Bottling IPA Question

[rtbrews]

I have a batch that I added gelatin to and crashed to 35 degress for just over a week now. I am fairly certain this will have stripped almost all the yeast out of suspension and I will need to add some yeast back in bottle condition.

My concern is that since this is an IPA, I will lose some hope aroma and character due to the re-fermentation in the bottle. Has anyone experienced this?

My other option would be to just put the filtered beer into a keg but I am curious of anyone else has thoughts on bottle conditioning a fresh, hoppy IPA. I have had mixed results in the past myself.

Thanks!

 

[BrewThruYou]

I doubt you'll need to add yeast. When I've bottled lagers, I've never had any problem bottle conditioning...same with cold crash plus gelatin beers.

This is purely anecdotal, but I feel that my IPAs with the best aroma were ones that were dryhopped in the keg with leaf hops (just to make it less messy). My last IPA was dryhopped for a week at room temp with 2oz of pellets, then racked to a keg with 1oz of leaf. I haven't tapped it yet, so I'll see how it goes.

 

[EFresh]

There should still be enough yeast in suspension to cabonate your bottles. You could cold crash for a month and still have enough. However, you may want to adjust the amount of priming sugar. Here's a calculator to help with that.
The Beer Recipator - Carbonation

The gelatin has a reputation for leading to flat beer but if you used it correctly there shouldn't be a problem. Repitching yeast for bottling is usually used for big belgians or barleywines that have been sitting around for months.

 

[Pdeezy]

I don't think you will lose hop aroma in a sealed bottle.

You lose aroma in your fermenter becuase it is being pushed out along with the CO2.

 

[ayoungrad]

Hop aroma, taste and bitterness all fade with time. Even if bottled. If you read through Tinseth's hop pages online, he goes into a lot of detail. The bottom line is that you can't stop the losses.

This is why many people who keg add hops to the keg to counteract aroma losses.

Anyone have any idea how oxygen-absorbing caps affect hop losses???

 

[Face Eater]

Subscribed! I have a Belgian IIPA I just dry hopped with pellets in the secondary. All the other IPAs I had made were dry hopped with leaf hops in the keg so I'm definitely curious since I plan on bottling this one.

 

[Pdeezy]

Let me rephrase. I didn't mean that aroma loss wouldn't happen in the bottle period, I meant that he shouldn't lose any more than normal if he pitched some extra yeast.

-Agreed that if he has the ability to keg, dry hopping in the keg would be the best option.

 

[Revvy]

Cold crashing will still leave you with plenty of yeast to do the job. You don't need to add any extra yeast. Don't worry about it, bottle as normal. Bottle conditioning IS refermentation, and if there were a problem with IPAs and bottle priming, you'd see all over the place not to do it..But since beers were FIRST bottle conditioned before they were kegged, and we KNOW that hops survived the long voyage of bottled IPAs, you are just worrying about nothing for nothing.

I've bottle conditioned all my ipas, and they hop characteristics are fine.

 

[ayoungrad]

I only bottle. And I make a lot of IIPAs.

FWIW, I think the original IPAs were started because the manufacturers put hops in barrels of beer (not bottles) for transport to India from Great Britain to act as preservatives.

 

[Revvy]

I only bottle. And I make a lot of IIPAs.

FWIW, I think the original IPAs were started because the manufacturers put hops in barrels of beer (not bottles) for transport to India from Great Britain to act as preservatives.

Yeah, but you know, technology DOES advance. Bottled beer has been in use since as early as the 16th century. Bottles of English Ales from the 18th century and earlier have been recovered from the bottom of the ocean, and even in antartica- From 1852.

British Colonization of India ran from the 1600's through the1940's, you think they continued to ship their IPA's in barrels?

 

[BrewThruYou]

Bottles of English Ales from the 18th century and earlier have been recovered from the bottom of the ocean, and even in antartica- From 1852.

I think everyone wants to know how it tastes!