A lesson in beer aging/perserverance

[swenocha]

Back in October of 2012, with a group of friends who wanted to learn to brew, I brewed the Diablo IPA from my contest winnings with a scrap batch partial mash of various things, as well as a hop schedule on top of it:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 lb DME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 28.96 %
2.86 lb Diablo IPA (4.0 SRM) Extract 27.61 %
2.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 19.31 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 9.65 %
0.75 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 7.24 %
0.50 lb Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM) Grain 4.83 %
0.25 lb Caramel Malt - 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM) Grain 2.41 %
0.50 oz Summit [17.00 %] (60 min) Hops 31.6 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 13.5 IBU
0.80 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (10 min) Hops 14.0 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 4.1 IBU
0.80 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
0.50 tsp Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
3 Pkgs Cooper Ale (Coopers #-) Yeast-Ale

Now, this brew experience had a lot of challenges along the way. We missed gravity by 0.17 points, leaving us with a 5.5%abv instead of 7.15%. The lid of the bucket blew off (should have set up a blow-off). The grommet from the lid fell into the beer while I was trying to clean up and trade out the airlock for a blow-off. But the net result seemed to have turned out just fine. Well... except for the damn Pride of Ringwood. Even with all of those ingredients, it was the only thing I could smell and taste. While the brewing friends tore through their portion of the brewday in fairly quick fashion and stated that they really enjoyed it, I just couldn't get past the PoR. So, I shelved it.

Fast forward to a few days ago, and I uncovered the box of them while rearranging the conditioning closet. Threw one in the fridge, and just opened it. It's not an IPA anymore... fairly neutral on the bitterness now, and the flavor/aroma hops are muted. But the biggest result of 13 or so months in the bottle is that the PoR has settled in a bunch. Now it is a smooth, drinkable pale with only the slightest hint of the PoR both on the nose and tongue (yes, it's still there... never goes away...). So, into the fridge with these! They are in the short-term rotation...

I used my other Diablo in March with a Belgian Trappist yeast. The yeast flavors (and the additional hopping) made this one more bearable, but I'm thinking of going the aging route with that one now as well... Maybe in six months or so...

So, the lesson, of course, is that time heals all beer wounds... unless it doesn't. Oh, and the other lesson is that I can't stand Pride of Ringwood hops.

[monsteroyd]

POR are horrible and I barely know what I'm talking about. How the heck did they get so popular down under? They must be really really cheap, or Coopers has a monopoly or something.

Monty

[John Sand]

Interesting post Swen. I had a similar experience recently. My fifth batch was last May, a franken-brew of Aztec Cerveza, wheat DME, and citra hops. It was disappointing. I opened one last week on a whim, it's actually pretty nice now. Not at all what I was shooting for, but quite drinkable. I put more in the fridge.

[Brewbirds]

I still have some on the shelf after a year because of THAT flavor as well. I don't know what it is but to us they just aren't drinkable.

I'm beginning to think between Kealia's "palette" thread and the review threads that some folks are less or more sensitive than others to certain properties in different beer ingredients.

I am intolerant to the POR and something in Galena, for bittering, chocolate and honey malt amounts than BB2 is. He gets different aromas and flavors in some areas where we both get the same in others.

Can't wait until he finishes the beer chemistry class and explains it all to me.

[jimjohson]

yeah I bought an oz of PoR just to see if that's what I didn't like about the MrBs I tried...it was

[DirtRacer]

I shouldn't be up this late reading posts. Almost every time PoR was mentioned, I read it as "Pride of Ringworm". Which to me is sort of fitting since I find them about equally appealing.

[jimjohson]

Would probably tastes better.

[mashani]

I taste the POR above a certain threshold. I seem to not taste them in any of the < 20 IBU extracts, and I don't taste them in the darker ones with the specialty malts, it buries it. But any of the > 20 IBU pale extracts it starts to bug me.

Funny thing is that it t actually bugs me less in the Diablos then say the NWPA. But that's probably because in the Diablo, I added a full oz of Simcoe, and I think Simcoe does a good job of burying that flavor behind it's own. I also added some Falconers or Zythos to those. Lots of late hops.

It honestly bugs me the most in NWPA and in the Pilsner extracts. It makes the pilsner extract *totally useless* to me, even though it would seem to be a logical base to build many a Belgian on. In Belgians you can't bury that flavor behind hops and the yeast although it helps, doesn't cover it up. It still makes the beer seem "off". It turns the saaz into a lie.

I tried 1oz of Ahtanum hops in the last NWPA I had. Unfortunately the Ahtanum doesn't seem to work as well as Simcoe as far as covering up the POR.

[BeerRust]

I did an orange Pils with Centential about six months ago. It was very bitter after 1 month, but recently I had one , and it cleared nicely and some of the bitterness left. I used the Pils extract from MrB on thus one too. I really think the extra conditioning time on that one really made a huge difference.

[jimjohson]

I taste the POR above a certain threshold. I seem to not taste them in any of the < 20 IBU extracts, and I don't taste them in the darker ones with the specialty malts, it buries it. But any of the > 20 IBU pale extracts it starts to bug me.

Funny thing is that it t actually bugs me less in the Diablos then say the NWPA. But that's probably because in the Diablo, I added a full oz of Simcoe, and I think Simcoe does a good job of burying that flavor behind it's own. I also added some Falconers or Zythos to those. Lots of late hops.

It honestly bugs me the most in NWPA and in the Pilsner extracts. It makes the pilsner extract *totally useless* to me, even though it would seem to be a logical base to build many a Belgian on. In Belgians you can't bury that flavor behind hops and the yeast although it helps, doesn't cover it up. It still makes the beer seem "off". It turns the saaz into a lie.

I tried 1oz of Ahtanum hops in the last NWPA I had. Unfortunately the Ahtanum doesn't seem to work as well as Simcoe as far as covering up the POR.

i used it to make an APA @35 ibus. it just tasted like a hopped up CAL. well more body and all, but all i could think of was the CAL.

[mashani]

I'd rather take the CAL, Canadian, Cerveza, or Patriot and add dme and do a hop burst/hop stand to make the equivalent of the NWPA or a beer like the 35ibu APA you describe, then to start with the NWPA. It just tastes way better that way. I think the NWPA is just nasty. The cerveza + amber dme + northern brewer in just a 20 minute boil and Wyeast California Lager made a really good steam beer. I think Northern Brewer is a good hop to cover up the POR flavors - if that extract has any it was totally unnoticeable by me in that beer.

I do like the bewitched, but I think that's because it's got enough crystal and other stuff in it to cover up the POR better.

[jimjohson]

cool I got a couple oz.s of northern brewer in the freezer and sadly some PoR left so guess i'll be doing some experimenting