I try to not vent my hoppy beers, but it's a necessary evil for me, for filling growlers. I always worry about losing hop aroma by venting off the Co2 before filling growlers. If I know ahead of time I'm gonna fill growlers I'll just turn the gas off and pour myself a pint (or 3) and this works well but I rarely think ahead. What is everyone's thought on the relationship between venting hoppy kegs and hop aroma decline?
I agree...you should really try to avoid venting hoppy beers. If you can smell hop compounds, they're not in your beer anymore.
Anecdotally, one beer I accidentally over carbed and had to vent back down to pressure was by far the weakest incarnation of many incarnations of the same recipe.
Why is the last pour from a fresh IPA keg sometimes the best then? : ) (psychological, right?) Doesn't the low temp of the keg prevent excessive flashing of volatile oils, etc.? Just guessing
i think if the volatile aroma is released into atmosphere when the keg is vented, then the volatile aroma is not in the beer, it is in the headspace. and we don't drink the headspace. it doesn't even leave the keg when a beer is poured. but , might be possible to strip some aroma every time the headspace is turned over. don't know. guessing as well. Cheers.
Someone should conduct an experiment to see how many times a keg can be vented once per day before there is a noticeable reduction in hop aroma and flavor. The aroma in my beer survives a 5x headspace purge after the dry hops are inserted. Five days later, the keg is vented to open the lid and remove the dry hops. Then it gets another 5x headspace purge before cold carbonating. The beer wasn't exposed to oxygen during fermentation or during the transfer to the keg. Whatever aroma is lost in this process isn't missed. My beers have plenty of aroma for at least 45 days. They can even have silly aroma, if that was my intention.
