Why do my IPAs take so long to condition

[Dcioni]

Relatively new Brewer, not a total beginner. Past few beers I’ve brewed are the New England style IPA/Pale Ales (light simple malt bill w Flaked oats, late addition aroma/citrus hops and heavy dry hop early in primary, low flocc yeast, etc.)

Don’t have a keg setup and I’m very curious about this... I usually do 2 weeks in primary then 3+ weeks in bottles to condition. Usually at 5 weeks post brew they are pretty good, but don’t really start to shine until even later (6-7 weeks), then they QUICKLY drop off due to whatever oxidation was introduced during bottling. If I drink them after 2-3 weeks of bottle conditioning they’re pretty good but taste just a hair thin, a hair sugary sweet, it’s hard to verbalize just.... not yet fully ready and in their prime. I’m trying to get close to a Tree House, Trillium, Hill Farmstead, Other Half, etc style.. SUPER hop punch full bodied beer.

Obviously this is not ideal. I also read many threads about folks brewing NEIPAs w 7 days in primary, force carbing for 1-2 weeks and claiming how good their beer is tasting.. mine wouldn’t even be close to ready.

Would all my problems be solved moving to a keg setup? Does force carbing help bring the hops flavor out much quicker? I can’t imagine most breweries needing to brew and carb for up to 6 weeks to be ready to can and sell beer in its prime... I just feel like I’m missing something here

 

[Sansnom]

I brew a lot of IPAs and still bottle... I usually try to drink them within 3 weeks, because I find that the hop aroma/flavour tends to drop off quickly after that.

 

[Smellyglove]

Do you use sugar for carbonation? Maybe that's the taste/effect you're noticing, and as the beer gets older the effect of oxidization and the malt getting tigher tastewise overshadows the sugar-thing. Sugar-carbed light beers imo act like this comparing to forced carbed or carbed with speise. Thin, a tad sharp and at the same time it has a flavor I don't like at all.

 

[GHBWNY]

How soon after fermentation starts are you dry-hopping? If you dry hop too early during active fermentation, much of the aroma/flavor of the hops is being pushed out of the fermenter through the airlock.

 

[Dcioni]

Smellyglove- I haven’t heard of priming sugar causing this, do you think that’s it? I use cane sugar.. maybe corn sugar might help? I’ve read cane vs corn doesn’t make a difference...

In regard to dry hopping, I always dry hop 2 days after primary ferm, per the “NE” style.. but I actually have good results w dry hopping. Very aromatic; smells good

 

[JohnSand]

I don't have a solution to your problem.
But my IPAs take some time in the keg. I ferment three weeks generally, keg and force carb at room temperature for about a week. My hoppiest IPAs (Pliny Clone, among others) taste like straight grapefruit juice at first. It takes a couple of weeks in the keg before they smooth out. But after another month they definitely lose some hop brightness.
I need to drink faster!

 

[Smellyglove]

Smellyglove- I haven’t heard of priming sugar causing this, do you think that’s it? I use cane sugar.. maybe corn sugar might help? I’ve read cane vs corn doesn’t make a difference...

In regard to dry hopping, I always dry hop 2 days after primary ferm, per the “NE” style.. but I actually have good results w dry hopping. Very aromatic; smells good

Those who has not A/B'ed a sugar carbonated beer vs a speise or force carbed on keg will most likely say that my opinion is bogus, since they are used to sugar. But, the difference is big enough that you can pick out one from the other without even looking for the difference. I've shared my opinions on this on my local forum, and suggested people try splitting a batch for bottling with speise and sugar, speise always wins. But, you need to do a side by side, or else you will not notice how big the difference is. This is one process which might help you to bring your beer from "homebrew" to sniffing a reference. Depends on which style though. If I have to be honest then I'd say the battle is lost if you want super-fresh hoppy beers and bottle carb them. But you can by all means make a good hoppy beer with bottle carbing it, it just will not be as fresh and on point if you have to leave it for a week or two in room-temp as if you could keep a non 02-cold process all the way. That's why it's not recomended to do NEIPAs if you don't have kegs.

Is the two days after prim ferm your only dryhop-charge? If it is your only one I'd move it and think backwards. Let the reference be when you're packaging it. And try figure out how many days before you package it gives you the most bang for the buck, to your palate and process. I'd start looking into a window of 3-5 days before packaging. But this is if it's just one dryhop charge.

/Feinschmecker talk start.

My IPA's are highly drinkable after two weeks of fermentation, including 3 days of DH, then 24 hrs of CC. This can be done faster, if that's important to a brewer. But it's all about timing of malt and hops.

If I'm sharing it by counter pressure filling it then I'm filling the bottles ideally no more than 24-36 hrs after kegging (almost never happens since I have a job which claims more time than I like when it comes to homebrewing), and ideally shipping it fast since the crown liner will absorb much of the freshness in a beer within maybe 48 hrs. Depending on temperature, I store bottled beers at -1C until shipping, but still, I lose something in the transfer from keg to botle, and the crown liner scavanges the rest of that uber-freshness.

/Feinschmecker talk end.

 

[boasist]

What about fermentation control? How much do yo have over that? Once I nailed that down for me, I can go grain to glass in 3-4 weeks on most I/IIPAs with excellent results.

 

[Dcioni]

What about fermentation control? How much do yo have over that? Once I nailed that down for me, I can go grain to glass in 3-4 weeks on most I/IIPAs with excellent results.

You’ve piqued my interest.. please explain. I was previously not able to control well and would ferm at the very limit of range ie 70-71. Does a lower or more consistent temp make it easier to go ‘grain-to-glass’ quicker?

I just bought a Brewjacket Immersion Pro so I can control ferm temp much better now...

 

[RM-MN]

. Does a lower or more consistent temp make it easier to go ‘grain-to-glass’ quicker?

When you ferment at too high of a temperature the yeast will throw off some esters. With time in the bottle some of those will disappear. Fermenting with good temperature control will avoid these esters and your beer will be good tasting much quicker.

 

[Cevan65]

I would start by looking at your water profile.

 

[Dcioni]

I would start by looking at your water profile.

Interesting... I do use tap. If I posted my city water profile would you be able to help me decipher it and find any problem areas?

 

[Dcioni]

Here is the profile