Question For The Hopheads

[mattbrewer]

Hi all. I was wondering if any hopheads could shed some light on a problem.

I make an OK American IPA and they pour out of the bottle with perfect carbonation UNTIL about 3 months when they get a bit lively and get hard to pour. Over the next few months they get impossible to pour.

This seems to happen with all my IPA's and never with any other style.
In brief, this is my methodology:

All grain with pale malt, munich 1, wheat and a few crystals.
IBU 60ish made up of American hops.
Dry hopped after about 90% attenuation (I get what I call a hop krausen for about 3 days).
Secondary ferment for 3-4 weeks, no filtering or clearing agents.
Bottled 6g/L dextrose.

They taste nice and a very clear.

Any suggestions, comments?

Thanks, Matt

 

[berapnopod]

Slowly increasing carbonation over a few months sounds like an infection.

Since you imply this is only happening to your dry hopped beers and not to other beers (is this right?), you might be introducing the infection with the hops?

I suggest you just drink up your IPAs within 3 months

Berp.

 

[Effect]

Try doing a fast fermentation test on your next batch to really find out your terminal gravity. Also, how long are you fermenting in primary and what temp is your secondary?

 

[mattbrewer]

Yes I'll do that. Primary 4 days and secondary at 20 deg. It is not a temperature induced re-activation of the yeast as they generally sit in bottles around 20 deg for most of the year.

My first thought was an infection but I am pretty familiar with them and they usually show their head fairly quickly in the fermentation/conditioning processes.

The beer still tastes good after 6 months when the overcarbonation is happening and it definately has no off taste. Is there an infection that can lay dormant, develop after 3 months and give off no taste?

I have ruled out an infection introduced during dry hopping as I dry hop some pale ales (IBU 30) with no ill effect. It is only the heavily hopped IPA's that show the excess carbonation with time.

Matt

 

[berapnopod]

The beer still tastes good after 6 months when the overcarbonation is happening and it definately has no off taste. Is there an infection that can lay dormant, develop after 3 months and give off no taste?

Yes there is. At least there are infections that will take months to develop any outward signs (not necessarily lay dormant).

I have had experience with Brettanomyces (wild yeast) that develops bottle bombs over about 4 months. First signs are increased carbonation but there is no sign in the flavour/aroma. Eventually the Brett. flavour does come through, if the bottle doesn't explode first.

Your problem is unlikely due to poor attenuation since you say it takes months to build up excess carbonation. Normal yeast will finish off an underattenuated beer on the timescale of weeks at the most.

It could be that your mashing regime is leaving some starches in your final beer, which would show up as underattenuation. But again, the most likely culprit for being able to break down starches and then fermenting sugars is wild yeast and bacteria. So an infection is still playing a part.

Berp.

 

[glaab]

I had a couple of partials do the same, both were dry hopped when the ferment was near done. I don't dry hop any more, I'm sure thats what it was in my case. The beer was still really good tastewise but after about 2-3 months it would even foam out the bottle once opened. I mashed for 75mins and did the iodine test so that wasn't it. I have only heard of this problem with beer that was dry hopped. Maybe try a big flameout addition, works for me.

 

[Effect]

Chinese hops? :lol:

 

[breaky]

Matt,

Are your IPA"S of a higher gravity than your other beers, or do you use a particular yeast just for these IPA"S??

If either these suggestions are correct, then maybe you're bottling too early and the yeast is still really slowly eating thru the malt


breaky

 

[jacknohe]

Not an expert by any means but I had the problem with extract brews and dry hopping quite recently. For what ever reason my hop material took longer than normal to settle. On pouring it created a reasonable amount of foam tasted great but mouthfeel was like drinking a lot of air. I'm trying a hop tea method in secondary with hops in a voile bag also placed into fermenter after steeping to see if that improves on foaming.

 

[bradsbrew]

Have you tried cutting back on the dex/L?
Is it from the same bag of dex?
Does it happen with sugar?

Brad

 

[mattbrewer]

Thanks for the answers.

Looks like the most likely culprit is a slow moving bacteria/yeast.

It just seems strange the my pale ales using the same yeast (American ale Wyeast 1086?) with lower alcohol and hop regime show no signs of long term excessive carbonation.

Hopefully with my ever evolving mashing regimes and sanitation the problem will look after itself.

I was originally thinking that certain hops may slowly impart 'fizziness' to my beer over time. I say this because I had a bad experience with Horizon hops causing un-manageable foam/froth during boiling, aeration and racking. I haven't used this variety since.

Matt