So, just a mere 4-weeks into the process and the IPA has lost all the great Amarillo hop flavor. This tells me a few things.
1) Perhaps I didn't treat the water correctly (I'm open to this being the big culprit)
2) Perhaps I didn't use enough hops for flavor + aroma (I'm open to this being a major factor)
3) Perhaps Amarillo hops are very volatile. (I'm not as convinced on this).
Regardless, since I know that people are getting set to consume in 2 short weeks, I need to fix it. The way I see it, I have 2 approaches. Either brew a new batch and risk not enough hops for that batch again, or try to add hop flavor to the existing batch.
I'm going to go with #2. First, because it's relatively easy for me to do. Just boom - boil up some hops for 20 minutes, cool it, and add it to the fermenters. Second - it gives me some time to re-evaluate my recipe and technique without making another mistake in that area. Third - it's a cool technique, and I'm all for cool techniques.
Good luck to me!
What was your hop schedule like?
ReplyDeleteI did an Amirillo IPA and it had good flavor and aroma for over a year.
I had one bittering addition at 90 min (or 60 if it was an extract batch. Sometimes you want a short brew day. Don't judge. :D )
4 more additions. I believe at 20, 10-15, 5, and flame out. And dry hopping of course, once primary fermentation was over and after I transfered, seeing as how I don't have conicals.
Nice and flowery (faded slightly by the time the last bottles were found a year later), nice tangerine bitterness to balance out the british style malt bill with a decent lingering bitterness that wasn't over powering.
My schedule was only 60, 30, 15, dry-hop. I'm not sure if it's the water treatment I used, but all the beautiful citrus notes were gone.
ReplyDeleteThat's really the only tweak I'm thinking of putting on the IPA at this point - fix the citrus. I might try a flameout additiona, and spread out the 30 minute a bit.