Lost my HOPS...

[BrooZer]

I recently brewed a pale ale. Actually it was an Anchor Liberty clone from AHB.

It turned out delicous! After carbing it tasted great for up to 2 weeks. Now, after about 1 month there is little to no hop flavor or aroma...WHAT gives?

It has chill haze, does that matter?

 

[bradsul]

Hop aroma will dissipate with time and since smell is a big part of taste it can make it taste a little less as well. One month is pretty quick though, are you serving it extremely cold? That will cover up a lot of the flavour.

 

[kenb]

That beer is not going to have a big hop aroma to begin with. Unless you dry-hopped it with some extra hops for a couple weeks with a few ounces of cascade hops (which i assume you didn't as those kits don't usually come with that many hops), you aren't going to get a ton of hop aroma. Likely it had just enough aroma in the beginning to be enjoyabe, and what there was has quickly dissipated. Also like bradsul mentioned, serving it a bit warmer can help.

 

[solidghost]

The nottingham yeast I use is supposed to "eat" away some of the bitterness of the hops. Not sure whether this applies to you in this case.

 

[BrooZer]

Hop aroma will dissipate with time and since smell is a big part of taste it can make it taste a little less as well. One month is pretty quick though, are you serving it extremely cold? That will cover up a lot of the flavour.

I dry hopped with 1 oz cascade in the secondary. It had awesome flavor and aroma at first. I tried serving it a bit warmer and it didnt help much.

now just the bitterness shines through. How much dry hops do I need?

 

[bradsul]

One ounce is all I usually use. How long was it in secondary after you added the dry hops?

 

[kenb]

I dry hopped with 1 oz cascade in the secondary. It had awesome flavor and aroma at first. I tried serving it a bit warmer and it didnt help much.

now just the bitterness shines through. How much dry hops do I need?

I guess it depends on how much aroma you want. For me 1 oz of cascades would not be nearly enough. I would use about 3 or 4. And the fresher the better of course.

 

[BrooZer]

One ounce is all I usually use. How long was it in secondary after you added the dry hops?

2 weeks in 2ndry.

 

[bradsul]

I usually only do one week (the last week before bottling/kegging). After that the aromatics start to off-gas, it may not be all there is to it, but I'd say that was definitely a contributing factor.