This happens to me as well.
Ok so my temp comment was stupid. I forgive myself. (I’m smart, I’m good looking, and dang it people like me) All better.
It can be very difficult to diagnose beer flavor swing from a distance, especially when you account for palate fatigue or taste bud mood swings. If you have another example that is supposed to be very similar, have someone serve you 3 samples, one being the questionable beer, or two being the questionable beer and one of the control sample. Without being able to see a difference (eyes closed maybe) see if you can pick out the questionable beer.
Steve - is the hop character any better tonight ?
Yes! I swapped out the CO2 regulator this afternoon, though I’m not sure that was the issue now. Now I’m thinking it was the homemade Zuppa Toscana I had for dinner prior to the IPA.
It is still not and exceptionally good IPA, but it is solidly in the good category. Geeze, maybe by tomorrow…
Awesome !
Old thread but helpful. I get this every time I brew a sculpin clone which has a decent amount of Amarillo in it. So discouraging when this happens. I’ll try the purge and let it age some
My .02, late to the party - The only time I’ve gotten onion is when I did a single-hop IPA with Zeus. Too much of a good thing, I guess. However, they were homegrown hops, and there is a chance that it was a late harvest issue.
I was told at Hop and Brew School that onion/garlic is a sign the hops were harvested too late. If that’s the case, another lot of hops might be fine.
I’ve heard the same. In that case, a whole lot of Summit must get harvested late. ;D Rarely used it without the onion/garlic.
And I’ve only gotten it once in frequent use of Summit. I love that hop. But each variety does have a specific harvest time.
I must be really lucky as I’ve never gotten onion with it.
Never got onion with summit but never got that orange/tangerine thing either…
Shows the variability in hop retailers and harvest, I guess. I use different retailers and have gotten onion/garlic easily 75% of the time from it, sometimes strong. I’ve seen a couple people post similarly about Mosaic and I’ve had nothing but good luck with it. Lots of variables to getting good hops evidently.
Does this onion flavor fade at all or is it something I’m stick with? Thanks in advance!
I don’t have personal experience, but I’ve heard many say that yes, it does fade after just a couple weeks.
My all-Summit Pale Ale still tasted like onion rings till the day I dumped the last of the bottles about 3 years later.
Ooh… very sorry to hear that. If it’s any consolation, my DIPA tastes like a tub of movie popcorn butter. I haven’t popped a bottle of that stuff in about 5 months. Maybe it’s better now. Otherwise I’m thinking about pouring it all back into a fermenter and adding Brett, just for the fun of it.
Thankfully, it was a 1-gallon batch. It was a great beer to cook with, though
I wonder if kegging would be better for an onion beer. What I’m thinking is that one could purge the CO2 in the head space which may flush it out.