BeerBorg

I made an IPA and dry hopped 1.5 ounces in a 5 gallon batch for 7 days.

When I first opened the beer I had a nice and present hop aroma.

Now 6 weeks after bottling I barely notice any hop aroma.

Curious if anyone has any insights/comments that may help me.


Thanks

Drink them while still young. Some theorize that the flavor and aromas last longer with a hop stand while the wort is cooling down; try it out!

Hop stand?

A hop stand is what's also called an aroma steep. After flameout, you throw in a good amount of hops into the cooling wort and the heat will utilize a small bit of the hops oils but mostly give you aroma. 30 minutes or so seems to be the standard of what I see from most folks, before trying to quickly chill the wort to pitching temp.

Earlier this year I did a batch where I added .5oz of hops after the first 7 days of fermentation so they were in there a total of 14 days. After 4-6 weeks of being bottled, there was good aroma but that was it. No real nice hop flavor. Months later now though, there is great citrus hop flavor in the beer and a lighter aroma which is still pleasant. You can try setting some bottles aside and try one every week or 2 and see what you think.

My goal is to make a really nice IPA. So far after 3 tries they are lackluster at best. Whether that is op utilization, recipes or what have you....for some reason this has been a tough style for me to conquer.

Are you missing bitterness or flavor/aroma? If it's flavor/aroma, have you tried to do a hop bursted IPA? It's hard to go wrong with a small bittering addition and then a big honking hop burst. (several ounces of high AA hops thrown in between 20 minutes and 0 minutes).

1.5 oz isnt much for a larger batch. For hoppy Ales 2-3 oz is what I usually use. Plus it depends on the other hops in the recipe and what hops went into the boil. Bitterness, hop flavor and aroma fades. Its just part of the process. Sometimes it helps to over hop so that once it conditions a bit you have what you are looking for.

With dry hopping something to consider is waiting for the right time. Too early and fermentation will carry off a lot of the flavor and aroma. If the beer is still cloudy with yeast and you dry hop you can loose a lot of the hop oils as they coat the yeast cells and they flocculate out.

Right now it is the flavor I'm having the most issues with. After doing some research and visiting forums I am chalking up my past experiences to old hops and hop utilization.

Next batch I will use a different supplier for hops. I may even go with whole leaf as opposed to pellet. But that is another conversation. Not trying to bump my own thread

So the key is that while smell does affect taste, if you're trying to taste you need to add hops into the boil for best effect, not dry hopping.

RickBeer wrote:So the key is that while smell does affect taste, if you're trying to taste you need to add hops into the boil for best effect, not dry hopping.

I am well aware of that. My last batch had 5 hop varieties. This post was for dry hopping and I strayed a bit off topic which is my mistake

Seriously, add most of your hops in the last 20 minutes. If you don't get flavor out of them doing that... then the hops are not right.

mashani wrote:Seriously, add most of your hops in the last 20 minutes. If you don't get flavor out of them doing that... then the hops are not right.

So use my bittering hop(s) for the beginning then at 20 minutes start doing my aroma and flavor additions?

yep. 22 minutes is the threshold for maximum flavor from hops. 7 for aroma. also you'll have to experiment with the amounts you use. don't want to use too much that it overpowers the flavor of the beer, and not enough will just leave you with the malt flavor overpowering. all about balance!

My last batch was a bit grassy and seemed hop utilization was low.

So with what you guys are saying here I'm gonna use my hops without a sack, different brand of hops as well as try the last 20 minutes and possibly hop stand.

Word