Is bottle conditioning incompatible with NE IPAs?

[lolcats]

Hey guys,

So I've been enjoying drinking New England IPAs (Treehouse, Trillium, Alchemist etc) and trying to replicate them.

My 3 batches now have been consistantly perfect before bottling. They seriously tasted amazing (in line with the above breweries). I did a batch with Galaxy Mosaic and Simcoe, and another one with Columbus, Citra and Motueka using Wyeast 1318.

But I have one problem. I feel this style is incompatible with bottle conditioning. I've brewing for a couple years now and bottle conditioning every single batch. The results were very good. And I think my process is nailed down pretty well. Always condition at 68F.

But with the style, everything seems to be different. Going through and secondary fermentation seems to fade the hop flavor way more than with standard IPAs. And overall the flavor doesnt seem as fresh. I think there's a reason why all these NE breweries can rather than bottle condition.

So anyone else feel the same way when doing this style? Is there anything to compete other than kegging? If not I think I'll just drink my NE IPAs uncarbed directly from the fermenter. They taste way better that way.

Thanks!

 

[JLeuck64]

IDK what your preferred method of adding hop aroma is yet, I've been messing around with dry hopping for awhile now and am disappointed with it. I typically will ferment in the primary and also dry hop in the primary, I gave up on transferring to the secondary quite a while ago. So, I've started messing around with hop stands. Lately I've started experimenting with just moving the last 5 or 10 minute hop additions to the hop stand. I am also experimenting with forgoing the dry hop usually associated with IPA's. If I get the same or better hop aroma with a simple hop stand after the boil I figure why would I want to mess around with a dry hop? Those typically add a bunch of clean up AND at least a week of extra time in the fermentor?! Why the heck do folks dry hop if a simple hop stand on brew day gets the same results? IDK... yet ( ;

 

[lilbova3]

I used to bottle before I got my kegging system. While expensive, it's so worth the money.

I found all my hoppy beers struggled when bottling. They'd fade pretty quickly. It would help to know your whole process but here are some ideas before bottling and if you're bottling from a bottling bucket.

1. Skip secondary. Don't transfer the beer.
2. Dry hop early, like on day 5. Some yeast will be around to eat up any oxygen the hops have and the biotransformation of the yeast and hops help add the 'juicy' aroma. Scott Janish has an article about this.
3. Pitch plenty of healthy yeast into aerated wort so you have a good fermentation and only have to keep the beer in the fermenter for 10 days tops. In my system, I've transferred from the fermenter on day 8.
4. This goes along with number 3, if you pitch enough healthy yeast your beer should be fermented and stable by day 10. Don't keep opening the bucket or carboy to take a gravity reading. I've stopped taking gravity reading. If you have a SS Brewtech bucket, for instance, it makes it easier to take a reading without opening the fermenter and allowing oxygen in.
5. Try bottling without a bottling wand. I haven't done this but thought of it after I stopped bottling. I feel the pressure tipped wand causes some oxidation. I would kringe every time I added beer to a bottle. Just use a tube connected to your bucket that's long enough to get to the bottom of your bottle. It'll take a little longer and take some trial and error to get used to when to open the spigot and close it for the perfect pour.

Give these a shot and keep us posted. Hope it helps.

 

[lolcats]

Thanks for you replies

I do hopstand/dry hop and get great results. Everything seems to be going fine before bottling. I'm just curious if the style is worth bottle conditioning at all (or if I'm just wasting time and goodbeer) vs. classic American IPAs.

I feel that my uncarbed beer prior to bottling is just perfect (in terms of aroma, flavor, balance). I wouldn't want it to change at all just carb up slightly. I dont need it to mature/age/condition because thats the whole point of the NE IPA style vs. classic American IPA. I didn't have this problem at all before whern using 05 or notty.

I feel like NE IPAs are good to drink after 2 weeks and dont need to condition, whereas classic American IPAs need to mature for an extra 3 to 4 weeks. I

Don't know if I' expressing myself correctly