Night shift whirlpool wins in the aroma department. I can smell one from down the street.
Tips for the Infamous "super hoppy" IPA/IIPA
- Thread starter Calichusetts
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You think? I just had one that was canned 6 days ago, and while very, very good, I'm not sure I could smell it down the street! Maybe I should have given it a few more days or a week in the can. I love its unusual aroma, though. I get pineapple and coconut.
brewski09
Well-Known Member
I think it's just a light processed molasses flavor. I don't like brown sugar in my beer, just my coffee. I use turbinado sugar or some other raw-ish form of sugar personally.
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Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
This. Slightly darker in color as well. I love the smell in the wort too. Turbinado is also a favorite of mine.
Used it in my imperial red I plan on crashing in a few days. Then a nice double dry hop.
Deckers_Beers
Well-Known Member
I have what seems to be a unique a problem with my IPAs regarding refrigeration... after quite a bit of searching I haven't found any info regarding my specific problem...
Basically, if I refrigerate an IPA for more than a week or so, the hop aroma is totally gone, and the hop flavor is barely there.
Here's my story:
I bottled my west-coast IPA on 3/12. I cracked a bottle yesterday (5/9) that had been sitting in the fridge for at least 2 weeks. There was no hop aroma, and the hop flavor was barely there. This also happened with my last two hoppy beers, but I did not document it (which was stupid). So I grabbed another bottle from my fermentation/conditioning chamber and put it in the fridge. It sat there for just over 24 hours, and I am drinking it as I write this. All the hop loveliness I was hoping for is still there, and has barely waned in the almost 2 months since I bottled it.
WHAT GIVES?!?!?!?!
Where did I mess up? I must've screwed SOMETHING up for an ordinarily great IPA to lose all hop goodness after a decent refrigeration. All these posts I read say to refrigerate for 2 weeks BEFORE drinking! If I did that, I'd have to pour out my whole batch
I've had this same problem with both extract and all-grain IPAs, and my technique has changed significantly since I made that jump, so I'm not sure what it is that I'm doing... I can't believe the immense difference between the lifeless ale I drank yesterday and the hops dancing on my palate right now.
I'm planning on brewing a hoppy wheat next week, and I don't want the same thing to happen again. Homebrewtalk, you're my only hope.
Basically, if I refrigerate an IPA for more than a week or so, the hop aroma is totally gone, and the hop flavor is barely there.
Here's my story:
I bottled my west-coast IPA on 3/12. I cracked a bottle yesterday (5/9) that had been sitting in the fridge for at least 2 weeks. There was no hop aroma, and the hop flavor was barely there. This also happened with my last two hoppy beers, but I did not document it (which was stupid). So I grabbed another bottle from my fermentation/conditioning chamber and put it in the fridge. It sat there for just over 24 hours, and I am drinking it as I write this. All the hop loveliness I was hoping for is still there, and has barely waned in the almost 2 months since I bottled it.
WHAT GIVES?!?!?!?!
Where did I mess up? I must've screwed SOMETHING up for an ordinarily great IPA to lose all hop goodness after a decent refrigeration. All these posts I read say to refrigerate for 2 weeks BEFORE drinking! If I did that, I'd have to pour out my whole batch
I've had this same problem with both extract and all-grain IPAs, and my technique has changed significantly since I made that jump, so I'm not sure what it is that I'm doing... I can't believe the immense difference between the lifeless ale I drank yesterday and the hops dancing on my palate right now.
I'm planning on brewing a hoppy wheat next week, and I don't want the same thing to happen again. Homebrewtalk, you're my only hope.
OP
OP
Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
The hop oils are probably dropping out with the yeast, it can be an issue with kegging. I started keg hopping to avoid this.
Cold crash prior to your final dry hopping might help
Cold crash prior to your final dry hopping might help
Deckers_Beers
Well-Known Member
I opened the bottle right out of the fridge, but it was sitting in the glass for awhile with no improvement.
Deckers_Beers
Well-Known Member
previously I've dry-hopped for 2 weeks, right before bottling. I unfortunately don't have the space/equipment for cold crashing right now. I only have the one chest freezer and I use that for fermentation and bottle conditioning.
But there has to be something I'm doing wrong for the hops to drop out so extremely...
Nomofett
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That happened to my latest beer but I found out my fridge was just really cold, it took 20 minutes for it to warm up enough to get the flavor back. Have you tried leaving one out overnight to see if that does anything? I have no idea other than that
Deckers_Beers
Well-Known Member
Thanks, I'm going to try that
On a similar note, someone mentioned in another thread sometime back how he runs warm water from the tap over a bottle for a minute or so before opening it if the fridge temp is too low for the style. I've done that several times with HB IPAs and they do indeed taste better that way. Hop flavors and aroma seem to come out better around 45-50F, while most fridges run significantly lower than that.
The other possibility is that your IPAs just aren't holding their hoppiness in the bottle. Serving temperature isn't necessarily the only factor in your underwhelming IPAs, time is also a significant factor. Keeping an IPA as hoppy as the day it was born is a question that brewers at all levels deal with, but homebrewers have a much harder time than professional brewers between techniques, experience, and equipment, and among homebrewers, bottlers have a much harder time than keggers. Oxygen is the biggest culprit and when we bottle on a homebrew scale it's really difficult to keep out oxygen like the pros do on their closed systems or even keggers do with their ability to purge their kegs with CO2. One option is to absolutely slam your beers with late and dry hops, making up for the flavors and aromas that age out all too fast by making a beer that's still hoppy even after 75% of those aromas and flavors have dissipated.
The other possibility is that your IPAs just aren't holding their hoppiness in the bottle. Serving temperature isn't necessarily the only factor in your underwhelming IPAs, time is also a significant factor. Keeping an IPA as hoppy as the day it was born is a question that brewers at all levels deal with, but homebrewers have a much harder time than professional brewers between techniques, experience, and equipment, and among homebrewers, bottlers have a much harder time than keggers. Oxygen is the biggest culprit and when we bottle on a homebrew scale it's really difficult to keep out oxygen like the pros do on their closed systems or even keggers do with their ability to purge their kegs with CO2. One option is to absolutely slam your beers with late and dry hops, making up for the flavors and aromas that age out all too fast by making a beer that's still hoppy even after 75% of those aromas and flavors have dissipated.
Deckers_Beers
Well-Known Member
So I took the two IPAs that had been in the fridge for 3 weeks out for a few days... put one in the fridge last night and it tastes pretty ok. Not as good as the one I drank the other day, that had not been refrigerated, then room temperature, then refrigerated again.
shawnsanchez
New Member
Great post Calichusetts! It was really very informative
bobeer
Fermentation Specalist
Great post! Thanks for all the research and for the willingness to write it up and share it.
I do cold crash all my beers before I keg. Not because I want them clear but because I want to drink it asap and the cold beer seems to absorb the c02 better than room temp beer. I'm actually cold crashing a hop bomb IPA right now...
You say that cold crashing could/does drop out the hop oil thus stripping it from the beer. Now, I take pride in my racking ability. I'm pretty anal about getting every last drop of beer out of the fermentor and into the keg without racking over any trub. Do you think by me being able to rack about 99% of the beer into the keg I'd still get the hop oils?
Back when I didn't have the ability to cold crash my pop-its would get totally clogged with hops and I"d have to waste a lot of c02 by purging, taking the keg apart, cleaning the spring, and refilling the keg with c02.... Since cold crashing it helps with this issue. I guess to fix this I'd have to dry hop with a muslin bag or something... Anyway, I supposed that would an "added bonus" of cold crashing.
What are some thoughts on this? Thanks!
I do cold crash all my beers before I keg. Not because I want them clear but because I want to drink it asap and the cold beer seems to absorb the c02 better than room temp beer. I'm actually cold crashing a hop bomb IPA right now...
You say that cold crashing could/does drop out the hop oil thus stripping it from the beer. Now, I take pride in my racking ability. I'm pretty anal about getting every last drop of beer out of the fermentor and into the keg without racking over any trub. Do you think by me being able to rack about 99% of the beer into the keg I'd still get the hop oils?
Back when I didn't have the ability to cold crash my pop-its would get totally clogged with hops and I"d have to waste a lot of c02 by purging, taking the keg apart, cleaning the spring, and refilling the keg with c02.... Since cold crashing it helps with this issue. I guess to fix this I'd have to dry hop with a muslin bag or something... Anyway, I supposed that would an "added bonus" of cold crashing.
What are some thoughts on this? Thanks!
I dry hop often in my primary and secondary. My issue is that I leave behind over a gallon of trub throughout the process, leaving my kegs with too much head space. I make 12 gallons per brew and store it in two-6 gallon carboys. By the time I'm done racking into the kegs it's about 4 gallons each. Suggestions?
couchsending
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When you use lots of hops you gets lots of trub... no two ways around it. You can bag the hops but extraction can go down significantly.
Why is that much headspace bad? Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I believe you might get slightly quicker carbonation with that extra gallon of headspace.
Why is that much headspace bad? Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I believe you might get slightly quicker carbonation with that extra gallon of headspace.
you always have headspace, if it is all CO2 it makes no difference how much. depending on the technique filling the keg (air in keg or filled with CO2), a higher gas column gives better separation, but since there are purge valves on the very top it is a mute point.
It also doesn't matter regarding carbonation if you have it sit in the fridge, since the surface area is always the same and therefore only the pressure (along with time & temperature) are the variables.
It also doesn't matter regarding carbonation if you have it sit in the fridge, since the surface area is always the same and therefore only the pressure (along with time & temperature) are the variables.
fragged
Well-Known Member
Your losing 4 gallons to trub?
I lose 6.5 gallons for a 10 gallon batch of finished beer. Nothing you can do about it.
Sounds like you need to start cleaning/filtering sooner, maybe put your hops in bags. Do this in the boil kettle for sure. If I am transferring wort with a lot of debris I always bag the end of the discharge hose as this catches 95% of debris. I have even had to leave the bag in the primary after tying it closed. I always do this when transferring to a keg. I use 6.5 G carboys as fermentors don't do a secondary and usually use 6 oz for DH which are loose. Usually get at min 4.75 gal in the keg. Can't imagine what you are doing to create so much waste.
