Pulled a sample

I took a sample of my American stout I brewed 3 weeks ago. Primary for 2 weeks, secondary for 1 week. I noticed the hop oils on top of the beer. The sample I took when I racked it to the secondary had good roasted notes but I couldn’t taste them this time. It was just really hoppy. Not overly hoppy but it seemed to mask the other flavors. Any chance the sample I pulled tasted that way since the oils were concentrated on the top of the beer?

Seems like a reasonable assumption if you pulled the sample from near the surface.

Was it dry hopped?

No dry hopping. I good amount of hops in the recipe though. From what I measured the 1.7 oz bittering, .9 oz flavoring, .9 oz aroma. Now like I said in another post was my LHBS doesn’t list amounts in the recipe. American stouts are generally hoppier.

They didn’t say what hops or IBUs? No wonder you wanted the ingredients list.

Only thing to do now is bottle or keg it and wait. The longer you wait, the more the bitterness will fade.Carbonation and temp also change things. Especially with something like a Stout flavors are more perceptible warm.

With that amount of hops seems like you would taste them. Carbonation might help the malt characteristics come back out. I know some guys can tell a lot about a beer from their fermenter samples. I really don’t judge the beer until i get it on gas.

My dry irish stout gets only 1.5oz bittering hops to balance it and let the dry roasty flavor remain dominant. I don’t drink it as much as I used to. I’ve had one on tap for a year now and it’s probably got a few more pints in the keg.

I agree with Danny. You can’t begin to judge a beer untill it’s done. Especially a stout of Porter which only get better with age. Many a beer my first taste was unimpressive but went to awesome after two or three weeks

The description of the kit does say Magnum, Cascade, and Centennial. I just noticed it also says IBU’s 56. So it is up there. I can’t seem to calculate this on BeerSmith to come up with the IBU’s. Recipe called for 45 min boil.