I recently brewed an orange american pale ale. I toned down the IBUs, boiled about 8 orange peals during the last 10 minutes of the boil, after 4 days of ferm, I added 2 cups of orange juice. I tasted once fermentation was complete and it tasted good. Nice orange flavor with slight hoppiness. I let chill for 3 weeks, put on co2 and tasted again… all the hoppiness is gone and there is no orange flavor.
Any Ideas?
Put some orange zest in a hop sack and toss it in the keg
How about some more hops too?
Of course you could. I would do one thing at a time and taste it until you get what you want
But watch to much orange peel. Or to much hops it might not balance the flav of beer you try to get. Do it slowly.
Thanks yall. Ill give it a shot.
Am i doing something wronh that my beer lost its flavor?
Hard to say. Ive never added juice and for an ipa I’ve only added zest as a (dry hop) I think adding it to the boil it just ferments out.
Adding any sugar without heat pasteurization or chemical additives will result in fermentation, thus loss of “that” flavor. “That” flavor provided by fruits often relies on their sugar. Once that sugar is fermented it provides a different flavor, or loss of that flavor.
Biggest cause of lost hop flavor is oxygen exposure. Also, as your beer drops more and more clear, the yeast falling out of suspension can strip out some of the flavors. But the bigger factor is probably oxygen.
You just can’t make a bad batch taste good after the fact.
I tried that with a recent porter recipe “experiment”.
I brewed a bad porter (faulting the random recipe that I came up with) and after trying a lot of add ons, I tossed it.
Then I brewed a new porter (recipe from a AHA award winner) and it is is pretty good (I think best porter yet for me).
I would not stray away too far from proven recipes, good yeast and fresh hops else it may disappoint you.
And of course, clean and sanitize everything past the boil.
Who wants to throw out beer?
&
Nelson Massey pure orange extract at bottling. A tiny capful to begin with. It’s strong so go slow. I just tonight drank a 6 month old pale ale I used it in and it’s still strong.
I also recommend getting a microplane for all things zesting and grating.
My English dark mild is 2 wks 2 days into primary. First gravity sample when I dry hopped a week in (og=1.030, week in gravity = 1.008) tasted delicious, burnt tobacco toffee coffee chocolate grassy hint o mint. When I tested again today, there were tiny carbonation bubbles in the sample, gravity = 1.006. Splashed sample between two glasses to de-bubble, gravity was relatively the same, maybe 1.0055.
Long story short, the main problem is the complete change in flavor. Now just a super mild dark malt flavor, no hints of much else. No off flavors. I know this is a mild, but maybe the yeast did too good of a job lol? Very clear sample, I was pretty shocked.
My first time actually milling the grains so I was pretty excited for the flavor. And the first time I nailed my target temps the entire way through. Could it just be the nature of this beer style? Planing on bottling this Thursday so it will be ready to drink in time for Xmas. Thoughts anyone?
this is interesting. A British style should not finish that low. Did you use crystal malts and mash close to 160deg ?
I went back to look at your recipe in your other post and it should have finished higher for sure. Did you add sugar?
I mashed in between 156-152 back and forth for an hour. It was a recipe of my own devise based on the kit from NM using what I hoped were appropriate substitutes for those grains I found at my semi local brew shop/grocery store. I didn’t add any kind of sugar to the mash or boil. I was kind of hoping for a low ABV but maybe not that low. I was most surprised to find bubbles in my sample. In hindsight I think I should have gone for a 90 min boil and more dark malt. Or maybe my crush was off it being my first time.
I’ll say you made a “dry brew”. Yeah, when it finishes that low, flavor is sacrificed.
Do you have enuff to brew the same one again? Try a different yeast? There is an attenuation factor on yeasts. The higher the number, the more it’ll ferment.
Sneezles
Wow such good info! I had no idea about the low fg/flavor combo. It’s really a wish sandwich kind of beer lol. I don’t have enough to do it again currently, but am wondering if it would help flavor wise if I racked two gallons of it onto 1.5 lbs cherries for secondary, and just bottled the remainder? Or would that be a waste of cherries haha
Just read up on the attenuation factor of the Apex London dry yeast I used. Apparently it ferments out in 7 days at 64F (75% attenuation, advised to use more grain if using this yeast). Mine was close to fg in 7 days at 66-68, but I was too busy at work then out of town for THX so I just let it ride. This may just be a brew only a mother could love lol. Still gonna bottle, will mostly be a keeper instead of a sharer. Will try my recipe again at some point, only with a different yeast I think. I did want a quick ferment so it delivered haha
I wouldn’t expect a lot of flavor from a beer with an OG of 1.030. Maybe use more malt and make a stronger beer. That would give you more flavor.
Some other commenters made some good points about the low FG/high attenuation. Looks like you got 80% attenuation from a London yeast, which seems unusual. I would typically expect 70-75%. It might be worth checking your thermometer. Mashing between 152 and 156 should not give you that dry of a brew. With 80% attenuation, I would have guessed you mashed between 145 and 150 degrees.
Nonetheless, it looks like you ended up with an enjoyable beer, although a bit dry!
