So everyone seems so worried about hops fading or falling off, and a lot of commercial beers seem to change flavors right around 70 to 90 days. Has anyone else noticed homebrews hold on to their hop flavors for a longer period? It seems that right when my beers hit the 60 to 90 day mark in the bottle things are pretty much perfect with my hoppy styles. Is this all in my head? are you guys seeing this as well, and if so, why? What makes our beers hold onto those volitile hop oils so much longer?
Homebrewing has it's advantages...Constant refrigeration, dryhopping multiple times, waiting to dryhop until serving timeline is established
The oil compounds will also break down due to the vibration and agitation from shipping, so you don't have that cycle on your beer.
I would agree with keeping the beer cold, except all my beers ferment at 60 to 70 degrees, bottle condition at room temp and sit around at about 60 in my basement. My beers stay at a pretty warm temp, they don't make it out in 80 degree trucks though.
My hoppy home beers spend only the last week of their time on earth in the fridge. Until then...they're marking time at room temperature. They'll reach their peakitude generally after resting eight to 12 weeks in the bottle...altho some of the weaker ABV recipes have been known to reach the promised land in a little as six weeks.
To the OP. You are probably doing things very well with respect to minimizing oxidation during your beer transfers. I, on the other hand, need to do better. My hoppier styles fade more quickly than I would like. And yes, insofar as the perception of smell takes place in your brain, it is all in your head.
I don't experience this. My hoppy homebrews are best the first month, and start to drop off after about 3 months or so. The better I minimize exposure to O2, the longer the shelf life is. Or - maybe it's just all in my head...
I've only had one beer last past a month past bottle conditioning, and it was a stout, so I can't say I've experienced hop fade.
To me a lot of it has to do with the grain bill. I did a couple of IPAs (based on the Union Jack recipe) back to back that had a pretty heavy dose of Munich malt and after about 45 days the malts completely took over, very similarly to the way they do in the commercial beer. The fewer specialty grains I use the hops seem to stay up front and more flavorful much longer (since they're not competing with much.)
