Off flavours from cascade dry hop?

[stuartf]

Tasting my latest ale and there is a flavour im not liking. Cant quite describe it but its a bit tart, maybe some grassy flavour? Its all cascade (30g at 60, 20 and 5 minutes) and gravity samples tasted fine but then i chucked a handful of cascade flowers in to dry hop. Got too busy to bottle and left it for about 10 days then cold crashed for a week. Now its got this off flavour, has anyone found this with cascade before? Probably not helped by the fact it hasnt fully carbed yet due to the freezing conditions in my garage at the moment.

 

[manticle]

How mu h cascade?

 

[stuartf]

90g in total in the boil then a large metric handful (say 40g) as a dry hop

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Sounds like you've introduced some lactic activity.

Pellets are basically sterile due to the heat produced in processing. Cones, not so much.

I don't think the hop variety makes any difference; if you are being literal when you say "a handful" then skin flora may actually be to blame.

The brewer's mantra: everything post boil must be sanitary. I douse cones in 96% ethanol before using them to dry hop.

 

[stuartf]

I have alcohol gel i use on my hands but yes could well be the hops i suppose. Its certainly a more tart or sour flavour than anything else. Not undrinkable but definitely not what id planned for.

 

[GalBrew]

I'd be shocked if you managed to sour a beer from cascade flowers used for dry hopping.

 

[MastersBrewery]

Deppending how much cascade you dry hopped with 10 days could throw some interesting flavour.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Time will tell: if it is lactic activity it will keep getting worse. If it's an off flavour from the hops,hopefully it will lift.

 

[Yob]

I douse cones in 96% ethanol before using them to dry hop.

really?

good god man.... thats a tad excessive dont ya think?

 

[Yob]

fresh flowers?

Frozen Flowers?

howd they smell when you put them in?

Did you break them up?

I ****** hate flowers... they **** me no end... but I love them too, particularly in a Randal... nom nom..

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

good god man.... thats a tad excessive dont ya think?

Possibly, but once upon a time I was called in to a brewery far far away to manage the process of eliminating a lactic infection.

Took months. Cost us literally tens of millions. Once bitten etc etc.

 

[Yob]

tough gig man.. hope it wasnt your $...

right... napalm it is for the backyard then ...Jokes.. respect the lessons and appreciate experience, just

a: thats normal (anecdotally)
b: I have to do this:
c: can be trusted to do this
d: have need for this on a homebrew scale

all our homes, breweries, brews are infected to a significant degree and in reality always will be. Well documented.

From the OP's perspective, while I hope this isn't whats happened, I wouldn't leap to that extreme before ruling out many other factors...

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

"chucked a handful of hops then left for about ten days "(maybe more) "then cold crashed for a week". Just refocusing on the inputted information.

 

[stuartf]

Yob, flowers were from the freezer and first time the bag had been opened (vac sealed) Smell was good out of the bag so don't think they were stale. I'll give it a few more weeks to carb and try again, hopefully the tart flavour will dissipate with time and bubbles.

 

[manticle]

I'd guess grassiness from hop matter breaking down over the 10 day period. Personally I dry hop for a couple of days at the most.

Hard to tell without tasting and grassy hop character never strikes me as sour.

 

[stuartf]

The weird flavour has dissipated a bit with age so I'm leaning towards some flavours being thrown from the long dry hop time. Lesson from this, only dry hop when you know you will have the free time to bottle your beer.