Hop Flavour Almost Gone

[Wisey]

Hi all I did a brew a while back and I have found at the first week I kegged it - it was amazing florally cascade flavour. As time has gone on and it has spent longer in the keg in the fridge this hop flavour has now taken a back seat and you really have to sip and ponder for the flavour, is this normal?

Admittidly it was only a 12gram teabag steeped for 10 mins in boiling water then added towards the final week of the brew in the fermentor. Do I need to use more? Maybe someone can shed some light.

 

[katzke]

Hi all I did a brew a while back and I have found at the first week I kegged it - it was amazing florally cascade flavour. As time has gone on and it has spent longer in the keg in the fridge this hop flavour has now taken a back seat and you really have to sip and ponder for the flavour, is this normal?

Admittidly it was only a 12gram teabag steeped for 10 mins in boiling water then added towards the final week of the brew in the fermentor. Do I need to use more? Maybe someone can shed some light.

Yes but can not tell more as I am working on the problem myself.

 

[chadjaja]

Yes you need to alter your recipe in the future for the aroma you want but for now you can easily purchase a stainless tea ball from a homewares shop. Then just sanitise it, put in some cascade hop pellets(another12g as they swell when emersed) and chuck it in. It will just sink to the bottom of the keg and give instant aroma. If you drink your keg pretty quickly you can just leave it in there. If its a few weeks you can remove it. I've used a soup ladle to do so at times for that.

 

[bum]

Yes you need to alter your recipe in the future for the aroma you want but for now you can easily purchase a stainless tea ball from a homewares shop. Then just sanitise it, put in some cascade hop pellets(another12g as they swell when emersed) and chuck it in. It will just sink to the bottom of the keg and give instant aroma. If you drink your keg pretty quickly you can just leave it in there. If its a few weeks you can remove it. I've used a soup ladle to do so at times for that.

I don't keg so I can't vouch for this suggestion but I've read a few blokes here tie sanitised fishing line to the ball and leave it hanging out the keg seal so it can just be pulled out later.

 

[chadjaja]

I've yet to try that but next keg dry hop i will. Some have even welded a hook on the underneath of the keg lid to tie on the line.

 

[Wisey]

Will do this with the next brew, thanks all

 

[crundle]

I do a bit of a variation where I use a coffee plunger to put about 20 grams of hop pellets in about 300ml of boiling water, leave it for 1-2 minutes then compress the hops and pour the resulting hop tea into the cold keg. This locks in lots of the aroma by very rapidly cooling the hop tea, and it will last for about a month I find if I don't vent the keg at all (I do vent it to lower pressure for bottling to reduce foaming).

Crundle

 

[technocat]

Yep hits it's peak around 3-4 weeks great for about 2 months in the keg then hop tapers off. Would like to know why if anyone knows a good answer. <_<

 

[crundle]

Yep hits it's peak around 3-4 weeks great for about 2 months in the keg then hop tapers off. Would like to know why if anyone knows a good answer. <_<

I was led to believe that it is because the hop flavours are rather volatile in nature, so they break down rapidly in the presence of heat (hence why they need to be added at the end of the boil in an AG brew to retain any flavour), and the process continues over time at cooler temperatures (more slowly, but it still continues).

The same is to be found in hop bitterness and also in smokiness if smoked grain is used in beers.

In short, these characters have lifespans, so the beers should be drunk within that timespan, or a higher amount of flavour or bittering hops is needed to counter what will be lost over time.

Crundle

 

[technocat]

I guess if you are keeping a good brewing regime and drinking your product, then one could say hell it shouldn't be in the keg any longer than a couple of months. I would put it down to bad drinking practice.

 

[marlow_coates]

I agree with crundle on the breakdown of certain flavours and aromas over time,

However, the reason for adding hop aroma (steeped for a short period or dry hopped) is that as CO2 is blown off during fermentation, so is the aroma.

So by adding late in the ferment you minimise the amount of newly added hop aroma that can be blown off.

Later, in the bottle or keg, breakdown of these elements occurs (through what process I am unsure).

Cheers

Marlow

 

[marlow_coates]

Sorry Crundle, just re-read your post, and you are refering to adding to the original boil, not late ferment.

 

[The Big Burper]

Best to do the teabag as per instructions and put it in the keg with the liquid just
before adding the rest.

Easy, no floaty bits and get your hop hit. B)

cheers
BB

 

[rackemup]

oxygen is the devil (concerning all things beer, ofcourse)

 

[bum]

Oh man! I've been aerating my wort for ages!

 

[The Big Burper]

[quote name='Rack'EmUp' post='495390' date='Jul 22 2009, 11:56 PM']oxygen is the devil (concerning all things beer, ofcourse)[/quote]

Rackem,

Not quite right. Yeast has an aerobic and later, and anaerobic phase. It helps
if your wort, at yeast pitching time, is well oxygenated, to get the yeasties off
to a happy and productive life. <_<



cheers

BB

 

[Wisey]

Thats why its good to fill the fermentor with the hose.

 

[mwd]

Or get a kitchen mixer tap with a spray head switch

 

[rackemup]

okay, maybe i was being a bit dramatic, other than making the wort a nice place for yeasties. kind of a catch 22, being absolutely necessary and then being best avoided. (might look into buying some helium to help keep my beers fresher for longer :icon_cheers: )

 

[Bribie G]

I'm surprised that The Big Burper didn't mention above that he also currently has a keg of Morgan's Blue Mountain Lager done with a Cascade teabag and when I sampled it yesterday the hops were nicely apparent. Even more apparent after the second jug :icon_cheers: However BB's kegs don't survive all that long :beerbang: