I recently did a 10 gallon batch of double IPA. As a little flavor experiment I split the hops in secondary. the first 5 gallons got an ounce and a half of Amarillo and Cascade (I forget what the exact split was). the 2nd 5 gal. batch got a hopping of Fuggles and Palisades, again, I’m not sure what the exact split out was. the Amarillo/ cascade batch came out great, hoppy, boozy and perfectly carbonated. the fuggle/ palisades are all grenades! Every stinking one of them! why?
the process was the same through the entire process, they had the same starter, they were stored in the same place at the same temp. The only difference was the hops and we used different caps to tell them apart. the grenades in gold caps and the good ones in silver caps.
does anyone have any idea why or how this might have happened?
I’m at a total loss!
Infection. That would be my guess. Since the batch was split, you can narrow it down to the secondary used for the bad batch.
Or maybe you over carbed the second batch. You positive you primed both batches equally? If so, then I say you got an infection in the bad batch. Not sure what else it could be.
Maybe an infection at botling? Did you bottle the Palisade/Fuggle second? I recently did something similar: I dry hopped 1 of 2 carboys for a Saison, when I was bottling the second one there was a leak in the spigot. I dunked my arm in starsan and went in and tightened it. Was worried about an infection, but it turned out OK.
Infection was my first thought too, but all the bottles were sanitized in the same bath and all the caps were boiled in the same pot. unless the 2nd bucket itself was not sanitized, which seems like it might be the case.
Sounds like you can narrow it down to the 2nd vessel… or the one that was used to ferment the gusher beer.
