I bottle a Dead Ringer on 1/30/2017. I refrigerated all the remaining bottles a few weeks ago when I noticed the hop flavor and aroma was diminishing. I started drinking these a little faster. Came back from a couple of weeks in Georgia day before yesterday. Had a bottle. It was bad. Had another and it was just as bad. Started thinking I should just grimace and bear it to finish the last six.
Decided this morning to dump the remaining six. Even though I took the time to brew the beer my tongue could no longer tolerate the taste.
How were they bad. Mine will lose some hop punch but they usually still are a good pale ale. Iāll generally bottle these for when I just want a cold one. Was there an underlying problem that was being covered up?
The clean hop flavor that I enjoy was gone. There could possibly some oxidation issues with the two bottles I had. Maybe I should try one more today before dumping.
There are a couple of commercial craft Pale Ales / IPAs that I donāt enjoy when they start to get close to their ābest byā date. (For example if the ābest byā date is 5/15/17, I wonāt buy it after 4/14/17). So, for me, one part of this is that āmodern āIPAsāā donāt age well.
@flars, Did you brew the Dead Ringer extract/grains kit āas isā? or did you adjust the timings on the LME & hop additions?
Iāve implemented a number of control measures in my brewing process to reduce or eliminate oxygen contact in my brewing. This included hot-side and cold-side improvements. The hot-side improvements are difficult for most brewers to impliment, but cold-side improvements are critical for producing beers with long life.
Pretty much every operation after the beer is fermented, has to be without ANY oxygen or air contact. That means that all transfers have to be made with completely CO2 purged vessels and no open contact with any air. Its a tough requirement, but it can be done. There is a presentation from the 2016 AHA Convention that highlights how to accomplish this. AHA members can review that presentation on the AHA site (another reason to be an AHA member!).
The oxygen reduction measures have made a big difference in the longevity of my beers and their flavor. It is definitely worth it.
This is why I dry hop in the keg under pressure. My IPAs generally remain pretty fresh for at least a month.
Iāve been purging the keg then racking with my auto siphon but am considering attaching a liquid QD to the end of the auto siphon and siphoning in through the liquid post to a sealed purged keg to minimize even more opportunity for oxidation.
I think keggers have alot of tools to prevent origination. Iāve transferred to the keg before terminal gravity to let the yeast scrub the o2 that purging doesnāt take care of. After which you can serve or in the case of IPA push to another merged keg with pellets. Bottlers have a harder time. I think if I were bottling IPAs I would make smaller limited release batches. This is probably why most good NEIPA is limited release they most definitely are drank fresh
Well then, how does oxygen fit into your wort before you pitch yeast? This where it all gets very shady for me to understandā¦ I have been doing my best to get the oxygen out at every step post boilā¦ Am I anal about itā¦ well, not overlyā¦ Sneezles61
Bad? I donāt do IPAs, but do brew several Pale Ales and Ambers with IBUs in the neighborhood of 40-60. I really believe they hold up pretty well over a period of at least 6 months. I try to be careful with my racking and bottling technique, and I do use the O2 scavenging caps.
Or maybe itās just that I donāt mind a slight loss in IBU, as long as the flavor characteristics are still there.
Or maybe Iām full of poopā¦
If weāre just talking loss of hop presence that in my opinion can vary depending on the hop schedule. Aroma from FO/WP hops for instance seem to have the shortest shelf life for me.
If youāre boiling hops even for 20-30 minutes for flavor in a PA, the flavor and lmiited aroma will be more stable over time. Later hops additions or post boil hops wonāt have the long term stability in my experience.
Sounds like @flars is dealing with something else though. The IPAs Iāve had that had lost hops flavor and aroma were drinkable PAs for the most part. Iāll dump an oxidized or skunked beer in a heart beat though.
I didnāt dump any beers. Turns out the remainder of the bottles on that frig shelf were Caribou Slobber. I have another IPA. Plan to save a few bottles to age as long as the Dead Ringer had aged for flavor comparison.
The solution to the short life of an IPAās aroma and developing an off taste came to me at lunch time yesterday. Donāt eat a bagel with salami, mustard, and onion a couple hours before drinking the IPA.
