The past few IPAs I’ve made have a sort of dank/BO/shoe(according to my wife) flavor right at the end. The only common denominator I can pinpoint is that I’ve used Amarillo in the last 10 minutes and at KO in all of them. I’m not sure if I can say it’s necessarily a bad flavor, just different. They’re definitely still good beers. Just wondering what everyone else’s experience has been with that confusing flavor profile I just outlined.
Thanks!
Personally I love Amarillo but not for bittering additions, I prefer them for late and knockout as well as dry hopping.
In fact I’m Brewing up my IPA this weekend which is all Amarillo and Centennial and is a house standard.
Have you looked at your water? Perhaps you’re not getting a good hoppy beer profile, just a thought since Amarillo is a pretty popular late addition/dry hop.
Is is oxidation? I tried a buddy’s cream ale that was oxidized and to me it shows up right at the end as a stale wet newspaper hit.
I’ve used it as flavor/aroma every time. Never for bittering. I am getting my water tested in the next couple if weeks.
I don’t get a stale/wet newspaper/cardboard flavor. I would just say dank. Maybe it’s supposed to be there.
I’ve never got that from Amarillo before, however a friend recently brewed an Amarillo IPA that had a strong sweatsock or BO character. A knowledgeable brewer told me that the Amarillo hops seem to be mutating into something different on successive crops, although I have not seen anything published to back that up. Where did you buy your hops?
I bought a few 2 oz bags of whole Amarillo from B3 and used some in an APA no faults, but used some in an adjunct American lager that come to think of it had a faint funky aroma. I thought it was yeast but who knows. I still have 4 oz of Amarillo but they just don’t leap out for me. Too many great hops to fart around with less than stellar ones.
Got them from NB I think. In 1 oz Hopunion bags. That is interesting.
The aroma is great. It’s just that weird aftertaste.
Hmm maybe send one to a judge, see what they think.
I usually get straight up peaches from the bag. I get peaches and grapefruit from my all Amarillo IPA, 85 ibus, with a kind of stinging grapefruit right at the end. What were your bittering hops, I can think of a couple described as dank?
I brewed an all Amarillo IPA about a month ago. It’s been in the bottle for a week. I’ll probably try it early next week. I used it for bittering, flavor, and aroma. I can’t think if I used the hops from a Hop Union bag or a packaged bag from the Hops Shack. I would have to go out to the garage to check the freezer. I think they were from Hops Shack. I had three pounds of them. I’ll let you know if I get any flavors other than awesomeness when I try it next week.
I’ve been getting my Amarillo on for the past couple years with whole cones from Freshops. When I plan my hoppy brews I generally start with an ounce of Amarillo at flameout and in dry hops, then figure out the rest of the recipe after that. I pretty much get a big citrus that isn’t quite as grapefruity as Cascade, along with some nice floral highlights. Amarillo is probably one of the top 3 hops in my brewery, I can’t get enough of it.
+1. I use alot of it in APA and AIPA, for flavor and aroma, both in kettle and dry hopped. Never bittered with it (heard stories that it’s not always pleasant to bitter with), since I like to save the good finishing hops for late and use higher AA neutral hops to bitter. Always had good flavor and aroma with it.
How clean are your lines? I pick the same flavor you mention in my IPA when my lines need cleaned and for some reason my IPA lines need cleaned more than my other beer lines. I just cleaned them a month ago and had to clean them again two or three days ago on the IPA tap. It’s too the point that if I leave my IPA untapped for a couple of days the first pint is foul and goes down the drain.
I’m not bittering with Amarillo. IIRC I used Warrior to bitter in all of the beers I’m referring to. It’s a pretty clean bittering hop, so it shouldn’t be coming from that. I used various combos of hops. One recipe was warrior, amarillo, and cascade. One was warrior, simcoe, citra, and amarillo. I would point the finger at simcoe, but it wasn’t used in the first one. Plus I made a citra/simcoe IPA that turned out great. Nice citrusy flavor and aroma.
I clean the hell out of them with BLC (this time I used Liquid Line Cleaner), do a potable water rinse, then a Star San rinse. I usually pull off a pint or two before I drink the first one from a keg. I’ll usually replace the lines after 4 or so uses. Maybe I’ll replace the line and see what I get. The funny thing is, though, that I was getting the same flavor from the picnic tap, which was also clean. IDK, I’ll try it again.
The first time I ever had Founder’s Red’s Rye IPA I got a huge body odor sort of aroma, it was bizarre. The beer was tasty, but just so dank it reminded me of BO. I think that beer uses Amarillo.
Well, I had another local homebrewer say something about not liking to dry hop with Amarillo lately so there may be some truth to it and not just coincidence. I use Amarillo in my IPA and I dry hop but it is part of a blend with Centennial, CTZ and Simcoe. The times in the past that I have done single hops Amarillo ales have been great but maybe there is something to this years crop or a mutation like mentioned above.,
Nose Plug IPA ?
One sign of oxidation in hops is an old gym sock aroma, before they get cheesy.
I brewed a beer with Glacier that had a strong gym sock aroma. Threw the rest of those hop out.