lack of hop aroma/flavor

[stageseven]

I've always had an issue with getting really great hop aroma & flavor out of my beers, but I'm completely at a loss with my latest batch as to the cause. There is almost no discernible hop flavor or aroma in this batch, just a mild bitterness. I used 13oz of hops total for a standard IPA. The earliest addition was at 10 minutes left in the boil, with another addition at 5, a hop stand for 30 minutes at 180F, and then dry hopped after fermentation for 7 days. OG was 1.054, FG was 1.012, fermented with Omega Yeast's Heady Topper strain. Recipe is as follows:

8 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 89.5 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 5.3 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.3 %
1.00 oz Belma [9.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 4 12.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 15.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 15.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Belma [9.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 6.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 8.1 IBUs
2.00 oz Belma [9.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Belma [9.80 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs

Any thoughts on what could possibly have caused this issue?

 

[ptrack]

Do you have any more information about your process? Are you racking to secondary of going straight from primary to bottle/keg? Are you bottling or kegging the beer? How long after bottling/kegging are you tasting this beer? Any info on the age of your hops?

The first thought that comes to mind that quickly kills the fresh pungent hoppiness you are looking for is oxidation through racking and bottling that can often occur. I have also found that beers that I keg hold onto the hop flavors and aromas much longer than my bottled brews.

The mild bitterness probably comes from the lack of a bittering addition. Without adding any of those additions at the 60 minute mark you aren't going to get much bitterness out of those hops.

I am sure others on here will have better ideas on how to help but I think get a bit more info on your process is probably the first step.

 

[ultra_cas]

How are your hops stored? I have leaf hops I got from a local hop farm in October, in 2 oz vacuum sealed bags stored in a freezer, when I compare them to a friend who just kept them in a zip-lock back also in a freezer, there's a world of difference. He complained about not having that hop kick as well, he'll be vacuum sealing his next time around. Doesn't seem to be as much of an issue with the pellets, but with the leaf, big difference.

 

[stageseven]

Do you have any more information about your process? Are you racking to secondary of going straight from primary to bottle/keg? Are you bottling or kegging the beer? How long after bottling/kegging are you tasting this beer? Any info on the age of your hops?

The first thought that comes to mind that quickly kills the fresh pungent hoppiness you are looking for is oxidation through racking and bottling that can often occur. I have also found that beers that I keg hold onto the hop flavors and aromas much longer than my bottled brews.

I am sure others on here will have better ideas on how to help but I think get a bit more info on your process is probably the first step.

I don't generally secondary my beer, only if there's fruit added. I held the beer at 180F for 30 minutes while whirlpooling for the hop stand, chilled to 70F and dumped directly to primary, fermented in a water bath held at 65F for 2 weeks, then dry hopped for 7 days. The beer was racked to a keg and carbed at 13PSI for 2 weeks. I tasted it for the first time yesterday.

As for the hops, the Simcoe and Citra are maybe 6 months old, kept in airtight containers in the freezer. The Nugget and Belma were out of freshly opened packages from Hops Direct, both bulk 1Lb bags that were vacuum sealed, also kept in the freezer. All hops were pellets.

 

[m00ps]

That hop bill looks pretty similar to my last one and it had more hop character than anything I can buy off the shelves. You just cant beat the freshness of a homebrewed IPA.

How are you doing your hopstand at flameout? This is what really started pushing my IPAs over the top. Sometimes I divide the hopstand into the initial flameout, then a 180F addition for hops that smell the best. That helped in addition to kegging. With kegging, you can purge the keg before hand and really minimize ther amount of oxygen exposure. This would usually make my IPAs turn to muddled high abv pale ales 3 months ro so after bottling. Plus, you can dry hop again in the keg

also, are you using hop bags? or tossing them in free? If you are using bags, make sure you use the larger ones for anything over 1oz of hops. They need room to expand and float around. If they are too restrictive, you wont get the whole hop utilization

 

[1977Brewer]

You've got a solid 60 IBU in the boil alone, and you got some bittering with the flameout. On paper, this is a hop bomb. You've treated your hops as well or better than many people do. My diagnosis: you have sinusitis, take some Mucinex and try again.

 

[unionrdr]

Looking at the recipe, from my experience as well as bottling, ten minutes or less for flavor additions won't cut it. Plus doing a bittering addition of, say .3-.5oz Warrior hops @ 60 minutes would help a lot. Ditch the 0 minute additions, ime & move the flavor additions to between 20 down to 15 minutes. Save the aroma (0 additions) for dry hopping, since it gives the best aroma imo. Or move the 0 additions to flavor additions & keep the dry hop additions listed. You'll get a lot more flavor that way.

 

[stageseven]

That hop bill looks pretty similar to my last one and it had more hop character than anything I can buy off the shelves. You just cant beat the freshness of a homebrewed IPA.

How are you doing your hopstand at flameout? This is what really started pushing my IPAs over the top. Sometimes I divide the hopstand into the initial flameout, then a 180F addition for hops that smell the best. That helped in addition to kegging. With kegging, you can purge the keg before hand and really minimize ther amount of oxygen exposure. This would usually make my IPAs turn to muddled high abv pale ales 3 months ro so after bottling. Plus, you can dry hop again in the keg

also, are you using hop bags? or tossing them in free? If you are using bags, make sure you use the larger ones for anything over 1oz of hops. They need room to expand and float around. If they are too restrictive, you wont get the whole hop utilization

The hopstand was done by chilling the beer to 180F quickly at the end of the boil with an immersion chilller, then I added the hops, whirlpooled the whole time, and applied heat as needed to keep it at 180 for the full 30 minutes before kicking the chiller back on.

I did use a hop bag, which was pretty full by the end with all those hops. I'll have to try throwing them in free next time and just trying to leave most of the gunk behind. I also used a bag for the dry hop additions.

 

[unionrdr]

I add boil hops loosely to the boil kettle. I think it gives them a bit more edge. I pour the chilled wort through a fine mesh strainer anyway, to aerate it & get the gunk out.

 

[ptrack]

As someone who avoids throwing hops free in the boil as they always seem to clog something at some point I found my hop spider to be well worth the investment (which was relatively minor in cost and effort). A few part from the hardware store and paint strainer bag (or an old specialty grain steeping bag like I used) and you can have the best of both worlds. Lots of free space for the hops to move around and get fully utilized and the ability to easily remove it all at the end of the boil.

 

[stageseven]

My other thought is that while a hop bag could account for some of the lack of hop aroma & flavor, it can't be responsible for all of it can it? What else should I be looking at? Water profile? Are these hop varieties just not good together?

 

[DoctorDuvel]

Definitely look into water profile and mash ph. When I started paying attention to those components, things dramatically improved in my beers, hop presence being among them.

 

[unionrdr]

Not using hop sacks anymore made a very noticeable improvement in hop flavors in my beers.

 

[m00ps]

I agree that hop bags do seem to inhibit the flavor a bit, even if you leave them a lot of room to move around. I could also try squeezing the bags before going to the fermentor, but I am too paranoid about infections. Instead, I just use more hops!

On the water profile thing, a bit of gypsum should definitely help out a bit

 

[DrankGoodness]

i agree that it has to be water chemistry.

i didn't start getting the hops flavors i wanted until i started adding gypsum.