Home Grown Wet Hop Fail

[Dunk]

Hi Folks,

I recently made a fairly standard pale ale and added 150g of wet hops from my garden in at the end of the boil (in a hop bag). They were in there for 15 mins while i started my immersion chiller then i removed them at squeezed out the aborbed wort back into the my boiler.

My beer fermented out and ended up with a 'metallic' flavour but no discernible aroma (hop / fowl or otherwise). The beer is undrinkable and destined for the drain.

I've never had any infections or other issues that have resulted in a similar flavours (I've been all-grain brewing for 10+ years), my most likely cause of the flavour is the wet hops as this isnt something I've done before.

I've previously dried these hops from my garden (cascade) and used them for bittering and late in the boil. I've never had any aroma or off flavours in my beer from them.

Questions:

• Has anyone else had a 'metallic' flavour in their beer or across possible causes? (wet hops or otherwise)
• Home grown cascade hops - is there any tricks to getting aroma in your beer from them (hop can in the beer line?). Are there any tricks to drying them? (mine when in a dehydrator for ~8 hours)
• Wet hopping - is the end of the boil the best time? I'm reluctant to throw them into my fermenter as i understand this is likely to end in infection.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

It's highly unlikely that the wet hops gave your beer a metallic flavour.

The best use for wet hops is at end of boil, or, reduce the wort temp to between 75-80C and whirlpool for 20+mins...this will not add any IBUs.

Many homebrewers have reported underwhelming flavour/aroma from Cascade grown here. It was not until year 3 that my Cascade really came to flavour/aroma country. I nearly pulled 30 plants and put in a different variety but stuck it out and now I'm glad I did.

 

[Schikitar]

Has anyone else had a 'metallic' flavour in their beer or across possible causes?

I have experienced this but the cause remains unknown. I had a number of really successful brews under my belt (BIAB with Crown 40L urn and a Morgans FV) and then an ever slight metallic flavour started coming through and with each brew it got stronger and stronger. It was a real iron-like flavour, subtle, like the taste of blood but it was enough to start making me unhappy. I ended up replacing the stock tap on my urn with a SS ball valve tap, I also stopped using my FV and borrowed my brothers Fermerntasaurus. One of those two things I'm certain fixed it however I made a couple other small changes that were probably irrelevant (eg. I stopped using my hop spider as a transfer filter from the no-chill cube to the FV, additionally I replaced my cubes)..

If anything I would have thought you would be getting distinctly grassy/vegetable flavours if the cause was wet hops - is there anything else in your equipment workflow that needs closer inspection? Do you passivate your kettle for example? (I might be reaching there, I'm no expert)..

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I agree with Schikitar, if you are getting a metallic taste it is more than likely from some metal intrusion somewhere in your set up, as suggested a passivation treatment looks like it could be called for.