Ipa serving temp

[cjgenever]

I found this interesting...

The ipa in my kegs presently is a pale hops monster. It the best i have ever tasted (in VERY critical of myself. I am unhappy with beers that everyone else loves).

I had one keg in the basement. I drew a pint from that one on Thursday to make sure all was good for a party on Sat night. It was soooo boring. A COMPLETELY different beer than the first keg. A weaker bitterness and way les aroma/flavor. I knew some of the problem was that the basement is almost freezing. I let the glass warm up. I tasted it later and it was amazingly good. The temp was about 40°f.

I polished off that glass and poured another eight oz. The temp was 33.2°. I warmed the glass in my hand watching the temp while tasting/smelling.

37.5°f... nothing
37.8°f... CRAZY aroma/flavor and a good sharp bitterness

It REALLY makes a difference people.It also makes me wonder... should we set our kegorators to 35° to keep those compounds in suspension rather than volatizing into the head space?

 

[atom]

i think you are being too fussy...have you considered drinking bud?

my keezer is set for 40 and that works out for most styles (for me).

 

[Onkel_Udo]

i think you are being too fussy...have you considered drinking bud?

my keezer is set for 40 and that works out for most styles (for me).

You are doing it all wrong...the correct temp is 40.0075 f.

But seriously, no ale that I know of tastes better below about 40-45 f than it does above that mark.

 

[Roadie]

I read an article not long ago (and of course now I can't find it) saying something like beer serving temps should be:

Lagers - low to mid 40's (F)
Pale Ale - upper 40's to mid 50's
IPA - low to mid 50's
Imperial Stouts/Barleywines - upper 50's

It said any beer you don't really want to taste should be served in the 30's.

Based on this I bumped my keezer temp up a little to 44 F.

 

[bobbrews]

Drink them at the temperature that suits your particular palate.



...duh

 

[thekraken]

should we set our kegorators to 35° to keep those compounds in suspension rather than volatizing into the head space?

I wouldn't think so, the commercial hop bombs I know and love dont make it from brewery to glass all the while staying underneath your 37ish° threshold. Then again, maybe that's what it takes to take it to the next level. You could do some 'exbeeriments' and let us know.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

My kegerator sits at 40 and I pour into warm glasses. It works well. It is fun to taste the beers as they warm up.

 

[estricklin]

Drink them at the temperature that suits your particular palate.



...duh

Ding Ding Ding. Wadda we have for e'm Johnny???

The only reason I drink my beers at 32F, is because if I get them much colder they will freeze, I know because I tried. I'm not going to let anyone tell me what temperature to drink my beer at, especially when it's 115 degrees here in the summer. I've accepted that, as strange as it seems to be, some folks like e'm a bit warmer and that's ok too, just not for me.

 

[solbes]

It does make a huge difference for ales to have them warmer. My bottling fridge is set to 44F. By the time you pour it into a warm glass, the temps are probably 46-47. And by the time I sip away the first half, the second half is probably 50-53. With some styles I do notice a big difference, with others very little. Lagers I like hovering around 40-42 ish.

My keg fridge is set a little colder, probably 42F. I find the beer lines stay fresher with the colder temps. Summer time especially is a problem if I go much warmer than that.

 

[Jim311]

Well it isn't going to take too long for it to warm up to 40 degrees anyway once it's poured.

 

[Cyclman]

I find that almost all styles are more delicious warmer. I keep my beer cave at 40, and let 'em warm up from there.

 

[beergolf]

I keep my beer fridge at 41-42. Works for me.

 

[cjgenever]

I don't think anyone here is following what I'm putting down. this has to do with making great even better, not what works well enough.

I like my ipa at ~45°f. I keep my brew for serving at ~40°f and warm the beer in my hand.

My point is that if there are aromatics coming off at about 37°, then it seems that a keg temp higher than that is also going to release the volitiles into the head space of the keg. I want this in my beer, not left in my keg.

My present method 'works fine for me' as well. Anyone posting that comment has COMPLETELY missed my point. My ipa is the best ipa I have tasted (in sure it is a combination of freshness and a 'screw the cost' approach, not because I'm the best brewer in the world), but I can always either make it better or keep it fresher longer. The latter of which is very difficult in an ipa.

Everyone talks about how an ipa must be drunk young. Maybe this could add a few weeks to that time table

 

[solbes]

Mmm'kay. If your point is to keep the aromatics in beer solution longer by extra keg chilling, I would try another avenue. Dry hopping in the keg.

Because the beer is cold, there is almost no endpoint to reaching the grassy taste threshold that you would see after 10 days or so at room temps. I've gone over a month with keg dry hopping and noticed no such flavors. By sinking the dryhop bag with marbles or ballast, you are essentially pulling beer that goes right through or very near the hop bag. The only downside I see to the whole approach is that it can take a week or so before that aroma shows up. Just a much slower process when the beer is cold. If you also dry hop prior to racking into the keg, then this is not a problem.

If your method works thats great too, it does make some sense. I'm going to keep dropping the hops to the bottom of my APA's and IPA's as it works for me.

 

[Jim311]

As far as sinking a sack of hops, any problem with it getting pushed into the liquid tube and clogging things up? That would suck.

 

[thekraken]

I knew what you meant OP... I knew.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

As far as sinking a sack of hops, any problem with it getting pushed into the liquid tube and clogging things up? That would suck.

No

Granted ANYTHING is possible...but no.

 

[giraffe]

I don't think anyone here is following what I'm putting down. this has to do with making great even better, not what works well enough.

I like my ipa at ~45°f. I keep my brew for serving at ~40°f and warm the beer in my hand.

My point is that if there are aromatics coming off at about 37°, then it seems that a keg temp higher than that is also going to release the volitiles into the head space of the keg. I want this in my beer, not left in my keg.

You are forgetting the keg is under constant pressure (and for a long time, like 2 weeks of cold conditioning/force carbing at minimum. any rate or aromatics leeching into the head space will have enough time to hit equilibrium) It is a closed system. Unlike in the glass where it is off gassing. I doubt there is significant aromatics in the head space. Feel free to experiment though.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Mmm'kay. If your point is to keep the aromatics in beer solution longer by extra keg chilling, I would try another avenue. Dry hopping in the keg.

Because the beer is cold, there is almost no endpoint to reaching the grassy taste threshold that you would see after 10 days or so at room temps. I've gone over a month with keg dry hopping and noticed no such flavors. By sinking the dryhop bag with marbles or ballast, you are essentially pulling beer that goes right through or very near the hop bag. The only downside I see to the whole approach is that it can take a week or so before that aroma shows up. Just a much slower process when the beer is cold. If you also dry hop prior to racking into the keg, then this is not a problem.

If your method works thats great too, it does make some sense. I'm going to keep dropping the hops to the bottom of my APA's and IPA's as it works for me.

I dry hop in the keg as well. 3 days room temp, then into the keezer. Speeds up the hoppy goodness process a bit. Still takes about a week to reach where I want it to be... which is fine 'cus I just "set & forget" for 2 weeks anyways. IMO, keg hopping is the way to go for longevity. First pint is a wash, but the rest is delightful! I've left it for well over a month with no grassy off flavors.


On topic:

I set my keezer at 36°, and don't chill my glasses. I only brew ales and hefe's, with an occasional Belgian(I make stouts too, but those big boys get bottled.) I have no problem maintaining a hop presence. My beer is probably around 40° by the time I drink it.

Is it better stored colder? Maybe? I dunno...

 

[k1ngl1ves]

As far as sinking a sack of hops, any problem with it getting pushed into the liquid tube and clogging things up? That would suck.

I sink mine with stainless washers, but I tether it with dental floss. The first time, I just dropped it in, and it formed a nice soggy dam at the dip tube. Doh!!!

 

[solbes]

I have not had problems with the hop sack clogging the dip tube. Probably done it 6 or 7 times now.

 

[cjgenever]

I use pellets almost exclusively. I recently got some citra and simcoe. I wanted whole leaf for keg hopping but only pellets were available (I was happy that citra was available at all). I have used pellets for dry hopping before, but get a silt consistency hop material in the beer. I like it, but others see it as 'murky'. I've even considered building a recirc dry hop rig with 5 micron filter to avoid this, but would need to modify my kegs to avoid foaming away my head retention, so haven't got to that yet.

Anyone have a clean method for pellets.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I use these bags: http://www.morebeer.com/products/bag-9-12-mesh-hop.html When I am done I flip the bag inside out and the throw it in the dishwasher until next time. I don't weigh the bag down and it usually floats at the top of the beer even with pellet hops.

 

[solbes]

I use a similar bag and don't seem to get any solid hop residue in the beer when using pellets. It might make it just a tad less clear, but barely so. A tradeoff I'm very willing to make if it has any affect on clarity.

Word of caution though, those bags do need to be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. I traced back a gusher bug issue to that hop bag as I was somewhat lax on making sure it was fully cleaned before I dried it for storage. Took another 2 batches before it showed up too, so that was disasspointing.