2 very hoppy beers I’ve brewed before, one an IPA (RR Blind Pig clone) and the other Kelsey McNairs west coast bitter. Brewed again, with 2 changes. I swapped out 001 for 007 , and I fined both with gelatin. Identical grist, hops, mash temps, etc.
End result, huge reduction in hop flavor and aroma. In the IPA, there’s a fruity note that I wasn’t surprised to get given the 007, but the hop flavor is almost totally absent. The west coast bitter seems thin, and while the bittering is good, the hop flavor is also totally absent. It’s a 5 gallon batch with 5 oz at flameout and another 5 oz in dry hops. I dry hopped in the keg in an attempt to salvage it.
What I’m wondering is if it’s the yeast or the fining? I used 1/2 tsp gelatin per fermentor and left them at 35 for a week. They are both crystal clear, which is great but I’ll take a bit of haze over losing flavor anyday.
I’m guessing its more the fining pulling out suspended hop oils. A slightly sweeter beer from a yeast might temper hop flavor a bit but it wouldn’t make it disappear.
I am leaning that way myself. I did a Levitation clone with 007 (and no finings) a while back that was nice and hoppy. Is it typical for gelatin to strip hop oils out like that?
A local pro brewer had a similar problem. He designed a 80IBU IPA with a ton of dry hops, then filtered with a .2 micron final stage filter. The result was a crystal clear beer, but he stripped all the hop oils that had not isomerized out. 007 usually flocs out cleanly at 35 degrees, so my take would be to keep you calcium levels up with gypsum and CaCl (just use them in the boil to not affect mash Ph) then fine in the primary if needed and dry hop in the keg or in a secondary, but dry hop at cellar temps.
I’ve found gelatin does pull some bitterness out of the beer. Not sure if it’s the hop oils or if the hops is attached to the yeast in suspension or what but I do see a difference. If you are going to fine all your beers, you may want to up the hops by 10% to take this into consideration but I don’t simply because I fine a small percentage of my beers (I don’t mind cloudy beer for myself and I drink a lot of it).
[quote]then fine in the primary if needed and dry hop in the keg or in a secondary, but dry hop at cellar temps.
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I dry hopped in the keg last night and hooked up the gas, but it’s at 35 f. Should I raise the temp? Also, should I hold off on carbonating for a few days?
I use 007 all the time and have never had a problem geting clear beer. I use 1tsp Irish Moss with 15 min. left in boil. I have also not gotten any fruity flavors from this yeast. When I want a malty ale I use this yeast.
I dry hopped in the keg last night and hooked up the gas, but it’s at 35 f. Should I raise the temp? Also, should I hold off on carbonating for a few days?
I don’t personally care for the taste of dry hopping cold. MOre vegetative character. Plus warmer temps help hops come along faster. I also stopped fining my IPAs because it strips hop aroma.
I was just shooting for clearer beer, playing around with different techniques. After this experiment, I don’t think fining an IPA with gelatin will be on the list of things to keep doing. Lesson learned, which is always a good thing.