Need help in getting more hop aroma

[Ben1]

Hey guys

Recently brewed a pale ale and am seeking thoughts on getting more hop aroma. Whilst the beer tastes great, has perfect bitterness and there is a hop aroma, it quickly blows off and is nothing like I expected. I know the obvious answers tends to be 'just add more hops' but I have dry hopped quite heavily for a pale ale and am curious whether there are any process issues. In particular I no chill (which prevents me from doing 0min hops etc) and use Brisbane tap water untreated.

The recipe was as follows:

OG: 1.050
FG: 1.008
IBU: Approx 35
Malt: Pale Malt 73%, Munich II 13.2%, Victory Malt 13.2%
Hops: 10g Horizon @40mins, 20g Amarillo and 15g Citra @ cube, 30g Amarillo and 30g Citra @ 1st Dry hop, 45g Citra and 40g Amarillo @ second dry hop.

I'm drinking it 12 days after my second dry hop so super fresh. Beer was kegged and there should have been no oxygen introduction issues.

Is it the case of just add more hops? Or should I think about getting a chiller and/or altering my water to get more hop aroma.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Yob]

Put your hops in the cube...

Put more Hops in the keg (bagged)

Done.

 

[JDW81]

How far from your FG did you add you dry hops?

If you add while there is still active fermentation happening two things happen.
1: The hops fall to the bottom of the vessel and get covered in yeast, trapping to volatile compounds under a layer of sediment.
2: the CO2 that is being produced by the yeast scrubs the aroma compounds out of the fermenting beer and into the atmosphere. It will smell great while fermenting, but can leave you sadly disappointed when it comes to drinking.

JD

 

[Ben1]

Put your hops in the cube...

Put more Hops in the keg (bagged)

Done.

Fair call Yob and I fully expected this answer.

I would think though that 180g of hops would be a fair bit? Hop much would you use in a hop forward pale ale?

 

[Ben1]

How far from your FG did you add you dry hops?

If you add while there is still active fermentation happening two things happen.
1: The hops fall to the bottom of the vessel and get covered in yeast, trapping to volatile compounds under a layer of sediment.
2: the CO2 that is being produced by the yeast scrubs the aroma compounds out of the fermenting beer and into the atmosphere. It will smell great while fermenting, but can leave you sadly disappointed when it comes to drinking.

JD

First hop addition was 4 days into ferment. I didn't check the OG but could visibly see the krausen declining. It may have been towards the end of the ferment.

Second hop addition was at 7 days into ferment when OG was reached. I cold crashed at 10 days and had it kegged 3 days later.

My pitch was a 2l starter of American Ale Liquid yeast decanted so it seemed to ferment pretty quickly.

 

[Vini2ton]

Mix isohop in a mister/sprayer and give each glass of beer a quick hit. After a while you'll get the right aroma level you enjoy. Good luck with it.

 

[Yob]

I just dry hopped a pale ale for the swap with 200g for 3 days (primary) but thats rare for me, I ran out of time, 50g in the keg for 3-7 days

 

[Ben1]

I just dry hopped a pale ale for the swap with 200g for 3 days (primary) but thats rare for me, I ran out of time, 50g in the keg for 3-7 days

Thanks Yob. I'll dry hop in the keg in addition to my current hop schedule next brew and see if it makes a difference.

I'm determined to come up with the perfect 'house pale ale' which will be a great staple.

 

[Killer Brew]

I have been chasing the same issue. After researching i will be adding some gypsum to my water, dialling back my bittering hops in favour of more late hops in the last 15 mins which will also contribute the IBU's and delaying my dry hopping until around day 5 when fermentation is hopefully complete.

 

[WitWonder]

What's the batch size? I've come to the conclusion that dry hopping is the best for aroma - the last batch I did I used 6g/L of Galaxy, aroma was great. Obviously you want to shoot for high AA hops when dry hopping. As others have said, you need to do it toward the end of ferment and leave the beer warm for a few days before chilling.

 

[Yob]

Ke?

 

[gaijin]

Here's another angle that you might not have considered... storage/freshness of the hops. I recently bought some awesome Mosaic and Galaxy 500g bags and repackaged them in ziplock sandwich bags. I then stored a cheesecake in the fridge with said hops. Well, I think I created the first hop flavoured cheesecake as plenty of the volatile aromatics escaped from the thin plastic into the fridge. Now the hops have bugger all aroma potency, but at least I have almost 1kg of them to go nuts with and use about 2x recommended dry hopping quantities to match the equivalent fresh aroma. Lesson learnt.

 

[Ben1]

What's the batch size? I've come to the conclusion that dry hopping is the best for aroma - the last batch I did I used 6g/L of Galaxy, aroma was great. Obviously you want to shoot for high AA hops when dry hopping. As others have said, you need to do it toward the end of ferment and leave the beer warm for a few days before chilling.

I'm happy to be corrected but I'm relatively confident alpha units only relate to bitterness and not aroma.

My batch size was 19l so my dry hopping rate exceeded 6g/l

 

[Killer Brew]

Here's another angle that you might not have considered... storage/freshness of the hops. I recently bought some awesome Mosaic and Galaxy 500g bags and repackaged them in ziplock sandwich bags. I then stored a cheesecake in the fridge with said hops. Well, I think I created the first hop flavoured cheesecake as plenty of the volatile aromatics escaped from the thin plastic into the fridge. Now the hops have bugger all aroma potency, but at least I have almost 1kg of them to go nuts with and use about 2x recommended dry hopping quantities to match the equivalent fresh aroma. Lesson learnt.

Mmmm, hop flavoured cheesecake.....argghhhh

 

[kunfaced]

Aroma isn't correlated to AA%

 

[Reman]

I agree with Yob, move all your hop additions to the cube.

Dry hopping I do after 8-10 days in the FV, then dry hop for 5 days so it can be packaged straight after. I bottle and at 2-3g/L it still needs a couple of weeks to lose the grassy flavour.

Also some hops are better for dry hopping depending on the different oil contents.

 

[Bribie G]

I thought cube hopping was wanky so I tried it earlier in the year just to show that Yob was a wnkeur and bugger me dead it works so well that a wee 15g touch of late Citra in the cube to add a bit of je ne sais quois to a lager, overwhelmed it.

 

[Yob]

:lol:

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I'm a little puzzled with it too. You put it in. Its smells great when finished then disappears when chill carbonated in the keg. The only lasting great result I've had was with fresh picked hops in the keg. 200g fresh Cascade hops in a loose hop sock left in the keg. To do the same with pellets (say 50g) as I have done I always lose the aroma. The late hop flavour is great but Aroma dissipates. So up the hops? 3g/l? 6g/l? Its a load of beer logged hops to discard for unimpressive results. Probably enough hops for a megaswill brewers weekly turnover. :lol:

 

[Yob]

If you can smell it... It's not in the beer anymore, cubing or keg hopping helps as it's locked in (from what I've observed)