IPA recipe turned out weird

[comicsandbeer83]

so i brewed an IPA from a a recipe book and followed all the directions and ingredients 10 days ago. pre pitch gravity said it was 1.075, which was about .013 higher than recipe anticipated. when i checked it tonight the reading said 1.010 which makes it about 8.7 alcohol and it doesn't taste remotely like an IPA. barely has much of any hop taste in it. it doesn't taste bad, but i just don't know what happened. i also wonder if the pre pitch gravity was skewed by my topping the 2 gallons of wort with 3 gallons of water to bring it to 5 gallons. maybe the wort wasn't mixed in entirely when i siphoned my sample? either way this beer is turning out weird and much more different than i expected. any thoughts anyone?

 

[comicsandbeer83]

Should i try dry hopping? if so, how do i go about doing that properly?

 

[helibrewer]

I think we need to know the recipe and yeast used. What was the fermentation temp?

 

[Yooper]

Well, I know it seems weird when you're new but there is no way to guess without knowing what's already in the beer. We'll need the recipe, along with details like fermentation temperature, so we can know if dryhopping will help or of the weird flavor is from something else.

 

[comicsandbeer83]

recipe was 4 lbs of pale LME in boil, then 4 lbs of pale LME after boil. i also steeped 1/2 lb of crystal 20L pre-boil. the hops were 1 oz of Nugget and 3 oz of EK Goldings. i thought that seemed like a small amount of hops for an IPA. i used White Labs London Ale liquid yeast. at pitch the wort was 71 degrees and the OG read 1.075.

 

[comicsandbeer83]

also, the boil was 2 gallons of wort topped off with 3 gallons of spring water i bought at the store, which is the type of water i always use.

 

[comicsandbeer83]

beer doesnt taste bad, it has a sweet malty taste and the slightest amount of bitterness. but it sure as hell isnt hoppy.

 

[crownsdown]

There's probably not enough sulfate in your brewing water.

 

[Yooper]

beer doesnt taste bad, it has a sweet malty taste and the slightest amount of bitterness. but it sure as hell isnt hoppy.

Well, there should be enough bitterness, even with a partial boil, as you used a whole ounce. Diluting the beer more than 50% means reducing the bittering hops 50% as well, as you didn't add bittering hops to the water of course, but unless it's sweet, the bittering is probably fine.

EKG is a wonderful hop for Engilish beers- floral, with a hint of earthiness, so it sounds like you brewed an English IPA but were expecting an American IPA. Three ounces of EKG late in the boil should mean a gentle floral flavor with a bit of earthiness, but not much, so if that is what you have currently, it sounds like you nailed the recipe!

So, if you're not accustomed to English hops and English bitters and IPAs, this might taste weird for sure.

Plus, an English yeast will give definite "English" notes.

Anyway, it looks like a decent English IPA. But if you're not accustomed to English hops and yeast character, it could definitely be "weird". I'm drinking an English IPA right now, and it's great, but definitely earthy and floral, and not citrusy like Amercian IPAs.

 

[stevedasleeve]

There's probably not enough sulfate in your brewing water.

Interesting jumping to that conclusion! actually there's probably not enough HOPs!! The higher the gravity the more bittering you need to balance out the malt. For a 1.075 hoppy beer I'll usually go 100+ calculated IBUs. At a guess that'd be 4X the amount of nugget and all the EKG.

Steve da sleeve

 

[comicsandbeer83]

Yeah there is practically not much of any hop taste to it. should i dry hop several ounces?

 

[Yooper]

Yeah there is practically not much of any hop taste to it. should i dry hop several ounces?

It depends. If it's an English IPA (and it is), dryhopping with several ounces could do one of two things:

1, Dryhopping with more EKG will make it more "Englishy" and floral
2. Dryhopping with American hops will bring some citrusy flavors, and make it "really Weird" instead of just "weird".

What do you hope to do? erase the English flavors (not going to happen) or enhance them (might, if you use the right hops, but very tricky to do).

 

[comicsandbeer83]

the main goal is to give it more hop character. as it is the flavor is so malty as to to basically drown out all of the hops practically. the "Weird" i referred to was that this beer in no way resembles any IPA i have ever had.

 

[Yooper]

the main goal is to give it more hop character. as it is the flavor is so malty as to to basically drown out all of the hops practically. the "Weird" i referred to was that this beer in no way resembles any IPA i have ever had.

How many English IPAs have you had recently? It really looks like a decent English IPA, totally different than any American IPAs.

 

[helibrewer]

Looks much more like an English Special Bitter to me.

 

[jageraholic]

I'd say the higher O.G. seems pretty spot on for 8 lbs of DME. What did the recipe say for an expected O.G?

 

[danath34]

Interesting jumping to that conclusion! actually there's probably not enough HOPs!! The higher the gravity the more bittering you need to balance out the malt. For a 1.075 hoppy beer I'll usually go 100+ calculated IBUs. At a guess that'd be 4X the amount of nugget and all the EKG.

Steve da sleeve

Gotta agree here.

OP: did you take into account the difference in hop utilization in your smaller, more concentrated boil than in a full boil? Doing a partial boil and topping with water afterwards is going to reduce the extraction you get from the hops, so you need to use more. However, only boiling with half the LME does help this significantly.

To the same point as above, a higher than expected OG will also reduce hop utilization. And in addition, even if you had the same hop utilization, and the full expected IBU's, a higher OG with the same IBU's will taste more malty.

Also, I don't think you mention your hop schedule. Did you throw all of those hops in at the beginning? If so, then yeah, you'll have something like an ESB. Malty flavor with a bitter hop backbone, but little to no hop flavor and aroma. For a hoppy IPA, all of your "hoppy"-ness is going to come from the late additions (15 mins or less).

At this point, I'd probably call it a decent ESB and be happy with it. If you REALLY want more hop flavor, go ahead and try dry-hopping. Sanitize a bag, put a few ounces of your favorite hops in, tie the bag off, add it to the beer. Wait a few days to a week, bottle immediately.

 

[T-Wayne]

I think OP wanted to make an American style IPA and used a British recipe and got what sounds like a good EIPA. I'm going with Yoop on this one.

 

[comicsandbeer83]

I'd say the higher O.G. seems pretty spot on for 8 lbs of DME. What did the recipe say for an expected O.G?

Expected OG was 1.062.

 

[comicsandbeer83]

Gotta agree here.

OP: did you take into account the difference in hop utilization in your smaller, more concentrated boil than in a full boil? Doing a partial boil and topping with water afterwards is going to reduce the extraction you get from the hops, so you need to use more. However, only boiling with half the LME does help this significantly.

To the same point as above, a higher than expected OG will also reduce hop utilization. And in addition, even if you had the same hop utilization, and the full expected IBU's, a higher OG with the same IBU's will taste more malty.

Also, I don't think you mention your hop schedule. Did you throw all of those hops in at the beginning? If so, then yeah, you'll have something like an ESB. Malty flavor with a bitter hop backbone, but little to no hop flavor and aroma. For a hoppy IPA, all of your "hoppy"-ness is going to come from the late additions (15 mins or less).

At this point, I'd probably call it a decent ESB and be happy with it. If you REALLY want more hop flavor, go ahead and try dry-hopping. Sanitize a bag, put a few ounces of your favorite hops in, tie the bag off, add it to the beer. Wait a few days to a week, bottle immediately.

Hop schedule was Nugget 1 oz - 60 min; EK Goldings 2 oz - 15 min; EK Goldings 1 oz - 5 min.

 

[pendulum]

I've gotta agree with yoop on this one too. The hops you used are English and have a lower alpha rating and sweeter and earthier flavors than American hops. American IPA's usually have Simcoe, Chinook, Columbus, Centennial, and other higher alpha hops which also have a lot more citrus tones to them.

I don't think dry hopping is going to help much as you'll either enhance the English hop flavors if you dry hop with the same ones you brewed with, or you'll create a very odd concoction of citrus and earth by dry hopping with American hops.

I'd keep it as is and see if you like it. Who knows, it may grow on ya.

 

[campbellmike]

I was recently given a six pack of Schlafly's Export X IPA. I initially didn't like it because it didn't taste 'right'. Over a few weeks as I've opened additional bottles I've enjoyed it more and more. It's a different hop profile than I'm used to but it is good. I will be seeking out some other english style IPAs in the future.

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

I would dry hop with some EKG and call in an English IPA.

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2148-english-ipa-tips-from-the-pros

 

[ob_1jr]

I had a similar issue I thought when I bottled my latest IPA after dry hopping. It didn't taste like an IPA...it tasted better before the dry hop. I just opened a bottle of it last night and it tasted great. It is called thunderbolts and lightning imperial apricot IPA. There was 3 oz of hops during the boil and 3 oz for dry hopping.

You will probably want to dry hop and then see what it tastes like.

 

[SmCranf]

I think the lack of hop flavor comes from:

1. The hops used are more floral earthy and not the in your face american type hop that most IPA lovers look for. Aka you made a english IPA and not an American IPA

2. Partial boil (which I do) can really take alot of bitterness and flavor away from hops, when I typically do an IPA I add at least a high alpha hop, chinook, centennial, columbus ect. Or I toss in two ounces to bitter, to counteract the watering down effect.

 

[comicsandbeer83]

I ended up experimenting and dry hopping with 2 oz of Challenger. I figured I would stick with UK hops since that's what I used previously. So we'll see what happens. 😀


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[12thHoleBrewer]

I agree with the other posts that because your recipe, sticking with traditional English hops for dry hopping would likely work best, as opposed to using more citrusy American IPA hops. One idea- A blend of EKG and Hallertau for dry hopping maybe something to consider. The Hallertau will give you a little more spiciness and character but won't be as disruptive to the style as American IPA hops.

 

[comicsandbeer83]

I did a taste test today (day 6 of dry hopping) and their is a great balance of the hops and malt now. The Challenger hops really helped a lot. it'll never be an IPA, but I'm fine with calling it an ESB and learning from this.

 

[12thHoleBrewer]

Thanks for the update. I used to be my own worst critic if my beer didn't come out exactly as expected. Now if I make a beer that I and others enjoy drinking, then I'm no longer hard on myself. Like you said, learn from it and look forward to brewing the next batch.

 

[comicsandbeer83]

Beer turned out great actually. Definitely not an IPA. More a bitter or a strong pale ale. Has great balance of flavor. If I did my OG readings correctly then the abv is 8.8, which is certainly the highest I've brewed yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[12thHoleBrewer]

Nice!