Oxidized Flavor with NE IPAs

I'm no pro here on oxidization, but I personally don't think it's the straining that is causing your issue. At that stage, you are trying to introduce oxygen into the wort prior to fermentation.

I've had this happen recently to one of my IPAs but I bottled it and I'm pretty sure I introduced the oxygen at that stage. Most kegged batches have held up significantly longer than bottled ones. Note that I also strain my wort through a funnel.

There's a hefty faction of homebrewers who are against any kind of cold crashing that isn't done under CO2 pressure. Prior to doing any reading on it, I also thought I was safe by putting a solid stopper in my Better Bottle during cold crashing but I learned that when the vessel sucks in as it cools and then you pull the stopper out at transfer time, O2 rushes in and can oxidize your beer.

I'm actually in the midst of fermenting two very heavily hopped NE-IPAs and in about a week I'm going to try kegging with no cold crash. Afraid to see how much hop particulate will get pulled over, but I'm also trying to avoid oxidization.

Maybe others will have better insight, but the cold crash aspect might be a place to start.

 

Can you more specifically describe the flavor that you are perceiving in the finished beer?

During this stage you are aerating (oxygenating) the wort. The yeast will uptake the oxygen and no oxidation will take place during this stage.

The principle concern of oxidation is exposing the finished beer to air (oxygen). Based upon what you are stating it sure appears that you are taking proper steps here.

Cheers!

 

Have one on tap right now. 5% NEGiga with flaked oats, and flaked wheat with copious amounts of late Simcoe, Citra, and Galaxy...the Galaxy hops were poorly stored/refrigerated at a LHBS and the resulting oniony flavor currently is pretty intense, imho.

 

I have had the same issues with lhbs hop storage. If they arent hop union I dont use em anymore.

 

How do you transfer your beer?

 

If your beer is exhibiting wet cardboard flavors that is most likely due to the compound 2-noneeal which is produced via an oxidative process unrelated to hops.

Cheers!

 

There has to be a place in your process that allows the ingress of oxygen into the beer post fermentation. How do you dry hop? Do you put them in a sack?

 

Can you describe your hopping technique in detail?
Where do you get your hops?
How are they packaged? do you buy in bulk and repackage?
How do you store them?
How much hops are you adding? and when?
Do you use a hop sack?
Are the hops in the last 3 batches all from the same source? or the same bag?

Also how fast is your transfer? is it a gentle stream? or does the stream fast enough to create a whirlpool in the keg?

 

Dave, the OP is reporting that his beers have a wet cardboard flavor. How does this relate to the quality of the hops? Do lower quality hops yield a wet cardboard flavor (which is not to my knowledge)?

Cheers!

 

Those are good questions, Jack. You caught me leading the witness with this questioning, but it caused confusion. I should have been more transparent. ;-)

What I'm trying to uncover is if the OP is introducing O2 with his hops or his hopping technique or both. I don't think oxidized hops are his issue, but introducing O2 with his hops could be.

For instance, if the hops are loosely packed cones in a bag that hasn't been purged or vac sealed they can hold onto a lot of O2. This could happen by mishandling by his LHBS or him/her, or if it was a leaky bag from the supplier that allowed O2 to fill the bag. Then if he used copious amounts of these for DH'ing or late hopping in the primary, he could have introduced O2.

 

http://www.lowoxygenbrewing.com/


More specifically:

http://www.lowoxygenbrewing.com/uncategorized/low-oxygen-dryhopping/

 

So, my dry hopping method is I sanitize a muslin bag containing glass marbles (I boil them), open up to the bag of hop pellets (e.g., a HopUnion (now YCH) type bag), and 'pour' the pellet hops into the muslin bag. I tie off the bag and then gently 'plop' the bag into my primary fermenter (a bucket).

Am I introducing too much 'trapped' air (oxygen) during this process? Given that I dry hop in the primary (bucket) is there an alternative method I should be using?

FWIW, I have never obtained wet cardboard flavors while employing this method.

Cheers!

 

Interesting...but almost predictable...onion gone ..only tropical pine marmalade now

 

That's very similar to my technique. I do this at the beginning or middle of fermentation so the O2 is used by the yeast.

Occasionally I'll dry hop at the end of fermentation but I always use pellets that I place in a keg and purge with Co2 prior to transferring the beer (using Co2) to to minimize any O2. I'm also very careful to ensure my hops have been stored properly.

 

I'll bet it's the hops. I keg hopped with some left over simcoe/citra leaf hops and it had a strange bitter taste. When i first used them in a ipa it came out great.

 

I have been purchasing my hops from MoreBeer for the past year and I have experienced zero issues with those hops. They smell good upon opening the mylar bag and all of the hoppy beers (including dry hopping) that I have produced using MoreBeer hops over the past year (about a dozen batches) have turned out just fine.

For my homebrewery the hops from MoreBeer are just fine.

Cheers!