Back to Shopping at NorthernBrewer.com

(Another) Dry hop question

Northern Brewer General
#1

I have never experienced the described “grassy” or “vegetal” off-flavors from dry hopping before. But I think I may have it on my hands with my current batch.

I used 3 oz pellets in secondary at 55* for 8 days. I was moderately satisfied with the aroma at that point so I kegged.

It’s been kegged and carbed for one week and it definitely has an off-flavor that is not the desired fresh, floral, citrus effect. I suppose vegetal would fit. It sure was not there pre-dry hop.

I’m a little surprised it would happen with just an 8 day dry hop.

So my question is whether I can hope for it to fade, and if so, any first-hand experience in how long that might take?

Thanks much.

#2

I’ve experienced that a couple of times. Once it faded, the other time it didn’t. I think oxidation may play a role in some cases.

#3

I know the Hops book suggests otherwise, but my best dry hopping has been when I start dry hopping in the primary at the tail end of fermentation, so it is blowing off any oxygen trapped in the hops themselves, but retaining the oils.

#4

I am going to try partial de-gassing of the keg at room temp, and see if that helps.

I sure hope this fades, cuz otherwise this IPA kicks ass!

#5

What hops did you use

#6

50/50 Citra and Simcoe. Pellets smelled fresh.

#7

Believe it or not, I don’t have any experience with either :shock:
I will say that I have experienced the grassiness for sure with c-hops though. In each instance, it went away and turned out great. I feel my IPAs hit stride 3-4 weeks after kegging.

#8

I’ll cross my fingers and hope for the same. This thing is supposed to be the star of the show at a holiday party in 6 weeks.

Thanks for the insight.

#9

PS where did the Steeler D go yesterday?

#10

Nowhere to be found!

BTW, I found another discussion forum that mentioned that the grassy flavors are worse with pellets because of exposed chlorophyll from the processing of hops into pellets. I guess you don;t get that with whole hops. It also mentioned thatt he flavor should dissipate over time.

We shall see.

#11

The time mine went away was with pellets. The other time I used dried homegrown hops.

#12

I want to update this thread with what ended up happening with the IPA in question.

The grassy notes were quite strong and made the beer somewhat unenjoyable. I let it sit chilled for several weeks with really no significant change.

I found other discussion saying that the flavor could dissipate more rapidly at room temp, so I let the temp come up and left it for three days before tasting. That turned out to make a huge impact and did in fact cause the grassy flavor to nearly completely resolve.

From now on, when dry hopping with pellets I am going to limit the exposure to four days, and I am going to try to time it so there is still a moderate amount of CO2 in solution to help scrub the grassy notes. But at least there does seem to be a way to deal with the problem if/when it comes up.

Back to Shopping at NorthernBrewer.com