My IPA's suck...maybe?

[bransona]

My recent ipas suck. I'm beginning to attribute this to munich malt, but it's still a fact. Or so I thought... My friends (even the brutally honest ones) really like them! And now I'm finding that Powder Monkey from Heavy Seas tastes JUST like my recent ipas (particularly one with 2row, c60, munich, and all cascade). Now I'm stuck wondering if I'm making decent beer or if people just like these flavors and I'm the outlier. Anyone else ever had these moments?

 

[emcfarden]

My most recent IPA I swore was too malty and had an off taste. All of my friends and family that have tried it loved it, and the only critique was from a brewer at an actual brewery and he said is was a tad malty but good. This happens with my cooking too. I really do think we're our own worst critic. I'm sure your IPAs are just fine, but feel free to send me a few to taste for myself!

 

[Hammy71]

Different strokes for different folks. Personally I like my IPAs dry with very little caramel (or Munich malts or usually none at all). My best IPAs to me consist of mostly 2 row and a crap load of hops. That's it. None of that "malty backbone" you see on labels. Some people love the malty and complex flavors of darker IPAs. I don't.

 

[bransona]

I've been thinking about going to all 2-row, but that just seems meh. I guess I'll make a side-by-side with all 2-row and maybe a 75/25 2-row/wheat malt.

 

[bransona]

It just seems like munich in my ipas is making them taste like hops on toast, so I guess I'll scratch it altogether

 

[shellsbells]

I think you may be right, some of us just don't dig the maltier flavour Munich imparts in an IPA. I'm drinking my latest right now and it's pretty meh. I definitely prefer them when they're just 2 Row and a little crystal. And a buttload of hops

 

[BreezyBrew]

Too much Munich in my IPAs tastes like dirt to me. I really don't know how else to describe it.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Fiiiiiiiine... Send me all of your IPAs and I'll let you know what I think.

 

[Natdavis777]

I try and keep my IPAs base malt (maybe some munich 10 if I dont add a small amount of crystal), wheat and corn sugar for dryness. Then a crapload of hops with a good water profile.

I agree, you are your worst critic. That is why I like sending beers off to comps, comparing my notes to those more skilled than I. Most of the time, I overly critical and end up with better than I though scores.

Play with recipes, see what others do with great success, and try and emulate that. I write a lot of my own recipes and some beers have scored very well.

 

[seatazzz]

My IPAS are the same. I can only taste the malt and bittering hops, it's like the late addition hops didn't even happen. I've done all partial mash to this point...but right now I've got a simple IPA on the boil and have high hopes. 2 row only for the malt, columbus to bitter and a boatload of Mosaic for flavor and aroma. If this works I'm never going back to partial mash.

 

[brewcat]

My IPAS are the same. I can only taste the malt and bittering hops, it's like the late addition hops didn't even happen. I've done all partial mash to this point...but right now I've got a simple IPA on the boil and have high hopes. 2 row only for the malt, columbus to bitter and a boatload of Mosaic for flavor and aroma. If this works I'm never going back to partial mash.

Have you dry hopped?

 

[Chrisbrewbeers]

I went to 10% light Munich after getting that hops on burnt toast taste. 2 row with 10% each white wheat and light Munich makes a nice grain bill. I won't ever use over 40l or too much Munich or victory again, it's really disgusting.

 

[filthyastronaut]

I really like Munich, Vienna, Maris Otter, and other maltier base malts in my IPAs. Vienna is particularly wonderful as 100% of the grist. I like a little malt in my IPAs, if that's what I'm going for, but I will still always mash low and the product is dry. You should figure out if your Munich is one of the specialty malt varieties or a base malt, because that can make a big difference if you're using a lot of it. Too much of any specialty malt won't do you any favors. The best way is to explore other malts, maybe do some small batches. Replace your Munich with Vienna, and you may find you get some added malt complexity that isn't cloying like it seems to be in your batches. It's also entirely possible that you're a 2 row only person for IPAs, but part of the process is discovering what you like. Brew more!

 

[Chrisbrewbeers]

That 100% Vienna IPA is intriguing. I've used Vienna in smaller amounts and the beer reminded me of stomach bile taste but I'm not sure it wasn't a garlic onion flavor from the hops I used. I meant never over 20 l in my above post too.

 

[filthyastronaut]

That 100% Vienna IPA is intriguing. I've used Vienna in smaller amounts and the beer reminded me of stomach bile taste but I'm not sure it wasn't a garlic onion flavor from the hops I used. I meant never over 20 l in my above post too.

Everybody's taste is different but there's absolutely no way Vienna would taste like stomach bile, so that would have to be a different part of the process. Hops, yeast strain and handling, and infections sound far more likely. For that matter, burnt toast is a strange descriptor for Munich as a whole. I could see it if it was too much of a specialty Munich, but a base malt Munich would be toasty but not burnt. Also there's nothing wrong with using above C-20 if you are keeping your crystal around 5% of the grist. But you may just not like malt flavor of any kind. That's certainly possible.

 

[Redlantern]

My IPAS are the same. I can only taste the malt and bittering hops, it's like the late addition hops didn't even happen. I've done all partial mash to this point...but right now I've got a simple IPA on the boil and have high hopes. 2 row only for the malt, columbus to bitter and a boatload of Mosaic for flavor and aroma. If this works I'm never going back to partial mash.

Bitter with small quantity of Magnum and do more late boil and whirlpool/hop stand stuff. Guaranteed bittering hops will not be prevalent.

 

[shortyz]

1 lb crystal 60
.5 mag 60m
.5 perle 30m
1 cascade 5m
2 cascade (add at 180f and let it chill in there for an hour)

ive dry hopped it with citra, amarillo, cascade, centennial. always turns out.

simple and probably one of my favs, sierra nevada anyone? lol

 

[dsaavedra]

My recent ipas suck. I'm beginning to attribute this to munich malt, but it's still a fact. Or so I thought... My friends (even the brutally honest ones) really like them! And now I'm finding that Powder Monkey from Heavy Seas tastes JUST like my recent ipas (particularly one with 2row, c60, munich, and all cascade). Now I'm stuck wondering if I'm making decent beer or if people just like these flavors and I'm the outlier. Anyone else ever had these moments?

You are probably on to something with your "too much Munich" line of thinking... I taste Munich very distinctly in every Heavy Seas beer that lists it in the ingredients, and it's not subtle! They must use a healthy serving of it in their recipes.

I happen to like it a lot, and it was actually Heavy Seas beers that led me to start researching what that "flavor" was that I enjoyed, turned out to be Munich so I bought a sack to experiment with in my IPAs and pale ales.

 

[seatazzz]

Have you dry hopped?

I have, and it didn't make much of a difference. I'm beginning to think I need more temp control. Current batch is in a bucket sitting in a Rubbermaid tub full of water, and the temp has stayed fairly consistent.

 

[prrriiide]

I was having a lot of these same problems with my IPAs as well. Especially the part seatazz notes about the late additions getting lost. Lack of punch, just kind of meh. And I absolutely BOMB my late additions (>2# total over the last 20 minutes + WP in 20g). They were still lacking.

What turned it around was water. When I started filtering out the chloramines and treating with CaCL and gyp, it made all the difference in the world.

It cleaned up all of my other brews as well, but the IPA showed the greatest impact.

I use the EzWaterCalculator spreadsheet, add acid malt to almost everything to drop my mash pH, and calculate the CaCl and gyp additions to balance or tilt to hops or malt. It really is a fantastic tool.

If you're doing PM or extract, at least filter out the chloramines that are in about every water supply in the free world. That's cheap & easy. You can also adjust your wort pH prior to boil (baking soda = up, lactic acid = down) if you have a pH meter and a way to quickly chill a shot glass of liquid to room temp.

Oh, and make SURE you aren't getting ANY O2 AT ALL in contact with it after wort aeration. OK, that's impossible, but as little as humanly possible. Hops oxidize incredibly easily, and it takes a very small amount of O2 to do it. And it tastes nasty, like burnt cardboard.