Hop problems

Hi Guys,

I would like to ask for your advice about brewing IPA with aromatic hops.

Just over a week ago I a started a new batch following a Coopers recipe which involves partial mash with grains.

The recipe is given in my brew day thread http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60101

I have encountered a few problems, the main been after I cooled down the wort, I struggled to sieve out the hops out of the wort. I didn't use a hop bags or appropriate sieve and it took me more than 40 mins to sieve.

Then I was afraid about infection, so I re-boiled the wort for very short period before mixing the beer kit into the FV and adding the rest of the water.

A few points

1.) I'm using the coopers FV which as a Krausen Koller (which should be removed after 4 days, end of primary fermentation), but the FV doesn't have airlock, but the Koller moves to reduce the CO2. So you can actually smell the fermentation around the edges of the lid.
2.)During the fermentation the smell was great, I could smell all three hops. So all looked good.

Now the questions and issues:

1.) After around day7 I've tasted the beer and it looked like the Columbus hops had over powered the entire batch, as I was able to taste only them.
2.) The aroma was good, all three hops ware nicely mix and smell was great.

3.)Now is Day 10 and the taste and the aroma are almost gone? The beer is still in FV at 18C , and once if tasted today, it just feels bitter with slight hints of Columbus?

Why has this happened ?
Do I need to bottle this as soon as possible before loose the entire hop flavour?
Shall I dry hop ?
What temperature shall I dry hop / cold or warm ?

I really need some advice of how to preserve that nice hope flavour that was present in the early stages of the fermentation?

I would really appreciate your advice.

Thanks.

What you could do is make a hop tea and make your priming syrup with it. I did it on my last brew and it works a treat. I steeped 2g of hops per litre in a cafetier with boiled water cooled to 70°c. I then added the correct amount of priming sugar to it, let it cool to bottling temp (in my case, 20°c), then siphoned my beer into it, then bottled.

There's been some talk about this recently. Hops will loose their flavor and aroma as time passes. It's all a matter on how you like your finished product.... Then backing up from there. That's why I've been doing lots of different 8 liter brews these days. Tweaking the recipes. You'd be surprised how much hops it takes to retain the aroma and flavor when your going to bottle and age for longer than a month. Many are saying that the 10 min addition really doesn't do much. Lots are cooling the wort down to 80 then hopping for 30 minutes before continuing cooling. They say it adds better flavors.
MM, that's what I did today. I did a hop tea with the bottling sugar toady.

Don't worry about hop flavour disappearing at this stage, the beer is producing lots of flavours that mix up the balance of aromas and tastes. If you tasted a sample now and compared it to a sample in two weeks they would be very different, and in some cases you wouldn't recognise the two as the same beer.
As an example I recently brewed a Sierra Nevada pale ale clone and had a sneaky taster at bottling time only to discover there was zero hop flavour. I though I'd made a dud. Two weeks in the bottle and the was some hop flavour and now, i think about six weeks in the bottle and cascade is very distinct! I don't know exactly what was masking the flavour, maybe that raw, unmellowed alchohol? Or c02 coming out of fermentation? Maybe the full on smell of yeast during fermentation?

Real ale is living thing in my eyes, the aromas and flavours change a lot.

Loads of time for aroma and flavour to settle once conditioning is over.

First thing to do is don't panic. Stick to the recipe and it will be ok. Leave ferment for 14 days then bottle