Hop flavor is gone

[JimEb]

Brewed an experimental beer using my own homegrown hops (cascade & brewers gold). Used BeerSmith to develop to an APA style. Did three different hop additions during boil, 2 weeks in primary, then dry hopped for another week. Bottled and primed with table sugar.

I sampled some of the leftovers in the bottling bucket and it was awesome. Bitterness and hop flavor were perfect. Couldn't wait anymore so 2 weeks in bottle I threw one in the fridge. Definately needs more time to carbonate, but I cracked it open and ....Doh! It's clear, but really darkened up. Flavor: tasted like burnt sugar with some alcohol heat. Slight bitterness but all that hoppy flavor is gone. Can't taste any hops.

Any ideas? Think it's the last time I'm going to attempt using table sugar. I measured out the required amount and boiled it in some water like corn sugar. Noticed once all dissolved, it isn't as liquidy as corn sugar solution. This stuff was syrupy.

 

[SDCraftBeer]

What amount of hops did you use? I love hops and it took it took me sometime to realize how many hops to use in a batch for my liking.

Have you made this batch before and the hops were more upfront?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Could need more carbonation. The co2 helps volatilize flavor and aroma compounds so that you can perceive them better.

Or maybe the hops were just weak.

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

This seems to happen to a lot of people, i.e. beer darkening in the bottle and losing the delicious hop flavor it had prior to bottling. It happened to me many times and is the reason I switched to kegs! Most of us agree it has to do with oxidation, mostly during the bottling process, and possibly even in the bottle. Best of luck to you good sir

 

[JimEb]

Hmmm, does sound like oxidation.

Bottling process went smooth, no issues there. This was my first attempt at dry hopping. The hops I used were dried, put into a hop bag, vacuum sealed and put in freezer. On dry hop day I cut open the vac sealed bag and dropped the hop bag into fermentor.

Possible the hops held a lot of O2 which then proceeded to oxidize the beer?

 

[Pelican521]

Yep, sounds like exactly what's been happening with my past 5 IPA batches. Had a lot of discussion about it as well. If you want some reading, here are a couple threads on the subject:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/why-my-beer-getting-darker-age-471951/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/getting-very-discouraged-hobby-pls-help-485003/

From the info I've read (here and other places online), it looks to be oxidation to be the problem. After ditching my secondary and other attempts to solve my IPA issues, my solution was to buy a kegging system. I have yet to christen it, but I have an IPA that's one week old in my primary that I can't wait to try it out with...

Here's my plan... Only ferment in the primary to limit any exposure to O2, at 2 weeks (or a day or two before), check the gravity, and if it's where it should be I'll rack it to my CO2 purged keg. I've read, pellet hops, being processed they way they are, can house quite a bit of O2, not sure how true this is, but I've always used pellets so I'm switching it up to leaf for my dryhop. After I rack to the keg, I'll throw 3 oz whole hops in a sack and suspend it with dental floss about halfway down in the keg. Then I'll purge the hell out of the keg and after 5 days, throw it in the fridge to finish carbing.

I've also read of issues with auto siphons letting in air so I'm going to just use my simple racking cane for the transfer.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

Good luck with you brews.

 

[ndinh]

It just happened to me also and I was about to ask the same question. I bought the 'Pliney' clone from Northern Brewer and everything went pretty smoothly during the brewing process. Put it in primary using a new plastic big mouth bubbler that I've never used before. Next day, the closet smelled awesome and I had no bubbling activity, which was a dead giveaway that the bubbler didn't seal correctly. Tried everything without success and ended up just letting it ride. Transferred to secondary and added more hops. Kegged the beer and began pouring sometime later. Beer was o.k. but no pliney. It loss most of the hop aroma. A week or so later, the beer tasted like burnt sugar or old beer. It completely oxidized and I'm going to have to dump 4+ gallons of undrinkable beer. Sorry for the long winded tale but do you guys keg your beer like me by siphoning into an open keg or do you transfer it via the diptube into a closed keg to help avoid O2? I just don't want to make the same mistake again. BTW, plastic big mouth bubbler was the worst P.O.S. I've bought so far.