Guidance On Latest All Grain Brew

General Homebrew Discussion
1

Hey folks,

I’m looking for any guidance I can get. I just finished up a whole grain brew. 5 gallons - 10lbs of 2 row, 1 lb of carafoam and 1.5 lbs of flaked oats. I used about 3 oz of hops during the brew (mix of simcoe, citra and some home grown cascades) and then another 4 oz for dry hoping about 6 days into the fermentation. The colors looks great but the taste - while drinkable - is just weak. It’s not very hoppy and just taste like a lite pilsner (albeit a little maltier). This is the 3rd time I’ve done whole grain with similar results (i.e. weak tasting product). I never ran into this with extract brewing. What am I missing?

2

By weak, do you mean no body / flavor / mouthfeel? Did you measure starting gravity? It sounds like it could be a mash conversion issue, if it’s tasting “weak”….you should be around 1.060 for starting, or thereabouts. If that’s the case, it could be poor temperature control (too low on mash temp), or a poor crush, or any number of reasons behind this. Just speculating…others may have different ideas.

3

What style did you attempt to brew? NEIPA?

4

If it’s an NEIPA, your hop additions may be too low. I use 6 ozs. of hops for a 3 gallon batch = .50 oz. @ 10 mins. Left in the boil. 1.5 ozs whirlpool, 2 ozs. around day 3 and 2 ozs. around day 11. Everyone has their own process, but this works for me.

5

Curious

What was your OG?

How are you serving bottles or keg?

What temperature are you serving?

if you had poor efficiency and are over carbonating and serving to cold it will be just as you described.

I would even say (flame and knife suit on and buckled) serving too cold and with too much carbonation will get you a beer as you described.

With a nominal eff I can see you are around low 1.050’s OG. Even a moderately attenuating yeast served cold and fizzy will get you a beer as described

6

Yes it was supposed to be NEIPA - theme(ed) but I think you guys are spot on with not having enough OG. I typically add in a 6 (or 8) oz bottle of liquid extract about 30 minutes in but I forgot to order that and I only had this one day to brew (lots of kids and can’t really do it on the weekend so I took a day off). I think that combined with needing to juice the amount of hops i’m using must be the issue. Hey this is great! IT’s my first time posting on here and the responses have been quick and really helpful. Thanks guys!

1 Like
7

There are a couple of considerations for lackluster hopiness. Hop freshness matters in my opinion. Even though I use Yakima Valleys resealable packages, and ziploc bags with the air squeezed out, I can tell that they degrade over time in the freezer.

Secondly, oxidation will impact the hop character negatively in sometimes profound ways. It tends to be really noticeable in NEIPAs. To help minimize O2 exposure, consider minimizing transfers on the cold side. Add dry hops during fermentation. I usually add after high krausen, but before final gravity. Use care when transferring to minimize splashing.

Hope that helps.