why did i get hop burn?

[fluketamer]

i made a really good pale ale with an ounce of citra dry hopped at day 7-10. it was after the kreusen fell and the airlock was barely bubbling . the temp was 62. i left it on the hops for 4 days then crashed and transferred with floating dip to another keg with floating dip. one of my best beers. i wanted to try 2 ounces of hops since the first one worked out so good. the only problem is that i changed a few variables and got intense hop burn . i am worried it was from the extra ounce of dry hops so i am reluctant to dry hop with more than 1 ounce now.

this seems silly since so many recipes add several ounces of dry hops . is there a trick to dry hopping to avoid burn. some resources mention to avoid poly something compounds and not to use nz hops or something.

the variables other than the extra dry hops that may have caused burn.

i used an old slurry with a lot of dead yeast cells. google AI sems to think that may have been a cause.

the lag time was very long,

the kreusen took forever to fall and i added the dry hops to a pretty thick kreusen that still took a few days to fall.

i added a new hop when dry hopping ( an ounce of citra and an ounce of zamba)

i changed the schedule from 2 oz of citra at 10 and 1 ounce at FO to 4 ounces of citra in a 20 minute 165 degree whirlpool but
the burn was not there before the dry hops were added.

i tried cold conditioning for 2 weeks and transferring again to a new keg with floating dip tube but its worse now i think. will most likely all get dumped (lots of citra down the drain)
has anyone got intense hop burn from dry hopping? i am hoping it was the old yeast that did it.

right now the samples taste and smell amazing it would be great on its own. i would like to dry hop with an ounce of citra and an ounce of mosaic. but i am scared of burn.

would it be safer to do 2 ounces of citra , or stay with one ounce or am i being over cautious?

 

[day_trippr]

How much beer are you dry hopping?

fwiw, after soft-crashing to 50°F for two days, I dry-hopped the last batch of my all-Citra hazy dipa using one ounce per gallon at 50°F for two days, before hard crashing to 36°F for two days then kegging. It's a wonderfully Citra-laden beer - but I have read of folks using far more dry hops than that!

Cheers!

 

[jdauria]

Sometimes it can take several weeks for the hop burn to mellow out. There is also a product that More Beer sells, ALDC that supposedly helps reduce hop burn in hop forward beers. I use it for it's other purpose, as it also helps prevent diacetyl.

 

[fluketamer]

How much beer are you dry hopping?

fwiw, after soft-crashing to 50°F for two days, I dry-hopped the last batch of my all-Citra hazy dipa using one ounce per gallon at 50°F for two days, before hard crashing to 36°F for two days then kegging. It's a wonderfully Citra-laden beer - but I have read of folks using far more dry hops than that!

Cheers!

its 5.5 gal batch . whats the benefit of the soft crash?

Sometimes it can take several weeks for the hop burn to mellow out. There is also a product that More Beer sells, ALDC that supposedly helps reduce hop burn in hop forward beers. I use it for it's other purpose, as it also helps prevent diacetyl.

thansk i will give it a few weeks before i descide if its dumped.

 

[tdf]

Sometimes it can take several weeks for the hop burn to mellow out. There is also a product that More Beer sells, ALDC that supposedly helps reduce hop burn in hop forward beers. I use it for it's other purpose, as it also helps prevent diacetyl.

I've never heard of ALDC marketed as preventing hop burn - do you have a link?

 

[jdauria]

I've never heard of ALDC marketed as preventing hop burn - do you have a link?

ALDC It actually says hop creep...which I confused for hop burn...I stand corrected.

 

[jdauria]

its 5.5 gal batch . whats the benefit of the soft crash?


thansk i will give it a few weeks before i descide if its dumped.

Yeah I had a NEIPA I made once and after it carbonated, it was undrinkable. I left it alone for three more weeks, and it was great.

 

[G_robertus]

I've never heard of ALDC marketed as preventing hop burn - do you have a link?

I think they might've meant hop creep.

@op: time usually works best. Refrain from agitating your beer while you leave it to condition further. The issue with hop burn is the presence of fine particulate matter and/or polyphenols in your beer. The particles will drop out eventually due to gravity. Transferring before that has happened or kicking up some of that matter during transfer disrupts the precipitation process or resuspends (some) matter. Think of shaking a snow globe to keep the flakes going. Polyphenols are a lot smaller, but they are still large enough to settle out usually. Limiting contact time also limits their extraction, though I've also done close to a week without I'll effects. I typically also leave my beer on the hops for just a day or two, sometimes three.
The amount of matter or polyphenols depends on how the hops were processed and the variety. I've never used Zamba so that could've played a part in the amount of burn.
And while the amount of hop you add definitely matters in how much matter and polyphenols you introduce, I sometimes dry hop up to 16 g/l and I get no or little burn that settles out within a reasonable time frame.
I'd look into varieties and time first. Galaxy is another one notorious for bad burn, though it also varies per lot and crop. I've made good beer with Galaxy recently as well by among other things limiting the astringent hop and contact time. Conditioning was necessary, but it settled out rather quickly.

 

[day_trippr]

its 5.5 gal batch .

Ok, so dry hopping with 2 ounces of Citra for 5.5 gallons is quite tame, tbh. Something else is causing the "burn".

whats the benefit of the soft crash?

It's helpful for those of us fermenting in vessels without dump valves: it causes the yeast to drop out of suspension and attempts to put them to sleep so they don't cause "hop creep" from the subsequent cool temperature dry hopping. It's a Scott Janish thing...

Cheers!

 

[Bobby_M]

Soft crash, short exposure, and using cryo/lupomax/T-45 should all help. Read this: https://scottjanish.com/a-case-for-short-and-cool-dry-hopping/

All of this reduces the polyphenol extraction which is blamed for the burn.

TLDR:

Key Findings​

• Desirable monoterpene alcohols like linaool and geraniol have been found to extract quickly during dry hopping. When agitated their extraction can take place in hours and when left static extraction was primarily done after just one day.
• Too many polyphenols from dry hops can lead to astringent and bitter tasting beer. The cooler the dry hop temperature and the shorter the duration, the less polyphenol extraction will likely take place.

 

[anteater8]

+1 to give it more time.

Pretty much all my hoppy beers have terrible hop burn for the first few weeks in the keg. I don't even bother sampling them until 2 weeks minimum, and its usually another couple of weeks after that when they start to hit their stride. I wouldn't even consider dumping it until maybe 6 weeks unless you're sure there's some sort of irreversible fermentation flaw.

 

[fluketamer]

i have tried a lot . i crashed it to 33 degrees for a week. i even tried adding gelatin. i was worried that i got lucky on my first one and wouldnt be able to doit again but i have a dry hopped west coast pilsner with citra mosaic and amarillo that also turned out great so i am convinced its the old yeast slurry that i pitched. ill give it another week or two but i feel it would have improved somewhat by now if it ever is going to.