Floral Decay?

[woodwormm]

I've been noticing quite a difference in the taste of my kegs as they "age".

Myself and a good mate who brews and kegs both feel our beers are best after about 2 weeks in the keg. Does anyone else notice this?

When it comes to highly hopped beers (both early and late in the boil) that I love I've been noticing that a fresh keg can be super floral as well as super bitter, after a week or 2 the bitterness tones down a litte, the beer clears a little and the floral notes are spot on. After about 4-5 weeks the floral seems to be dropping off and the bitterness coming back as the over-riding factor...

Is this common place to keg ageing? and if so is there any point doing late hop additions if I know it's going to be a slow drinker.. ie if the keg lasts a month or two then will all the floral notes be gone anyways?

 

[Bizier]

I don't know your process, but if you control your O2 ingress somewhat, purge your kegs well with CO2 and do a 'quiet' transfer, you might be able to 'extend' the life of your hop aromatics.

Hop degradation is common to packaged beer . From your kegging setup to giant breweries like AB InBev, all you can do is try to reduce it with better practice and good quality raw materials. It is why I am happy to pay relatively exorbitant amounts for good beer provided it is fresh and undamaged.

I personally see no point in late additions in big ageing beers because all it does is provide extra material which will contribute to overall oxidation. But you should be able to refine your process and perhaps change your recipe/process to get some of what you want to hang around for a month or two in the fridge.

I am personally a fan of the melon notes in large late/dry additions. I am amazed by the work of breweries like Flying Dog, they manage to retain these notes in package for much longer than I can in my home beer. I largely put it down to better O2 control, perhaps something about separating organic matter out and retaining the oils with good filtration.

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Just Agreeing with Bizier comments and adding my own.

I drink slow, not much at all. I found the same things you describe with kegged beer. Kegs are great if you drink quick, you can sanitize, quick purge of CO2, fill it with not much care and as long as its drunk in 2 - 3 weeks its all good!

If you want to keep it at or near its best for months....it require more care.

If its a hoppy beer, chuck large amounts of hops at it, half again what you intended in the original recipe.

After FG and few days for the yeast to finish up, gelatine, then chill to 0c for a few days , Polyclar then filter into keg, closed system transfer.

Fill your keg to the brim with santizer or boiled/cooled water (i like to no chill some boiled water) then push the entire contents out leaving your keg O2
free.

Purge the filter and lines very very well with lots of CO2.

Getting rid of O2 involves not being stingy with CO2 and lots of faffing about. But in my experience if i am brewing a keg just for my consumption over a few months or more then its well worth it.

As Bizier said and i tend to agree, i think filtering all the crap out does help with keeping flavours intact, over time that same crap will oxidise and/or drop out of solution dragging volatile compounds like hop aromas with it.

So as long as you compensate prior to in your recipes, filtering a hoppy beer is actually beneficial. Of course more hops and CO2 mean more cost yada yada, but im not in it for that.

Cheers

 

[Spiesy]

After FG and few days for the yeast to finish up, gelatine, then chill to 0c for a few days , Polyclar then filter into keg, closed system transfer.

Fill your keg to the brim with santizer or boiled/cooled water (i like to no chill some boiled water) then push the entire contents out leaving your keg O2
free.

So after you put your beer in, you add water and/or sanitiser? Into the beer?

 

[hoppy2B]

The strain of yeast might play a role in flavour stability. Some yeast strains leave little flavour behind. It might pay to go for a yeast which produces a few esters.
The other factor I find is important with my bottled beer is temperature. Keeping the beer as cold as possible will extend its life much longer than leaving it in a warm shed, but that's probably something you already have covered.

 

[Nick JD]

The strain of yeast might play a role in flavour stability. Some yeast strains leave little flavour behind. It might pay to go for a yeast which produces a few esters.
The other factor I find is important with my bottled beer is temperature. Keeping the beer as cold as possible will extend its life much longer than leaving it in a warm shed, but that's probably something you already have covered.

I think this is the key point here. Esters are a big part of the fruity/floral aroma and flavour in many ales. I have an Oz IPA (using CPA yeast) that has a few hundred grams of cascade in it that's now about 6 weeks old and if anything it's nicer now the hops have mellowed and let the esters shine a bit.

Big fan of esters in beers, me. Beats me sometimes why everyone insists on using the bland US05 and then trying to cram flavour with hops in there. Esters are fully allowed in APAs and IPAs - sure, not shitloads, but some in there will give ales a much longer lasting flavour profile when the hop aroma and flavour has diminished.

 

[Dave70]

The other factor I find is important with my bottled beer is temperature. Keeping the beer as cold as possible will extend its life much longer than leaving it in a warm shed, but that's probably something you already have covered.

I'd totally agree with this. Once my (bottled) ales carb up, where space permits, in the keezer they go to live at about 3 deg until required.
Nothing worse than in your nice hoppy beers than 'floral decay'. Though I've never heard the term used before, it sounds correct. At least more tasteful than 'de-flowered'.

 

[Amber Fluid]

1 week in a keg is said to be about the same as 1 month in a bottle and a lot of people like their beers at about the 3 month in bottles which would be equivalent to about 3 weeks in a keg.

I love being able to start drinking my kegs after about an hour or so but they are so much better in 2-3 weeks.