Triple IPA too sweet...

[duskb]

I recently brewed a triple. The beer could be delicious if it was only bitter enough. I'm not sure what happened but I cant taste any bitterness at all. I dumped a dry hop bag in thinking I'd get maybe a little aroma or something. Nada, the beer overpowers it.

I managed to grab a taste of some of the runoff from the dry hop bag and it tastes great. Usually that stuff is super grassy and astringent. Not here. I'm thinking of boiling a hop tea of some high AA pellet and dumping it in but:

-I'm not sure how much to use
-and for how long.

Does anyone have some suggestions on how to salvage what could be a great beer?

Recipe details below:
KS DIPA: A/G, OG 1.095, FG 1.016, 17.7lbs of various fermentables, several ounces of hop additions to get to 100IBU,20 min hopstand, 10.3% ABV.

BTW the fermentation was the most vigorous I have ever seen. I lost nearly two gallons on the floor within 12 hours due to a massive blowout. I think that may have contributed to the problem...

 

[IslandLizard]

The best is buying pre-isomerized hop extract and add some of that, but it's not commonly available.

So your best bet is indeed making that hop tea by boiling high alpha hops or hop extract in a few quarts of water for an hour to get most IBUs. After the boil, add extract to match your gravity to prevent dilution or just live with a somewhat smaller beer.

[EDITS]
An example calculation:
To raise a 5 gallon (20 quarts) batch's IBU by 30 points, you'd need to add 2 quarts of hop tea containing 22/2 * 30 = 330 IBU! That may well be the ceiling for IBUs that can be achieved by boiling hops in water for an hour. Boiling in wort would drop that drastically, as hop utilization drops with increased gravity.
If you'd need more IBUs, use a larger amount of water, and more hops.

Adding 2 quarts of hop tea (without adding extract) would dilute your 5 gallons of beer by about 9.1%. The gravity would become 20/22 * 95 = 86 pts ==> 1.086. ABV would drop to 20/22 * 10.3 = 9.4%.

 

[couchsending]

The higher the gravity, the worse your hop utilization.

I’d shoot for something closer to 200 theoretical IBUs next time.

Also for hoppy beers, especially if you want some bitterness, the least amount of yeast you can get away with and still have a healthy ferment, the better.

What yeast did you use? What was your grain bill?

 

[IslandLizard]

The higher the gravity, the worse your hop utilization.

But your recipe formulator should have corrected for that, at least to some extent.

 

[yowzers]

I would boil and ounce of Warrior or Magnum in a quart of water, strain it and add that. Give it a few days and do it again if you want more. That beer can age a bit so time is on your side.

 

[duskb]

@ Yowsers,
I will say in agreement with you it has the flavor of a beer that needs alot more time. I compared it to a barleywine I recently brewed and they're not far off each other. I didn't expect this.

I pitched with two packets of US05. I HAD NO IDEA it would explode the way it did. (I attached a pic of the explosion.) Usually one packet is not enough for a beer at 1.095 but this time two was way too much. I'm also beginning to understand how pressure plays into it, it just fed the monster even more...

The grain bill was: 11lb 2 row, 2lbs munich, 1lb corn sugar, 2.7lbs of DME. Hop additions were: 1.6 Simcoe 12.6 (90), .25 Sterling 7.4 (65), .25 amarillo 8.1 (50), .5 Athanum 3.3 (35) 1 Cascade 7 (25) .25 Centennial 8.7 (20) & 45 min hopstand. All total it should have been 100 IBU. It feels like I ended up with 30 or 40, maybe.

BTW the blowoff tasted great, super bitter. It all went out the lid.

I'll try multiple additions as you suggest above. The beer can afford to be diluted a bit. As it is I lost two gallons out the top, I wouldn't mind getting some of that back.

 

[duskb]

I went out and bought an oz of magnum and boiled it for an hour, let it cool and strained it. It's bitter as Hell itself. Problem is it looks like split pea soup. Even ran it thru cheesecloth and a double filter bag and it's still green. Not sure I want to turn my beer green. Is it ok to dump this in green as can be or can anyone think of a way to strain this? I probably should have used whole hops in retrospect...

 

[IslandLizard]

I went out and bought an oz of magnum and boiled it for an hour, let it cool and strained it. It's bitter as Hell itself. Problem is it looks like split pea soup. Even ran it thru cheesecloth and a double filter bag and it's still green. Not sure I want to turn my beer green. Is it ok to dump this in green as can be or can anyone think of a way to strain this? I probably should have used whole hops in retrospect...

Yeah, it's bright yellow/green. If the filter mesh was fine enough to hold back the bigger chunks, except for fine, dustlike hop particles, go ahead and add it. Or let settle out for an hour or so, then add all but the sediment.

Straining through a piece of tightly woven cotton/muslin fabric will hold back even the hop dust, but it may flow very slowly or even plug up.

Don't let the liquid splash, you don't want to incorporate any oxygen, it kills beer.

 

[yowzers]

I went out and bought an oz of magnum and boiled it for an hour, let it cool and strained it. It's bitter as Hell itself. Problem is it looks like split pea soup. Even ran it thru cheesecloth and a double filter bag and it's still green. Not sure I want to turn my beer green. Is it ok to dump this in green as can be or can anyone think of a way to strain this? I probably should have used whole hops in retrospect...

I'd just dump it in it will settle out. Pour slowly as others have mentioned.

 

[couchsending]

The higher the pH the more isomerization of the alpha acids and the courser the bitterness. Did you boil it in RO water or tap water?

 

[duskb]

A few things....
I calculated the IBU of my new tea batch at over 1600 IBU. I used a turkey baster and slowly injected 5oz of hop tea and now it's getting there.

BTW I never realized how much of a difference splashing the beer messes with the oxygenation. I made a blueberry IPA earlier this summer and it tastes oxygenated. It happened when I dumped the fruit in. It splashed everywhere. The baster has helped in this case but long term I need to come up with a better feeder solution.

I'm going to add in another 3-4oz tonight and see how it works out.

 

[yowzers]

A few things....
I calculated the IBU of my new tea batch at over 1600 IBU. I used a turkey baster and slowly injected 5oz of hop tea and now it's getting there.

BTW I never realized how much of a difference splashing the beer messes with the oxygenation. I made a blueberry IPA earlier this summer and it tastes oxygenated. It happened when I dumped the fruit in. It splashed everywhere. The baster has helped in this case but long term I need to come up with a better feeder solution.

I'm going to add in another 3-4oz tonight and see how it works out.

Use a syringe like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0773GML2...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

It fits tightly into the opening on the gas QD if you remove the hose. I use one like this from work to inject hop teas into kegs. You can also inject your gelatin solution this way.

 

[duskb]

Thats a good idea. Wont work for fruit though and that seems to be my biggest challenge. 5lbs of slurry is hard to feed without making some waves.