When a ton of hops gives no aroma

[rafaelpinto]

Works for me!

Thanks a lot for all the info. I will test it for sure! By the way, Ive found those dry ice pieces you refer to here in my city. They call it pellets (just like the hops).

Dry ice will be tested soon on my hoppy saison. Hope to feed you back with results soon.

 

[Pratty]

Really? So it does help with flavor and aroma!? Thats something good to hear. Will adding it directly to the finished beer be of any help?

adding it to the finished beer...hmmm not sure that will help, its normally a mash/sparge/boil addition, start planning for the next one to add the salts.

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

Really? So it does help with flavor and aroma!? Thats something good to hear. Will adding it directly to the finished beer be of any help?

You can add gypsum after brewing. It'll affect the perception of bitterness/hoppiness but not aroma. I think that once aroma is gone, you can't bring it back.

Mix up a solution of gypsum and water and then dose your brewed and carbed beer with it. Figure out how much gypsum you like. Personally, I like a LOT. Others like less; others more.

The most I've seen folks try to shoot for is 350 ppm of SO4. I usually target 300 ppm but am considering dialing that back to 250. I get a little bit of a minerally bite at 300 and I'm thinking it'll get better if I scale back a little.

All that bring said, up the gypsum and bring the hops to the forefront! Use Bru'N Water as your guide - I'm a big fan!!!

 

[rafaelpinto]

Thanks PlinyTheMiddleAged, I will try 250mg/L next time I brew.

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

rafaelpinto,

I will say that the biggest improvement I've seen in my hoppy beers occurred after I started being ultra protective about oxygen exposure during bottling. I used to be careful, but careful wasn't good enough. Here's what I do:

1) Cover the mouths of the bottles with a square of tin foil and dry heat sterilize. Allow the bottles to cool back to room temperature overnight in the oven. Keep the foil in place.

2) On bottling day, lift the foil, drop a piece of dry ice into each bottle, and replace the foil. Let the ice sublimate.

3) Repeat step 2 and add carbonation drops (a pre measured dose of bottling sugar).

4) After the dry ice used in #3 sublimates, fill the bottles from the CO2 purged bottling bucket (see my previous comment on this).

5) After filling a bottle, drop a very small piece of dry ice into the bottle. The ice will sink and cause the beer to foam. If the ice is too big, the foam will make a bit of a mess.

6) Cap and bottle condition as usual.

Doing the above made huge improvements to my IPAs but it is kind of tedious (but so is bottling). Looking forward to kegging some day.

 

[rafaelpinto]

rafaelpinto,

I will say that the biggest improvement I've seen in my hoppy beers occurred after I started being ultra protective about oxygen exposure during bottling. I used to be careful, but careful wasn't good enough. Here's what I do:

1) Cover the mouths of the bottles with a square of tin foil and dry heat sterilize. Allow the bottles to cool back to room temperature overnight in the oven. Keep the foil in place.

2) On bottling day, lift the foil, drop a piece of dry ice into each bottle, and replace the foil. Let the ice sublimate.

3) Repeat step 2 and add carbonation drops (a pre measured dose of bottling sugar).

4) After the dry ice used in #3 sublimates, fill the bottles from the CO2 purged bottling bucket (see my previous comment on this).

5) After filling a bottle, drop a very small piece of dry ice into the bottle. The ice will sink and cause the beer to foam. If the ice is too big, the foam will make a bit of a mess.

6) Cap and bottle condition as usual.

Doing the above made huge improvements to my IPAs but it is kind of tedious (but so is bottling). Looking forward to kegging some day.

Great info, thank you very much.

 

[leesmith]

rafaelpinto,

I will say that the biggest improvement I've seen in my hoppy beers occurred after I started being ultra protective about oxygen exposure during bottling. I used to be careful, but careful wasn't good enough. Here's what I do:

1) Cover the mouths of the bottles with a square of tin foil and dry heat sterilize. Allow the bottles to cool back to room temperature overnight in the oven. Keep the foil in place.

2) On bottling day, lift the foil, drop a piece of dry ice into each bottle, and replace the foil. Let the ice sublimate.

3) Repeat step 2 and add carbonation drops (a pre measured dose of bottling sugar).

4) After the dry ice used in #3 sublimates, fill the bottles from the CO2 purged bottling bucket (see my previous comment on this).

5) After filling a bottle, drop a very small piece of dry ice into the bottle. The ice will sink and cause the beer to foam. If the ice is too big, the foam will make a bit of a mess.

6) Cap and bottle condition as usual.

Doing the above made huge improvements to my IPAs but it is kind of tedious (but so is bottling). Looking forward to kegging some day.

Any way you could post pictures of this process?

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

Next time I bottle, I'll try to remember to snap some pictures. It'll be a few weeks. I'm brewing this weekend, so maybe two to three weeks until I bottle again. Maybe I should start a separate thread so this thread can stand on it's own for the OP.

Edit: changed "...until I brew again." to "...until I bottle again."

 

[divrguy]

Sounds like you are making stuff up as you type!

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

Sounds like you are making stuff up as you type!

Who? Me?

Not me! I make stuff up long before typing!

Sorry for the confusing post (if that's what you are referring to) - edited to fix. I'm just having a rough go of it this evening. I wish I could blame the homebrew, but this is all on me.

 

[leesmith]

Assuming someone doesn't have a kegging set up does anyone have any input as to wether it's feasible to purchase a c02 tank and lines to purge fermenters, bottle buckets and bottles.
And is it ok to bottle straight from the fermenter? Would the remaining yeast in suspension be equal throughout the liquid and would carbonation be consistent from bottle to bottle?
I've felt that the bottling bucket enables me the mix the beer (and the yeast) evenly while siphoning and then gently stirring to make sure the priming solution is incorporated into the liquid. I've had good luck with consistent carbonation but I'm sure I'm oxidizing the beer.

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

leesmith,

I don't see anything wrong with your idea. Purging with bottled CO2 is a good idea. When I go to my local breweries for a growler fill, they purge growlers from a bottle of CO2.

I have bottled directly from the primary but only when I used carb drops - individually prime each bottle.

Good luck!

 

[leesmith]

PlinyTheMiddleAged,

When you bottled from primary, how was the carbonation? Was it consistent from bottle to bottle? I haven't had consistent carbing with carb drops and I've tried both the coopers drops and the northern brewer ones.

I personally wouldn't mind doing it this way and have thought of ways to try and better dose the bottles: measuring the sugar then directly putting it in the bottles or making a priming solution and using a syringe or two to measure and divide the solution evenly between all the bottles.

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

leesmith,

Carbonation was pretty even when I bottled from primary. The carb drops are essentially the doses of priming sugar that you would measure and add during bottling if you were to do it yourself. I did have one flat bottle, but I may missed a dose. I wouldn't say that it was perfect, but I was pretty good.

I now drain from the primary to the bottling bucket as opposed to siphoning. I always had bubbles in the siphon line. Now when I drain from the primary's spigot into a CO2 purged bottling bucket, I minimize exposure to oxygen - no bubbles in the line and minimal O2 in the bottling bucket.

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

Any way you could post pictures of this process?

leesmith,

I bottled a batch of beer the other day. In this thread, I posted a few pictures of my process of using dry ice to minimize oxidation. Like I said, this process works for my IPAs (which seem to be particularly sensitive to oxidation). But, in the long term, I'll likely be moving to a bottled CO2 process and/or kegging.