i just made “whos in the garden cru” from the joy of homebrewing. i noticed that the hops and other flavors just aren’t really coming through. ive had this before. my beers are fairly bitter, but getting hop aromas and flavors seem to be hit or miss. im an extract brewer and occasionally use some grains. sometimes i use too much water in my boil and only can add a gallon or two of cold water to the fermenter. i do not use a wort chiller, so sometimes the wort has to sit quite a while at a hot or warm temp before i can pitch the yeast, sometimes overnight. could this be why my flavors/aromas arent there? are wort chillers a necessary part of retaining the essential flavors to the beer? any help would be appreciated. thanks
To maintain hop flavor and aroma it is good to cool the wort as fast as possible. When you make beers without late addition hops do you also experience the same issue.
It helps to chill it down quickly if you’re relying on late addition hops. You could try first wort hops to bump up the flavor and a big flameout addition plus dry hopping for aroma.