What happened to my hops??

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Hebby5

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I've been brewing for 3+ years but only kegging for about 4 months. I just made a nice pale ale (see recipe below) and it came out nicely. I force carbonated at 25psi for a 2-3 days and dropped to 10-12 psi ever since. I had decent but not overwhelming hop aroma but very nice hop flavor. The carbonation harmonized nicely after a week. The next two weeks I enjoyed a very nice pale ale and got nice kudos from friends. After 3.5 weeks, I had a glass last night out of my keg, and my hop flavor has REALLY fallen off. What gives?? My light hop aroma is unchanged.

Any thoughts are appreciated. ~Chris

7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
1 lbs Vienna Malt
8.0 oz Honey Malt
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Palisade [7.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
0.50 oz Palisade [7.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min
1.00 oz Ahtanum [6.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop
2.0 pkg American West Coast Yeast (Danstar #BRY-97 )
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 10.0 mins)

1.00 oz Ahtanum [6.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop
1.00 oz Palisade [7.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days
 
I saw this same exact thing happen this past week on a beer with like 18oz of hops.

I plan to change the way I dry hop in the future. Mainly by cold-crashing the yeast out and then transferring to secondary for dry hopping to see if that helps. Opposed to just throwing in warm primary.
 
One my list of things to do differently:


-Cold crash primary before transfer to secondary
-Use mesh bag for dry hopping. I tried a SS tea ball and put 2 oz of hops in it. The hops expanded like crazy and don't think I got as much utilization or transfer of hop oils as possible.
-Aerate wort properly (I'm lazy)

When I used to bottle, I don't think I had as much issues with the hop flavor dropping off like this and was a little surprised. Still tasted decent but not as good as it did.

Chris
 
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