Keg Burping & Hop Aroma

[brando]

Guys,

I've just kegged a brew for the first time.

It was meant to be very hoppy, because I used a whole packet of Challenger hops (20gm @ 15min; 15gm @ 5min; 20gm cube hopped and the rest for bittering). However, I've got very little hop aroma or flavour. In fact the beer was a bit of a failure, although drinkable.

My efficiency was meant to be 72% but turned out to be only 65% so maybe hops were not utilised fully? Not sure about this.

Alternatively, I'm wondering if my way-overcarbonation and the ensuing major "keg burping" has driven off the hops.

I'm reading posts here where guys are storing at carbonation pressure, and then burping back to serving pressure. Will this constant releasing of the co2 drive off the goodies?

 

[MarkBastard]

This will no doubt start an argument but I think keg burping does drive off hop aroma. I won't guess how much but I think it does to an extent.

You could make a hop tea to get some aroma back in there btw.

 

[DUANNE]

soory i cant help with a definative answer but ill just relate my story . my old man has recently bought a kegerator of evilbay and basically has used it as is with the short beer hose supplied. the problem was that at 12 pounds of gas the carb was alright but poured 2/3 a glass of froth. well he had an apa in there with great aroma happening and just poured his beers waited for the head to settle then topped of.i now come into the picture and decide im to impatiant for that caper and switch the gas of and burp the keg out. end result was a better pour but within the weekend there was no aroma and alot less hop flavour in the beer.he now has longer lines but we both feel in this instance the burping definatly had an effect. cant wait to see what more experianced hands have to say though.

cheers bh

 

[Brewer_010]

Yep, it does. I've found that beers with lots of aroma hops fade over time through regular releasing of pressure. Maybe if you had your keg on a constant pressure that might keep it for a bit longer (I don't anymore as I had a leaky keg which drained my gas bottle).

I've ditched dry hopping now and chuck them in at flame out which I've found to be good at holding the aroma for longer.

 

[brando]

I'm drinking an IPA right now, bottled, and the hops are amazing.

Something went very wrong with that Challenger Summer Ale, and I wondering if it was my notice kegging technique or something else.

 

[cdbrown]

No dry hop for the ferment? That's where I find the good fresh hop hit comes from.

 

[WeaselEstateBrewery]

I had a similar episode - made an APA which out of the fermenter was hoppy-as. Did the forced carbonation thing, burping the keg like crazy and bled out almost every gram of hop aroma.

On Thursday I will be bottling a golden ale, will not be burping that one, interesting to see if I can retain the aroma. I have also heard that CO2 flushing the keg may help in retaining aroma

^{Note: these statements are opinions of the author and not necessarily fact}

 

[brando]

I had a similar episode - made an APA which out of the fermenter was hoppy-as. Did the forced carbonation thing, burping the keg like crazy and bled out almost every gram of hop aroma.

On Thursday I will be bottling a golden ale, will not be burping that one, interesting to see if I can retain the aroma. I have also heard that CO2 flushing the keg may help in retaining aroma

^{Note: these statements are opinions of the author and not necessarily fact}

Yep, I forgot to mention that out of the fermenter it was infact hoppy - a nice blackcurrent aroma I found, but all lost somehow.

 

[MarkBastard]

Burping is how I got rid off an unintended aroma (banana) I got once from using S04 at too high a temperature. So I've always figured since then that burping a keg would drive off desired aroma too. Had a bit of an argument with someone about it once too from memory.