Off Flavor in IPAs

Some people brew a lot of 10 gallon batches. So $3.50 at twice the volume for 20 batches a year is $140 savings over the year. Not minimal for me.

I have thought about an in house unit, but the large back flush, highly mineral tap water at the house, and maintenance on the unit deter me from doing that.

 

Makes sense.. I brew 4 gallon batches so im good... but saving 140 a year would get you some grain and hops for sure.

 

Hey Alex, any luck figuring out your problem? I have the exact same issue. I've been using tap water with no filtration for all my beers for a while now and everything has been great with my other beers. But as soon as I started dry hopping I have the same issue as you. Exactly. I've tried replacing all my plastic thinking it was an infection, changed detergents for cleaning and sanitizers and nothing has changed.
So I got a friend to try it who is a professional brewer and he thinks its the chlorine/chloromine and that the dry hops are somehow reacting with the chlorophenols. So to test this theory I just brewed only with distilled water on my latest ipa. I'll let you know how it goes, but have you tried that before? By the way I have read somewhere that treating your water with the camden tablets might not neutralize the chloromine like it does chlorine.

 

Technically it would be the chlorine from the chlorine/chloramines reacting with the phenols (tannins) in the dry hops to form chlorophenols. (i.e. the hops don't contain the product, chlorophenols.) But you don't need dry hops for this reaction to occur. It can happen with tannins from any hops (in/after the boil) of from the grains in the mash.

But in my opinion, the OP does not have a chlorophenol problem.

 

I'd like to hear back from the OP on this one. I've heard of this problem on a few different forums now and so far it has gone unexplained.

 

I have had a similar problem with IPA. My belgian ales have all been top notch. Same with my stout/porters. But my IPA and even hoppy american pale ales just suck.

 

Any news on this? I'm having the same issue. Didn't go as far as changing my equipment, but even though I'm fairly new to brewing, I do pay pretty close attention to all aspects of the process, including water chemistry. I know its not just light versus dark beers, as I just brewed a simple Belgian single which tastes fantastic. I even accidentally topped off that beer with untreated tap water, which is pretty heavy in chloramines.

The only thing I can add is that my first APA had the taste and was brewed with untreated tap water (Philly). My second APA was brewed with treated tap water (camped tablet, some gypsum in the boil) and had the taste. I brewed a hoppy summer beer (basically an APA, including a dry hop) with bottled spring water and the flavor was absent.

 

I just brewed a IPA on a induction burner same off flavors it sucked lol!! No more induction burner!

 

@AlexFields Did you ever figure this out?

 

@AlexFields Hi, is there any answers...its been almost a year around? Its been hops or ...?

 

Oh wow I have looked all over the place to figure out if anyone had the same issue I was having and this seems to be it. Unfortunately its an old thread and I don't think the OP checks this anymore... maybe its fixed?

Anyone have any additional insights on this?

Might be crazy, but I am starting to think it changed when I started using my propane burner with my SS brew kettle and it just gets too hot, possibly reacting to some chemical in a cleaner or something in the water.

I may brew tomorrow on my stove again (natural gas that doesn't get nearly as hot as the outdoor propane) and maybe this will change something.

I treat my water with Campden tablets as well, gypsum + other brewing salts for water profile and to keep PH around 5.2
I have had this flavor in my last 2 IPAs, both used different grains and hops.

 

That will be a good test if you move back to your stove, but you could do the same on your SS/Propane set up by just turning down the heat to create a more gentle boil.

In my own experience, every time I have an off flavor that is related to hoppy beers, it's usually related to the hops (first order). That may sound obvious to some. So I would question your hops. Are they old? What crop are they from? Where did you buy them? Were they re-packaged by the LHBS? How were they stored? frozen? O2 free? vac sealed? etc. Could you provide a description along those lines of the hops. And a more detailed description of what you are tasting. Both will help the people on this forum to give better answers.

 

I read most of the thread, but has anyone suggested changing where you source your hops? Any chance you are getting old/fouled hops? How are you storing them, as well?

 

Have you considered oxidation? The taste descriptions don't really lead me there, but I've had several batches of IPA ruined by what I now believe was oxidation. And based on the other long thread about taste and color troubles, I suspect this is a common problem with hoppy beers.

 

Good points guys. @Naugled I actually did just turn down my propane and I made sure that I cleaned and rinsed everything very well as to not potentially leave any residual anything when I brewed on Sat.

I brewed a similar IPA with the same Zythos hops from the same homebrew supply store and added some centennial. We will see if this beer turns out with the same flavor, if it does I'll really consider the hops to be the problem. I used a similar grain bill but a different yeast to rule out any weird yeast flavors.

Will let you guys know how it tastes in a few weeks

 

Just an update...

After 9 days in fermenter I took gravity and a small sample and it tastes delicious. Plan to dry hop tonight and if it picks up that flavor... that would confirm for me that the hops I am dry hopping with are the cause.

 

OK - I had it in Primary for 16 days total, the last 3 of which were cold crashed and the last 6 of which were dry hopped with 4 oz of Zythos and Centennial (total).

Kegged it Tuesday night and tasted it last night.... still has that weird flavor!

This is 3 IPA batches in a row for me

I'm changing the recipe again to brew it with similar grain bill but take Zythos out and add Amarillo since I know that hop just incase this is a Hop issue.

I will also be using a carbon water filter that is coming in tomorrow AND campden tablets if its a chlorine or chorlamine problem. I have to figure this IPA issue out...

 

I was having the same issue with my IPA's that were dry hopped. My problem was diacetyl caused by dry hopping. The flavor and aroma just dominated everything and removed the hops from the equation.

I did some experiments on my own and found that the dry hop was my problem. After researching I found that other folks were looking into this (white labs). It sounds like their study was inconclusive but I've split batches of the same IPA and only the dry hopped version has had the diacetyl. It is a strange version of diacetyl, probably since the hops are playing with the popcorn butter/butterscotch effect. It gives a flavor/aroma more similar to something I'd associated with chlorine in the water but with a caramelly note (which I do not ever get in other beers including light lagers like a Helles). My last experiment was straight 2-row and the dry hopped version still got the caramel notes. I've read that some solutions are breaking up the hop pellets into a powder, dry hopping cold in the keg and a few more.

 

Could you put a link here to the White Labs study? I'd like to understand what they are looking at. eg. Is the the O2 added with the DH'ing that is the cause or is it the hops themselves? I've gotten those weird caramelly notes with DH'ing before too and have written it up to oxidized hops. I don't use any hops for DH has has been previously opened by me or anyone else (lhbs), I always start with a fresh sealed bag and that seemed to fix my problem.

 

I found the link to a presentation but it's at the MBAA site which requires log-in. I used to have a copy saved to my PC but that hard drive is long gone. Maybe white labs would email if asked. I'll dig some more as I thought that I found a scientific paper on the subject when researching awhile back.

http://www.mbaa.com/meetings/archive/2013/proceedings/Pages/37.aspx