I brewed an IPA WAY back in June (~7% ABV) and it tasted pretty ok initially. Not surprisingly, it’s syrupy sweet and has very little hop profile now. Is this normal for any home-brewed IPA that isn’t kept in cool conditions while bottled?
Do other styles notoriously go south as fast as IPAs?
yeah, IPA’s don’t like to wait around. Hence the Stone ‘Enjoy By’ IPA and Russian river imploring us not to age Pliny the Elder.
Those hops are really important for supporting and balancing the big malt sweetness. If you are looking for styles that age well, think darker stronger beers. dark Belgians, barley wines, Russian imperial stouts.
When making your own strong beer for ageing think about when you want to drink it and target a bitterness level that will result in what you want when you drink it. This is easier said than done and takes years of experimentation (shucks). I still haven’t quite done it. Next try is in a couple weeks.
This is exactly the reason why I heavily hop my American Barley wine every year. It starts to balance nicely after a year.
Does bitterness fade overtime or just aroma? I always thought just the aroma.
Thanks!
bitterness fades as well. one of the amazing things about how a strong hoppy beer like SN bigfoot ages, if it’s well made, is that it transforms from a bitter hops forward American style beer to a soft, malty, rich English style beer.
Bitterness ages more slowly than aroma or flavor. Eventually the balance goes from bitter, to balanced, to sweet/malty. The Bigfoot May be in the 60+ IBU range when balanced, 50 ish when it tips to sweet/malty. That does take years.
Syrupy sweet? That seems to me like the balance of the beer was off to start meaning there were not enough IBUs to properly balance the beer. While the hop aroma and flavor will fade kind of quick, the bitterness balance should be more intact, a little less but not appreciably.
My first thought, too. Maybe it was not fermented completely? Or stalled? What was the original recipe, and how did you ferment it?
Aroma fades first, then flavor, then bitterness last. Big +1 to how well Bigfoot changes over the years. I had a big vertical tasting last year that wiped out most of my Bigfoot. I actually even love it fresh and hoppy, but it gets so much better over time.
He said he bottled so fermentation must’ve been complete or they’d be gushing or have exploded.
Good call. It was a little sweet to begin with.
7 lbs Muntons extra light DME
1 oz Warrior or Magnum hops (60 min)
2 oz Amarillo hops (10 min)
2 oz Amarillo hops (0 min)
Safale US-05
IIRC from my early brewing days, Munton’s were the least fermentable of the extracts (dry and liquid) with Briess being the most fermentable. So that could explain the residual sweetness which has gotten worse over time. A couple oz of flameout hops (with no dry hopping ) would fade fairly quickly in aroma. In short I think you have a fairly sweet finishing extract and not enough hops for balance. More hop additions and quantity in the last 15 minutes with some dry hopping later on would give you a more intense flavor and aroma. Also adding some gypsum in the kettle would help dry the beer out a bit too.
That’s my philosophy with my own IPA. Traditional IPA is of course aged for months. I massively hop the brew since it will age for 8 months to a year…thus, it is quite hoppy (and still aromatic) when I start consuming it. I brew it a few times a year to make sure I always have some that is properly aged.
Typical American IPA is a different story… and honestly, I just don’t like most of them because all seem to I get from them are green and immature flavors. The big exception is SN Celebration which I feel is a beautifully made IPA; to me, it’s the best one out there in both flavor and balance. Most of the other IPAs on the store shelves these days are one-note and (as much as I despise the term) ‘boring’.
Others’ mileage/opinions will vary.
Mileage… is that what YMMV is? Your mileage may vary? If so I finally got that one.
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Yup, 20 something to go!
Ha! Good idea.
I hate acronyms, but it’s a pointless battle.
I think The Professor might be missing out on a few exceptions to nicely balanced IPAs. Goose Island makes a nice one. Also, Latitude 48 by Sam Adam’s, Odell IPA is definitely one of the better in the US. They’re not one trick pony hop bombs. I think Surly Furious is also one of those beers that has a nice malt balance as well. But I’m not sure about aging them for as long as 8 months…maybe a few months, but 8 is overkill these days, I think. It’s not like they have to be shipped half way around the world anymore.
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