Kegged IPA - vastly diminished hop flavor

[Kevin89065]

I am relatively new to kegging, I've brewed about 4 batches that I've kegged so far. One thing that I do not understand is how my IPAs all lose their aroma as soon as I put the beer into the keg.

For example, this week I had a beer that was dry hopped in with 4oz of hops (2oz motueka and 2oz wakata) and left to sit for about a week and a half. I did a gravity sample before kegging and the smell jumped out the glass I poured the sample into. Bright, fruity flavors that were apparent without taking a sip.

After seeing the gravity reading was good and noticing this great aroma I dumped my keg that was filled with sanitizer and siphoned the beer into the keg. I attached the gas line and set the regulator to about 30psi and rolled the beer around for about a minute before disconnecting the gas and storing in the fridge for about 24 hrs.

The next day I vented the excess gas from the keg and reattached the gas with about 10psi for serving. It was perfectly carbonated yet when I poured it into a glass there was almost shockingly no aroma there. I have a witbier on tap at the same time and that beer's aroma blows away the IPA, which makes no sense to me.

Is there anything in my process that you can see that would cause this? Should I be connecting the empty keg to the the CO2 for a few seconds prior to siphoning to purge the oxygen from the keg?

Right now I am thinking about disconnecting the beer from the gas, opening the keg up and tying in a hop bag with more hops (I have up to 3oz of motueka left, although I would only use 1oz if necessary). Does this idea make sense?

 

[solbes]

When I keg, I dry hop in the keg. I rack into the keg, chill, then open up and dump in the hop bag (with marbles to weight it). Purge, hook it up to the gas, and stick it back in the fridge for another week or two.

With dry hopping cold, there doesn't seem to be any time (within reason) of developing the grassy veggie flavors you would get if you did it at room temp. Problem is since its colder, it takes at least a week for the aroma to start showing up. But as I like my kegged beer to cold condition for a week or two anyway, it works out perfect. The nice thing is the aroma does not change as you work your way through the keg over weeks or a month. Cheers!

 

[m00ps]

It sounds like you are not purging the keg both before and after filling. You need to do this several times. Especially if you shake the keg to get it carbonated quicker. All this is doing is quixkly oxygenating the beer and stripping hop character

 

[pshankstar]

When I keg, I dry hop in the keg. I rack into the keg, chill, then open up and dump in the hop bag (with marbles to weight it). Purge, hook it up to the gas, and stick it back in the fridge for another week or two.

With dry hopping cold, there doesn't seem to be any time (within reason) of developing the grassy veggie flavors you would get if you did it at room temp. Problem is since its colder, it takes at least a week for the aroma to start showing up. But as I like my kegged beer to cold condition for a week or two anyway, it works out perfect. The nice thing is the aroma does not change as you work your way through the keg over weeks or a month. Cheers!

Do you tie a sting or fishing line to the bag of hops and tie it to the handle so it doesn't block the dip tube? I am having a similar issue and was thinking of opening the keg to drop 2oz or 3oz of hops to my IPA to give it back the hop flavor it too is missing since I begged it.

Also, I may try your method next time of moving it to the keg for the dry hopping phase after the primary fermentation has completed.

 

[m00ps]

Do you tie a sting or fishing line to the bag of hops and tie it to the handle so it doesn't block the dip tube? I am having a similar issue and was thinking of opening the keg to drop 2oz or 3oz of hops to my IPA to give it back the hop flavor it too is missing since I begged it.

Also, I may try your method next time of moving it to the keg for the dry hopping phase after the primary fermentation has completed.

I use unflavored dental floss and marbles to weigh it down. I tie the string to the keg handle and it just sticks out. The keg still seals fine

 

[TheMadKing]

My guess is just the temperature drop. Try pouring a pint and letting it warm up to room temp and see if your hop aroma comes back.

 

[Schecter]

Is your carbonation too high? For my DIPAs I usually carb low and raise it slowly as I like it. Overcarbing definitely ruined a few of my IPAs' aromas before I realized the different letting it flatten out a bit made. Give it a shot?

Cheers

 

[solbes]

Yeah I usually use flouro fishing line and tie it to something

 

[A2HB]

What temperature are you serving your beer? Are you letting it warm up a bit after pouring? I've noticed with my homebrew, the warmer it gets the more flavors and aromas come through when I'm drinking.

 

[Calichusetts]

Moar hops!

Seriously though, try a double dry hop with smaller amounts. Then cosider adding hops for the duration of the kegging, as suggested. If that doesn't work, there are some other issues at hand or...moar hops!

 

[pshankstar]

Yeah I usually use flouro fishing line and tie it to something

I tried this last night with some very fine fly fishing line and I could hear the CO2 leaking out from the lid. I even tried to reseat the lid thinking that was the issue, but it kept leaking. It was leaking so much I could feel the CO2 coming out where the fishing line was. Once I removed the fishing line, put the cap back on and turned the CO2 on again, no more leaks. Very strange!

The seals are good b/c I just replaced them this summer and this is only the third brew since the new seals.

So hopefully with 2oz of Cascade hops in a muslin bag with a 1inch SS Ball Bearing, it will not clog my dip tube.

 

[m00ps]

as long as you contained them you should be good. Ive never had a clogged dip tube

 

[solbes]

I tried this last night with some very fine fly fishing line and I could hear the CO2 leaking out from the lid. I even tried to reseat the lid thinking that was the issue, but it kept leaking. It was leaking so much I could feel the CO2 coming out where the fishing line was. Once I removed the fishing line, put the cap back on and turned the CO2 on again, no more leaks. Very strange!

The seals are good b/c I just replaced them this summer and this is only the third brew since the new seals.

So hopefully with 2oz of Cascade hops in a muslin bag with a 1inch SS Ball Bearing, it will not clog my dip tube.

Maybe because my seals are all lubed with keg lube? Otherwise I dunno. I've sprayed mine with star-san and did not see any leaks.

 

[pshankstar]

Maybe because my seals are all lubed with keg lube? Otherwise I dunno. I've sprayed mine with star-san and did not see any leaks.

Yeah I'm not really sure either. My seals have a fair amount of lube on them as well. I poured two glasses last night without issue so I may be ok as is.

 

[pshankstar]

I am relatively new to kegging, I've brewed about 4 batches that I've kegged so far. One thing that I do not understand is how my IPAs all lose their aroma as soon as I put the beer into the keg.



For example, this week I had a beer that was dry hopped in with 4oz of hops (2oz motueka and 2oz wakata) and left to sit for about a week and a half. I did a gravity sample before kegging and the smell jumped out the glass I poured the sample into. Bright, fruity flavors that were apparent without taking a sip.



After seeing the gravity reading was good and noticing this great aroma I dumped my keg that was filled with sanitizer and siphoned the beer into the keg. I attached the gas line and set the regulator to about 30psi and rolled the beer around for about a minute before disconnecting the gas and storing in the fridge for about 24 hrs.



The next day I vented the excess gas from the keg and reattached the gas with about 10psi for serving. It was perfectly carbonated yet when I poured it into a glass there was almost shockingly no aroma there. I have a witbier on tap at the same time and that beer's aroma blows away the IPA, which makes no sense to me.



Is there anything in my process that you can see that would cause this? Should I be connecting the empty keg to the the CO2 for a few seconds prior to siphoning to purge the oxygen from the keg?



Right now I am thinking about disconnecting the beer from the gas, opening the keg up and tying in a hop bag with more hops (I have up to 3oz of motueka left, although I would only use 1oz if necessary). Does this idea make sense?

Any updates on what you decided to do OP? Good luck!

 

[Kevin89065]

Sure, I'll give an update. thanks for all the replies everyone. I ended up opening it up and adding two ounces of Motueka to the beer in a muslin bag tied to the top with dental floss.

The aroma has definitely improved but now I think I might have slightly muddied the flavor as this is now the third type of hop that I've added (I had previously dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin and Wakata).

There is a strong lime presence from the Motueka, although by the third day it showed signs of melding better. I'll give it some more time now, at least until this weekend.

I do like the idea of dry hopping in the keg, it seems to do a better job, although the first time I tried to seal it there was a slight leak. I readjusted the keg top and the leak went away.

Thanks again for the replies