Remedy for lack of hop flavour in Dr Smurtos GA

[hobospy]

I brewed a Dr Smurto's Golden Ale (rye version) but substituted in Simcoe as the hop (still bittered to 30IBU including 30g additions at 5 mins and 0 mins), from my notes it seemed to taste OK when fermenting but now I've kegged it all I am getting is the beer (malty) flavour and nothing from the hops. Spoke to the guys at the LHBS and he suggested that my hop sock might be blocked and not allowing the oils to enter into the brew.

Any ideas on whether this is where I have gone wrong? Only other thing I can think of is the use of gelatine after I kegged.

Also any ideas on how to remedy? I tried creating a hop tea (250ml of boiled & cooled to 78C water before adding 25g of Simcoe, steeped for 15 minutes whilst cooling to approx. 25C) which I back pressured into my keg after purging the PET bottle with C02. My only other thought was to try dry hopping with another load of Simcoe, I have a couple of SS ball things I could suspend in and tie off with dental floss.

Thanks,

Christopher

 

[pcqypcqy]

how long was it in the fermenter? how was it transferred? how long has it been in the keg? Hop flavour does diminish with time and how the beer is handled.

What are you using for a hop sock? I use nylon stockings all the time and have never had an issue with them 'blocking', so I'd call BS on that advice.

A keg hop will always add something.

 

[DU99]

how fresh are the hops

 

[Coodgee]

add more hops? 60grams of late additions isn't a huge amount by todays standards, particularly with those malty flavours in that recipe.

 

[wereprawn]

Try using something else as your keg hop. I've always found Simcoe to be very mild flavoured but others seem to get big pine flavours from it. Having said that, you should be getting something from it as DSGA isn't a very malty beer.

 

[Leyther]

I find DSGA quite malty myself and I use the recommended Amarillo, I usually let it age for a few weeks as it seems to take the edge off it than when fresh out the keg, I almost tipped my first lot but after about 4 weeks turned into a really nice beer, Ive one that's been in the keg a couple of weeks now and I still think it needs to age a bit more. If your after something super hoppy maybe DSGA isn't the correct beer. As for Simcoe, its a hop I love but usually only use it in an IPA where it gives a nice pine flavour.

Ive used one of those tea things in a keg once, just dont fill it!!! the hops will swell and probably open it up and drop to the bottom of the keg where they will block the dip tube, thats a PITA believe me, wont even serve at 40PSI!!! Ended up having to transfer about 15L of DIPA to a different keg which is another story

 

[hobospy]

Thanks for all the replies guys, wanted to wait till I could read over my notes. Seems the lack of hop flavour started off in the fermenter.

• Sun Wk1 - Brewed beer & pitched
• Wed Wk1 (fermenter sample) - Good flavour
• Mon Wk2 (fermenter sample) - Tasted pleasant, possibly lacking a bit of hop flavour
• Wed WkII - Transferred to keg & gelatined
• Mon Wk3 (keg sample) - Beer missing hop flavour

I'm not going for an overly hoppy beer but do want to have that background aroma/flavour to balance the beer a bit.

On the hop freshness, unfortunately I can't find out how fresh they are, I bought them from the LHBS a few days before brew day. The hops are packaged into the little zip lock bags and I don't remember a huge fragrance coming when I opened the packet but definitely something there, just wondering how Simcoe fairs up against Amarillo and whether it needed a few more g in there.

Any suggestions on a hop that could be used to dry hop? Guessing trying another hop tea would not be a good idea?

Thanks again,

Christopher

 

[malt junkie]

Throw em in naked you'll get better utilisation. Lots of things are better naked

 

[wereprawn]

Any fruity hop will work. Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic, Cascade, Centennial, Galaxy ect all taste good with this beer. Are the hops you're buying, vac sealed/nitrogen flushed and kept in the freezer of your LHBS?

 

[hobospy]

Was thinking about starting to brew with them just chucked into the urn but wasn't sure how they would settle in the fermenter? I cold crash so think they should settle out with everything else?

This is how the hops are sold, no vacuum seal which does worry me a bit, assume they buy in bulk and split them ......

 

[pirateagenda]

add some dry hops to the keg.

The reason for it is because simcoe is much higher AA 14% as opposed to 9% so you need less hops to reach the same bitterness, and therefore get less hop aroma for the bitterness bang.

If you try simcoe again adjust the recipe so that the hops are added later to reach the same IBU's. and add a dry hop. I normally dry hop my DSGA with 5g/L. not true to recipe, but delicious.

 

[wereprawn]

You'd be well advised to buy your hops elsewhere mate. Oxygen and heat are the enemy of hops, and while hops are certainly bought in bulk and split by any decent shop, they should be kept cold and have nearly all of the oxygen removed. Another thing is to look for is a shop with high turnover, such as the sponsors of this site.

Edit- spelink.

 

[Crusty]

I think you might need to look at your source water profile mate.
Smurto's Golden Ale is a great beer with an adequate amount of hops & pretty good as in the recipe database.
I dry hop this one for 2 days at ferment temps before cold crashing & I really like it. 1g/L works well for me & I think it's a well balanced beer. You might need to add some brewing salts to your source water to get you back in the balanced range. Failing that, you might need to mash a couple of degrees lower to counter the affects of the forwarding malt character.

 

[Judanero]

All good points above, dry hopping at ferment temps before crashing, keg hopping, a little CaSO4 in the mash and boil will all help to accentuate hops. As well as getting hops stored properly in the first place.

Brewman (no affiliation) sells LupilN2 in different hop varieties (Simcoe, Mosaic, Citra, Cascade I think off the top of my head) and it is pungent stuff, I imagine if you put some in the keg you would definitely up the aroma, I've used the city and Simcoe in a couple brews and the aroma is beautiful.

 

[hobospy]

I was a bit surprised by the hop packaging but hoped they knew what they were doing. I've actually moved to Auckland so I won't be able to use any of the site sponsors but I think I'll start looking at other suppliers.

Water profile was something I was thinking of looking at but a bit down the track and I thought would probably have better impact on my kolsch/pilsners, good to know that it'll still have an impact on something like a GA.

Sounds like with this batch a good 25g dry hopped might be good, tempted to stay with Simcoe as I was keen to see what it tasted like (think it was actually the guy from Fast Homebrew that got me thinking about it as I'd never tried Simcoe before)

Not giving up on the GA recipe, keen to brew again, just have to keep an eye on things as they go along, hard to judge how it is supposed to be if you haven't tasted it before