Raw hop taste in New England IPA

[Rzlblrt417]

So I just kegged aND tapped a new England ipa and after tasting it I have this odd almost raw hop taste, feels like I am drinking actual hops. I was wondering during if any of you have any idea where I could have gone wrong. My theory is that I may have over dry hopped, I did 3 oz Waimea and 3 Oz Citra hops for one week without changing to a secondary vessel. My other theory is that the beer may need to condition longer and settle out for a week or so.

 

[plazola86]

7 days is a little long for the dry hops but like you said just let it sit for a week and it'll mellow out.

 

[Rzlblrt417]

So I am correct? The beer is just stick a little green and needs to mellow out?

Also, how long do you do your dry hopping for?

 

[plazola86]

5 days is the longest I go now. I have keg hopped before and was planning on leaving the hops in there till the keg kicked but I got the exact same flavor your describing. I pulled the hops out after they had been sitting in the keg for 10 days and the flavor mellowed out in about a week.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I noticed the exact same thing with my NY style IPAs. (60 min then all FO/170ish additions)
I'm not sure if the tons of hops is throwing it out of balance or the big 170 addition is throwing off the raw hop flavor. There not bad beers and time hasn't helped (one week) but I know what your saying and will be following. Yoopers 60 minute IPA has the least amount of any IPAS I've made and is one of the best. Will be trying out water additions as well to see if they make a difference.

 

[Weezy]

TBH the vegetal flavor is a decent sign that your hops we pretty fresh but this is to be expected at those dosage rates, Imho. Think of it as an off season, fresh hop beer until it mellows.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

TBH the vegetal flavor is a decent sign that your hops we pretty fresh but this is to be expected at those dosage rates, Imho. Think of it as an off season, fresh hop beer until it mellows.

Wouldn't it make sense then just to use less hops to get the right flavor from the get go instead of the massive hop additions everyone seems to be doing and wait around for it to dissipate....seems counter productive

 

[Weezy]

Yes. Imho, if you keg, you're better off hopping less but doing it every week until the keg is kicked. If you bottle or are a pro who is sending your beer out into the world, you have no choice but to pack it in hoping it will survive the time until it is drunk.

 

[plazola86]

I'm dry hopping a NE style IPA right now. Went 250 sulfate to 100 chloride, flameout addition with 4oz of hops and biggest dry hop I have done at 6 oz. I put the dry hops in on Friday so today makes day 3 and I planned to keg on Wednesday. Ill taste it tonight to see where I'm at. Ill report back!

 

[plazola86]

Taste is good, no green flavors. I'm leaving them till the scheduled date of Wednesday.

 

[Rzlblrt417]

Thanks for the feedback guys. So my take away is that I should dry hop a little less, let the beer rest for a bit if I get off flavors, and maybe balance out the beer a bit by doing whirlpool additions

Cheers!

 

[KeninMN]

For what it's worth: http://brulosophy.com/2015/10/26/dry-hop-length-long-vs-short-exbeeriment-results/

For years, people have relied on this advice to produce fantastic hoppy beers, I think most of us would agree that dry hopping for up to 2 weeks does indeed boost hop aroma. However, with our growing addiction to hop-centered beers has come more research focused on increasing the good qualities of the dry hop while reducing any potential undesirable elements, subtle as they may be, with a lot of talk about grass-like character purported to be caused by hops being in contact with the beer over a long period of time. According to hop-whispering Brewmaster of Firestone-Walker, Matt Brynildson, dry hopping should occur over a relatively short 3 days or less, while Russian River’s IPA aficionado, Vinnie Cilurzo, opts for a 12-14 day dry hop on for the famed Pliny the Elder (For The Love of Hops, pg. 216). A pretty drastic difference between 2 very tasty beers from world-renowned breweries. It was this that got me thinking…

 

[trav77]

Thanks for the feedback guys. So my take away is that I should dry hop a little less, let the beer rest for a bit if I get off flavors, and maybe balance out the beer a bit by doing whirlpool additions

Cheers!

I have only done 2 NEIPAs so far but both had a harsh, back-of-the-throat hoppiness to them initially... kind of felt like I threw some raw hop pellets in a blender and made a hop smoothie. Way too rough at first but mellowed out quite a bit (took ~ 3 weeks) and then was very good with no appreciable loss of aroma.

In my experience I have made IPAs that are just as hoppy but using a lot less hops. A bit of overkill, at least in my experience.

 

[kevink]

Wouldn't it make sense then just to use less hops to get the right flavor from the get go instead of the massive hop additions everyone seems to be doing and wait around for it to dissipate....seems counter productive

No, no, no, it doesn't work like that at all! You want the green particles to settle out. The oil that comes from the hops stays. More hops means more oils and more flavor/aroma. It always takes 1-2 weeks for the solids to settle out depending on your process. Less hops is NOT the answer.

 

[kh54s10]

IMO, that is a lot of hops and strong ones too. I do about 5 days and the most I have ever used was 4 ounces. But I also did a hop stand at about 170 for 15 minutes with another 2 ounces of hops.