. Anyways it turned out great. I think the temperature and lack of carb caused the oils to hit my tongue weird. Thanks for the help

 

[SEndorf]

After carb and chill the beer turned out fantastic. It’s a little cloudy but maybe it will clear in a day or so. I didn’t use any whirloc so that may be part of it but it was pretty clear when I kegged it. Anyways it turned out great. I think the temperature and lack of carb caused the oils to hit my tongue weird. Thanks for the help

Good news!
My hydrometer samples always taste bitter and funky. Nothing like the finished product, though I'm always on the lookout for diacetyl or off flavors. When kegging, the clarity takes a while, perhaps more than as day or so.

 

[divrack]

Good news. As a side note I would try and limit the time you leave dry hops in to maybe 4 days max. You'll get a fresher taste, less musty mower bag.