Where Are My Hops???

[mclynch]

I just brewed a Bells Two Heart IPA and was so excited to use tons of this fresh leaf centennial hops that I had purchased from a local grower. Then I popped my first one yesterday... no hops... almost at all! No bitterness, no hoppy flavor, no hoppy aroma! Here's what I used: (all centennial)

.75 oz 60 min
.5 oz 45 min
.5 oz 30 min
.75 oz 15 min
.5 oz at flame out for 10 min
then dry hopped with
1 oz centennial &
1 oz Cascade for 10 days

I mean, I was drooling in anticipation with all those hops in there!!!
What did I do wrong... or is it the hops??

My technique was simple - measure out the loose leaf hops that I had kept frozen in their vacuum sealed bags... and just dumped in the boil. For the dry hops, I put them in a mesh bag and let if float in the wort. I did strain all the loose leaves etc through a screen after cooling, into the fermenter.

Should I have chopped up the hops or something???

I'm not going to use these again until I have some answers.

thanks!

 

[adamc]

I may be mistaken, but I believe you are supposed to use more hops (wrt weight) when you use whole hops.

Maybe they weren't dried properly, the extra water made your measurement false. When people use fresh hops they use A LOT more than usual. Check with the grower.

Your weights seem a little light to me for an IPA, but I am not an expert, nor do I know that beer.

The technique (with the weight as an exception) looks fine to me.

 

[Brewskii]

Dry whole hops and pellets are the same weight for weight. Fresh wet hops are around 7 wet to 1 dry due to water weight (as I understand it from HBT-r's in the know).

I just did a Dead Ringer all grain which is a 2-hearted clone as well. The alpha acid should be around 9% or higher for Centennial. Hops loose AA with time even if properly stored (think order of magnitude ~50% loss in 1 year in the freezer)

If you got your hops from a reliable source I would say this... The .75 60 min looks good to me... All the other additions should get moved to 15 min or less and dry hop should be fine at 1oz but I bumped it to 2 oz on my Dead Ringer which is more in line and even a little low for modern American iPA.

The thing about that is that if you had good hops at the correct AA you should, at the very least have bitterness and likley a noticeable amount at that schedule. That makes me question the condition of your hops.

My other thought is this... I believe it was Tasty on the brewing network who said if you dry hop your beer on the yeast cake, you'd do just as well to throw them in the garbage. His point being; unless the beer is completely end fermented, yeast produced CO2 bubbles will effectively scrub the dry hop character out of the beer.

I waited 10 days and racked on top of 2 oz. for dry hops. my version of NB's Dead Ringer had an additional 1 or 2 Oz. from the original...

.75 @ 60
1.00 @ 20
2.25 @ flame-out
2.00 @ dry hop 5 days

It's still on dry hops but, at racking, the hop character was awesome even prior to dry hops. Probably due to the flameout hop stand.

Btw... I've adopted a policy of no dry hops over 7 days due to this scrubbing as the always seems to be some action in the secondary after the dry hops are added. Beyond that can render grassy notes especially with a hop like this one.

 

[aiptasia]

I would say, not enough hops.

 

[Xpertskir]

For fresh hops you have to use 5-7 times as much do to water weight in the cones.

Also fresh hops need to be used within a few days of harvest. Where exactly did you get these "fresh" hops

 

[mclynch]

Thanks everyone - can always count on this forum for some good info & advice. These hops came without any analysis of their AA %, just dried & vacuum sealed in 4 oz lots. I think I'm going to use some pellets for my next couple brews just to be safe. I've also heard about people making tea with their hops to get an idea of their flavor & potency - anyone done this?