Where'd My Hops Go?

Did you omit dry hopping? I don't see it listed.

 

Can't explain why it might taste better after you shook the bottle. Was your intial bottle really cold when you drank it?

Did you dry hop?

Did you take care to not oxidize the heck out of it?

Trying to rack my brain, because I just took a sample from the tap of an IPA I just put on tap, and with a meager 3 ounces in the dry hop, and it only being in there since Sat, I'm pretty happy with the way it taste fresh. More so than most of the hoppy beers I've made in the past. I can pin point hop aroma and flavors in the beer, and it's plenty bitter enough for me, who's suffering from lupulin threshold shift so far I've not made a DIPA with a calculated 140 IBU's just so I can get a beer thats bitter.. but anyways..

Maybe try to not shake on and see if it makes a difference. The yeast could have flocc'd and brought down some of the hop flavors with it. BRY-97 did that to a batch enough for me to not want to use it in really hoppy beers.

 

Kegging improved my IPAs immediately. Having the ability to purge the Oxygen with CO2 is the key. I also split my dryhop, half in primary and half in the keg. I understand the upfront costs, but having the ability to make world class IPAs is priceless IMO.

 

I'm stumped I guess.. If you dry hopped, the aroma would be there, which in turn comes along in terms of flavor.

The flavor can't really go anywhere unless it's flat out old, or oxidized.... That or you just didn't use enough hops for an IPA. But you appear to have used plenty of late hops, and in decent amounts at that.

I'm wondering if there's something around your dry hop--- bottling process that is causing it. I've got IPAs that I keg that simply have TOO much going on young that I need to wait. I've since started to use extract to bitter, keeping the hops late and heavy and I've noticed a marked improvement in my IPAs to the point, I'm about one more batch from saying to hell with commercial IPAs, because I can make them JUST as good as the ones I buy, for less, with the hop combos I want and it doesn't get any fresher. I literally drink out of the brite tank in terms of age.

 

A good question to start is: Have you ever brewed an IPA like the one you were hoping to achieve with this batch?

 

Flavor molecules stick to yeast and stirring up yeast puts some of them back in play. Neat story but I don't claim to know what I'm talking about. Seems to me I do recall something like this w regard to isoalphaacid

 

Yeah, my thoughts originally. The yeast flocc'd and pulled some of the hop goodness to the bottom in a bottle conditioned beer.

Who knows- I'm bowed out since I keg, and feel it superior for hoppy beer.

 

That's not very much Crystal so I doubt that's the issue. Without tasting it it's hard to tell what the issue may be. I would find a local pro brewer or homebrew club and see what they think.

I've found that a lot of my hoppy beers don't hit their stride and develop hop complexity or flavor for about 6 weeks.

 

this.

 

If you have the financial wherewithal to keg your beers that will be a benefit for hoppy beers. Having stated that, homebrewed bottled IPAs should be able to last quite some time. I still have a 6 beers left of an IPA that I bottled on 11/26/13 (over 3 months ago) which are still tasty. There is perceptible hop fade wrt hop aroma but it still has a noticeable hop aroma. I will make it a priority to drink these last 6 beers over the next couple of weeks since by month 4 these IPAs will be more faded.

Cheers!

 

I agree whole heartedly. My IPAs were always great for the first 2-4 weeks in the bottle, then they dropped off a cliff. Still drinkable, but nowhere near the hop character they had. Now that I keg, my hoppy beers last much longer (if they manage to make it a month in the keg!).

 

Looking at that recipe, I don't see how you could wind up with no hop flavor. Oxidation could be a factor, as it almost inevitably is in bottled IPAs, even with commercial beers. But I wonder if you're not just experiencing a lupulin shift? Trying laying off the IPAs for a week and then trying one.

 

Yes, whered my hops go indeed! 6 oz in a 5 gal batch should have definite character. I mean they are there, but its actually a good balance tween them and the malt. Its a great beer, but I wanted more hop flavor/aroma. Should I just throw an oz or 2 in the keg and see what happens? The beers 2 weeks old tomorow(since brewed) Been in the keg for 3 days now. Should I give it a week to hopefully bring the hop flavor out? Or just go ahead and dry hop? I also might put some gelatin in them too, theyre a bit murkey, and Itd be nice to just do it all at once. Any thoughts?

Edit- this is a Maris Otter/Mosaic SMaSH beer. So these hops should really have a bitter friend. I would not use this hop by itself in the future. Very fruity.... not much else.

 

gelatin after you dry hop, otherwise you'll be back to square one.

 

How were your hops stored?