Old hops, bland beer. Help!

[parjay]

I brewed an IPA a couple of weeks ago and it turned out tasting like a blond. If I had to guess, I would say there was maybe 1oz of hops in the entire recipe, not the 7 that I actually added. The beer looks great and has no obvious off flavors, it just tastes like meh though. Recipe is attached below.

I have a couple of options in my head, but I have a pretty good hunch that my Centennial hops were over the hill. I bought them on clearance in bulk, and even though they were vacuum sealed, I know they weren't the freshest. They didn't smell off, but it is very possible that they didn't smell strong enough either. The other possibility, from what I have read, is that Nottingham can scrub some hop flavors. I can't imagine that it could scrub them completely like this, but I guess it is possible.

My question is how do I make this beer the best it can be? Dry hop in the keg? Hop tea? I have never done either, so I am just looking from some guidance.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Hop oil or dry hop in the keg (Bag it up) will fix this I would opt for the oil it is very potent and clean the hop tea you will have to chill first but will also work obviously it's all to flavor expectations I believe morebeer has El Dorado hop oil for like $5

 

[ong]

Adding a couple oz of hops in a mesh bag in the keg will certainly help the aroma (I like to use cryo hops for kegging to reduce grassiness, but it’s not a necessity).

Next time I would try a bigger whirlpool addition — you really only had < 3 oz of hops, not counting the generous dry hop.

 

[parjay]

Hop oil or dry hop in the keg (Bag it up) will fix this I would opt for the oil it is very potent and clean the hop tea you will have to chill first but will also work obviously it's all to flavor expectations I believe morebeer has El Dorado hop oil for like $5

Awesome, thank you!

 

[parjay]

Adding a couple oz of hops in a mesh bag in the keg will certainly help the aroma (I like to use cryo hops for kegging to reduce grassiness, but it’s not a necessity).

Next time I would try a bigger whirlpool addition — you really only had < 3 oz of hops, not counting the generous dry hop.

Thank you for the advice. It wasn't supposed to be a hop bomb, and I actually doubled the dry hop when I tasted my hydro sample. But I always like when advice is "more hops!" I haven't tried cryo hops yet, do they stay within a mesh bag pretty well?

 

[ong]

Thank you for the advice. It wasn't supposed to be a hop bomb, and I actually doubled the dry hop when I tasted my hydro sample. But I always like when advice is "more hops!" I haven't tried cryo hops yet, do they stay within a mesh bag pretty well?

About as well as pellet hops... both will still let a lot of fines through, but the bag retains the bulk of the hops.

 

[parjay]

About as well as pellet hops... both will still let a lot of fines through, but the bag retains the bulk of the hops.

Do you think that 2oz of cryo would be overkill? I was thinking I could try 1oz citra and 1oz simcoe if I went the cryo route.

 

[ong]

Do you think that 2oz of cryo would be overkill? I was thinking I could try 1oz citra and 1oz simcoe if I went the cryo route.

Seems reasonable. I figure an oz of the cryo is about equivalent to 2 oz of regular pellet hops.