Preserving hopiness.

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Dave70

Le roi est mort..
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One of the nicest beers I've made was a simple pilsner / saaz SMASH, but found it seemed to loose its delightful hoppy edge after a few weeks - to a certain extent I suppose thats to be expected.
This one was kegged by the way and about 30 IBU with plain old 60 - 20 - 15 and flame out additions. No dry hopping.

Is there a better method to prolong the flavor or has it more to do with the hop schedule? It generally takes me around a month to get through a keg if I'm the only one succling at the teat, so maby bottling and cold storage would be the way to go?

Huh?
 
This is something I'm struggling with as well. The best advice I've had so far is "purge everything within 500m 100% with CO2", but it seems like it doesn't really help much. Some people say there's really no need to purge the keg etc with CO2, some say you might as well shoot yourself in the face if you don't.
 
Charlie Bamforth said in a Brew Strong show that pH can have a marked impact on the flavour stability of a finished beer. I think he said that the higher the pH the more flavour stable and 'fresh' it will be, however it will not be as microbiologically stable at higher pH. The show in question was titled "Q and A with Dr. Bamforth" dated 12/3/2009.

Not sure if that is relevent, but may be worth checking out.
 
I noticed an improvement in my hoppiness after I started purging my kegs with CO2.
My process is to clean out multiple kegs with a scrubby pad then fill the keg with sanitiser. I displace the sanitiser with the CO2 bottle and move it from one keg to the next using a keg transfer line. By the end all the kegs are clean and purged.

If I was worried about further O2 pick up I'd probably try keg conditioning. Once the yeast has settled you would never know the difference.
 
keg hop for a few days if you find the beer fading...

recenty started this (admittedly not pilsners)... and

aww yeah.JPG
 
Yob said:
keg hop for a few days if you find the beer fading...

recenty started this (admittedly not pilsners)... and

attachicon.gif
aww yeah.JPG
Keg hopping is only suggested by retailers deciding the colour of their next Ferrari.
 
Not wanting to start any shit but do you no-chill by any chance, Dave?
 
I certainly hope you dont mean to suggest that I mean to bump my own sales by comments such as given above... this is what I do to my own brews and as a no chiller and have noticed a marked difference and in fact am still using predominantly hops I bought from other retailers..

green if I have a choice goomboogo. which I dont so will continue to drive a white Subaru.. christ, if you have seen my prices you will know there is no Ferrari in my future.. near of distant.. and Im pretty sure other people keg hop who dont retail. sheesh... :huh:
 
Yob, I was only joking. But I am confused about the Dave thing.
 
bum said:
Dave is OP.
I thought so. Then Yob's post made me wonder whether he thought I was Dave. This is all in the context of me recently passing the lupulin/opiod functionality threshold. Take anything I say from this point with a grain.
 
My mistake, will correct the post, must've had blurry eyes.. and missed the inherent humor..

Don't mind me.. As you were.. I've got to go get my Lamborghini
 
Ah. I see what happened here now.

I feel like apologising even though I didn't do anything wrong.
 
bum said:
Ah. I see what happened here now.

I feel like apologising even though I didn't do anything wrong.
Just a simple misunderstanding. It's not like asking a bunch of homebrewers how to preserve hope.
 
bum said:
Not wanting to start any shit but do you no-chill by any chance, Dave?
Start shit, Its invigorating.

Look, I tie a rope to my cube and plonk it into our water tank which sits around 22-24 deg, do you think that constitutes chilling?

Immersion does drop the temp surprisingly quick, but I've yet to find an answer on what maketh a cold chill?

I think there may be a case for cold chill as far as fragile hop profiles are concerned.


Anyway look at the time. I'm ******* hammerd here.
 
Look, I tie a rope to my cube and plonk it into our water tank which sits around 22-24 deg, do you think that constitutes chilling?
This may be the most Australian brewing tip I've ever read in my life. :D
 
Dave70 said:
Anyway look at the time. I'm ******* hammerd here.
Same.

I dunno, I guess it depends on how quickly it happens.

22/24C through a plate/immersion chiller would drop a batch to, what? - high 20s? So plonking a cube in that temp would be considered "slow-chill" yeah?

Anyway, my question is less valid either way. As you were.
 
Hop flavour was once there but has faded so chilling method should be irrelevant.
 

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