Hops flavor: lack of experience/knowledge to troubleshoot, please advice

[p_p]

Hi everybody, I have an APA in primary that has now reached FG after 4 days of fermentation.
The recipe this beer was based on called for Simcoe, Amarillo and Crystal hops.
My supplier did not have Amarillo in stock and after quickly searching for a suitable substitution I settled for Centennial without really knowing what I was doing.

I have tasted a sample and the beer feels a bit too on the Cascadian side, which gives this sensation of "flowery sweetness" I was not really looking to achieve.
I am still due to dry hop and I wonder if I should modify the schedule to somehow steer the beer away from this flavour. I am not sure if this can be achieved.

The planned hop schedule is 14gr (~1/2oz) Simcoe, 20gr (~2/3oz) Centennial and 28gr (1oz) Crystal.

Should go ahead as planned and just learn from the experience?
Should I cut the hops on the Cascadian family and focus on dry hopping with Crystal? Would this create a clash?
What would you recommend?


For info, the hops schedule pre-fermentation was (6.5 gal at the beginning of the boil @ ~1.046) :

Crystal First Wort 22gr 60min
Simcoe First Wort 17gr 60min
Centennial Boil 14gr 5min
Crystal Boil 14gr 5min
Simcoe Flame-out 8gr
Centennial Flame-out 20gr
Crystal Flame-out 20gr

Thanks in advance!
pp

 

[RedShirt]

Something about home brewing that I love is experimentation. What would you say to letting the beer stay in primary for a couple more weeks to fully mature, then rack maybe 1 gal of it into a small glass jug/carboy. Throw some Crystal hops into the primary and some Centennial into the 1 gal jug. Let them sit another week, then package. That way, you will know which dry hops you like and which you don't.

 

[Yooper]

I remember making an all centennial beer for the first time, about 10 years ago. I even posted on this forum that I made a beer of "F***ing Flowers!"

Brewers wiser than me told me that my favorite IPA, Bell's Two Hearted, was all centennial, and that the flowers flavor would mellow into some citrusy flavor with a hint of floral aroma.

They were right.

Now, you may want to leave it out of the dryhopping if it's that strong right now. That's up to you and your taste buds. If you don't love centennial right now, just leave it out of the dryhop and it should be much more to your taste.

 

[BigMack]

Listen to Yooper^^^^^^

 

[p_p]

I remember making an all centennial beer for the first time, about 10 years ago. I even posted on this forum that I made a beer of "F***ing Flowers!"

Brewers wiser than me told me that my favorite IPA, Bell's Two Hearted, was all centennial, and that the flowers flavor would mellow into some citrusy flavor with a hint of floral aroma.

They were right.

Now, you may want to leave it out of the dryhopping if it's that strong right now. That's up to you and your taste buds. If you don't love centennial right now, just leave it out of the dryhop and it should be much more to your taste.

Thanks Yooper.
As advised by the gentleman above, I am listening.

I will leave Centennial out of the dry hop, I think the flavour is quite strong already.

Would you also leave out the Simcoe since this hop is also from the Cascadian family and use just Crystal?

 

[BigMack]

Simcoe is going to bring a completely different flavor/aroma than Centennial will so I would absolutely leave it in. I like crystal by itself fine, but I think when paired with a citrusy hop it is amazing.

 

[p_p]

Simcoe is going to bring a completely different flavor/aroma than Centennial will so I would absolutely leave it in. I like crystal by itself fine, but I think when paired with a citrusy hop it is amazing.

Thanks for that!

I plan to add about 2oz of dry hops.
Given than Simcoe and Crystal have different AA%, how would you split this addition?

 

[BigMack]

I would split the dry hop evenly. I do an oz each of Amarillo and Crystal in a dry hop in my APA and it turns out really well.

 

[m00ps]

agree with everything so far, plus, 4 days is much too early to be sampling anything. The taste and flavor will change drastically before its entirely ready. In the future, do not sample this early, there is no point. All it can do is open your beer to infections

 

[theseeker4]

Thanks for that!

I plan to add about 2oz of dry hops.
Given than Simcoe and Crystal have different AA%, how would you split this addition?

Alpha acids don't really matter for the dry hop, as you aren't going to get isomerization at those temps.

 

[p_p]

Alpha acids don't really matter for the dry hop, as you aren't going to get isomerization at those temps.

Agree, no isomerization however ins't the general rule that the higher the AA% the more oils the hops will have and therefore the more will get into the beer?

 

[p_p]

agree with everything so far, plus, 4 days is much too early to be sampling anything. The taste and flavor will change drastically before its entirely ready. In the future, do not sample this early, there is no point. All it can do is open your beer to infections

m00p, I am a fairly new brewer, anxiety is still a problem.

I am on a plastic bucket with a spigot so I don't need to open the fermentation vessel to take a sample. I always squirt star san and wrap the spigot in cling film after drawing some beer. Is this practice still prone to result infections?

 

[m00ps]

m00p, I am a fairly new brewer, anxiety is still a problem.

I am on a plastic bucket with a spigot so I don't need to open the fermentation vessel to take a sample. I always squirt star san and wrap the spigot in cling film after drawing some beer. Is this practice still prone to result infections?

Taking samples from the spigot can be troublesome since there isn't a good way to sanitize the bit of wort that is still inside the spigot. Bucket spigots are infamous for harboring infections, and theres a lot of accounts of the infections plaguing brewers from batch to batch. I'd open the bucket and take a sample with a wine thief or something instead of using the spigot

I'd recommend waiting at least a week before checking the gravity. By that point it may be at terminal gravity, but still won't be ready to bottle. The yeast needs time to clean up. Take another sample 2-3 days later and once you have consecutive samples that are the same FG you should be OK.

 

[Yooper]

Agree, no isomerization however ins't the general rule that the higher the AA% the more oils the hops will have and therefore the more will get into the beer?

No.

It's more about the strength of the flavor. Crystal hops are pretty light weight in flavor, more like a noble hop variety. They won't give you much flavor or aroma.

 

[p_p]

Thank you everybody for your advice!