hops aroma

[Seabeevet35]

I brewed a batch of a pale ale type beer about 7 months ago. When I bottled it 5 weeks ago and for the first couple of weeks the smell was an AMAZING grapefruit/citrus smell. Not a lot of that flavor but the smell was just fantastic. Now after a month in the bottles it is all but gone. Is this normal and if not where did I possibly go wrong?

 

[flars]

It is normal. Pale ales are best fresh. You will have to do your best to finish them in a couple of months after conditioning.
Good reason to have a party once in a while if you can't take care of them yourself.

 

[hophop]

6 months fermenting? If that was not a typo, you probably lost most of your hop aroma before bottling occurred.


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[Seabeevet35]

No not a typo. It is a beer that truly needs some time to mellow. But when I bottled after the 6 month secondary. There was a significant aroma. Not so much just 3 weeks later in the bottle


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[Yooper]

No not a typo. It is a beer that truly needs some time to mellow. But when I bottled after the 6 month secondary. There was a significant aroma. Not so much just 3 weeks later in the bottle


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Hoppy beers are best fresh. I'd really be surprised if there was a significant hops aroma after 6 months of conditioning- maybe it seemed that way because there was so much beer in the carboy?

Even commercial beers have an 'enjoy by' date on them, and are best right after bottling. Aging a hoppy beer for 6 months, and then aging again for 3 weeks in the bottle is generally not a good idea. Aging is for "big" malty beers, like barleywines or dopplebocks and not for IPAs or IIPAs. Pale ales are generally best about 4 weeks after brewday, and start to decline shortly after that.

It sounds like this beer is at least 8 months old- very old for a pale ale, or really any beer except for a few that might age well.