Off Flavor in Hoppy Homebrews

Hi, I have been a member here for a long time but never posted. I recently got back into home brewing and I’ve run into an issue. I have also seen a lot of forum posts across different home brewing forums with the same issue, however, none of the posts ever seem to get solved. I have decided to post my progress on figuring this out; hopefully this will help somebody in the process. Also feel free to jump in if you feel froggy.


Recently I have continued to get this off flavor, but only in my hoppy beers. I know “off flavor” is vague but it’s like nothing I have ever tasted nor does it seem to fit any descriptors. The flavor seems to completely (or some cases almost completely) mute the flavor of the hops and just leaves a generic bitterness (sometimes very strong bitterness). Sometimes I have been able to drink past this, after the first few sips, the beer becomes tolerable but just barely.


I have even used a Two Hearted clone recipe bought directly from Bells. I will say that I brew 3 gallon batches and I did modify to make that clone for 3 gallons.


Again this is only in my hoppy beers, I have brewed malt forward beers and none of them had the flavor.


Things I have illuminated:

-Chlorine or chloramine in my water

I have used campden tablets, and I also I have used all distilled water and filtered water for wort and rinsing.


-Tanins

I made sure my mash temps and ph were good, and now I have recently went back to extract until I can figure it out.


-Hops

I have reduced the amount of hops I was using and on my last batch I only boiled for 30mins: My bittering charge was at 30mins then I added hops at 20mins, then the rest were WP and DH.


-Fermentation Temps

Sometimes my basement will get hot and I’ve seen the FV thermometer strip hit 76. I have used my fridge to keep it at 70 and below. I have recently bought a Tilt Hydrometer and so I will see what the actual temp is.


My next batch I am not going to mess with water chem, not add dextrose to increase SG, not put my recirc tube into my hop spider(don’t judge me I thought this would increase contact with hops), and try not to transfer hop matter from BK into my FV.


If this batch turns out I will post the results and add back each one of things one at a time until I figure out what the culprit is.


I know I didn’t post specifics but if anybody has had a similar experience and wants to post what helped them, go ahead.


Cheers

 

I thought it might be; to eliminate this, my last batch I did DME and the flavor is still there.

Thanks

 

It sort of does, this is the closest description of an off-flavor, that’s why focused on my mash ph, temps, and making sure no grains were getting into my BK. I then switched back to extract to eliminate the grain aspect. I also in an effort to limit the over bittering I limited the boil to 30 mins. The next thing I can think of is the hop matter getting transferred to the FV could cause astringency if that’s what it is.

Thanks

 

I’m def gonna try to filter out the hop matter that gets to the FV. It is sweet and bitter.

 

I told myself I would never bottle again; for me to get back into Homebrew, I started kegging. I am careful about O2, I purge the keg properly and try to be as gentle as possible. I don’t think it is oxidation...

 

For purging, I fill the keg with CO2 then purge. I repeat this 2 more times. Then I put the beer in the keg using a tube from my FV’s spigot, I have a ballon filled with CO2 inserted where the airlock goes. I then close the keg, fill with CO2 and purge, I repeat 2 more times then start carbonation.

 

I buy them from adventures in Homebrewing www.homebrewing.org. They smell fine when I open the pack.

 

Interesting I will have to try this. I do fill my keg up with sanitizer and push out with CO2 in my current process, though probably not up to the brim.

I will say that the one time I added a second charge of dry hops to the keg, I had a nice hop aroma and a little flavor that helped make the off-flavor a little more tolerable.

Thanks.

 

I also forgot to mention that this flavor is present when I take my reading for FG so I don’t think packaging is when the problem occurs. However, I have never sampled prior to dry hopping, so I will try that next as well.

 

I got another batch in on Monday.

-I only added DME for fermentables.
- I tried to leave as much kettle grub in the BK as possible. I did have to tip my BK because my pump broke after WP and gravity only transferred about 2.25 gals of the 4 that were in the BK.
-I did however filter this through a mesh bag on top of a strainer.
- I did not mess with water chem.
- I kept my recirc tube out of my hop spider.
- I used the Tilt for the first time.

We’ll see how it goes in a day or two.

 

So I tasted a gravity sample and it did not have the extreme bitterness; it did have the strange flavor/aroma that muted the hop flavor/aroma.

So:
-I think that too much hop matter was getting into my fermenter. This caused the extreme bitterness.

-I’ve read that high fermentation temps with S-04 cause a strange off flavor. I used my new Tilt Hydrometer that logged temps over 75F. I also noticed evidence of the high temp because the first hydrometer sample I took had a lot of esters: banana and raspberry, it also a harsher alcoholic flavor. I raised the temp after fermentation was right at the end, if not done to try to push some of this out. I wasn’t sure if this was going to work so I did not dry hop this in the FV cause, why waste hops if it doesn’t turn out.

The good news is that this batch isn’t completely undrinkable: like if the liquor stores shutdown and I need beer I could drink this. I will dry hop this in the keg since I didn’t in the FV and see if I can cover up some of it.

Next batch I’ll continue to keep hop matter out of my FV. I will also keep ferm temps below 68F.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

@wasatchback

Good to know I will keep ferm temps under 64.

As far as break/hop material, I’m def keeping it out of the FV from now on; it was never an issue until I started with hop forward beers.

I was checking Ph when I was doing all grain and messing with water chem. I stopped with both water chem and Ph when I started with DME. I was tired of wasting an entire day on a beer that didn’t turn out so I started using DME until I figured out what was going on. Also it would eliminate the factor of tannins coming from gain.

Thanks for the info!