Lacking Flavor

[brew703]

I brewed a session pale ale 20 days ago. I used 10 oz of hops for a 5 gal batch and I find it is severely lacking flavor. And no where near 47 IBU's.

Any suggestions on how to change for my next brew day? Would adding a 30 min addition help or should I add more dry hops? Would a 20-30 min whirlpool make that much of a difference? I've done Wp brews in the past and do not recall having much of a difference vs FO hops.

Grain
66.7% pale 2 row
14.3% Vienna
7.1% White Wheat
4.2% C40
3% C60
2.4% Aromatic Malt
2.4% Carafoam

Hops
.4 oz Columbus @ FWH
.75 oz Centennial @ 15
1 oz Centennial @5
2 oz Falconers Flight @ 0
1.75 oz Chinook @
1.1 oz Columbus @ 0
1.6 oz Falconers Flight DH for 5 days
1.4 oz Chinook DH for 5 days

 

[Northern_Brewer]

How are you calculating 47 IBU? You should be aware that while most software is pretty good at calculating IBUs from 60 minute additions, it generally does a really bad job at later additions. So that 47 IBU is close to guesswork given that you have less than half an ounce of proper bittering hops. If it's not bitter enough - add more bittering hops.

Personally I'd swap the FF and Centennial - the former is more suited to the kettle, Centennial has more of the light aromatics that you want to preserve by dry hopping.

I'd move some of the flameout to whirlpool, again to preserve the delicate aromas, or back to 5 minutes to extract more of the heavier stuff. The effect of f/o hopping depends how quickly you cool, if you're efficient then f/o can end up being neither one thing nor the other.

What yeast? It can make a huge difference to hop expression, I've had the same wort show as bright and fruity or almost not hoppy at all, just by adding different yeast combos. Yeast can really interact with hops - for instance I did a Chinook SMASH-ish which was bright grapefruit with one yeast, but Fermentis T-58 turned it to a more subdued lime.

Elephant in the room - how old are the hops and how have they been stored? Oxygen, light and warmth are the enemies of hops - at 70F in open packets the half life of hop compounds can be as little as 4-5 months, depending on variety. Vacuum packing/inert gases and fridge/freezer make a huge difference here.

 

[brew703]

IBU calculations are done using Brewer's Friend or Beersmith. All hops stored in the freezer, vac sealed. All are from 2016/2017 year.

I don't usually dry hop with Centennial. Last time I DH w/Centennial I got a funky flavor and I've read where Centennial can do that.

As for chilling, I use an Immersion chiller- I can usually get from boiling to 160 in 15 min or so depending on ground water temp. From 160 to 85 or so could take another 30 min depending how aggressive I get. Normally when I add WP hops I get the temps down to 160, add my WP hops and let it go until I rack to my carboy. Sometimes it's 20 min sometimes longer.

As for the yeast, I used S04 for this batch. Been using dry yeast lately as don't really have the time or space for liquid and harvesting etc.

Finally, I usually aim for 30 IBU's from my bittering charge. For this batch, I got 25 IBU's from my FWH charge and the rest came from the 15 and 5 min addition.

Next batch, I'll change the FWH to either a 60 or 45 min addition, add one 5 min addition and the rest as a WP and DH to see if that helps.

I'll let this batch age a week or so while pulling a few pints. When I get it down to half may go ahead and add an ounce of Centennial to the keg and see how that works.

 

[GPP33]

IME 50 IBUs of a good commercial beer is not the same as 50 IBUs calculated from Beersmith. Not sure if commercial breweries actually measure IBUs and the theoretical equations used in beersmith are way optimistic or if it’s something about my system but try shooting for about 50% more IBUs than you actually want.

 

[brew703]

Yep- gonna have to up my IBU's to around 50-60 and see how that turns out. The 35-40 range isn't cutting it. Not that i am a hop head- I prefer some bitterness and my last couple brews were lacking.

 

[RPh_Guy]

You didn't mention anything about your water chemistry.

Try increasing your sulfate:chloride ratio.

 

[lablover]

I'd move the Centennial additions back 15 minutes each.