Advice on NEIPA colour

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 13, 2017
Messages
268
Reaction score
78
Location
Czech Republic
Hi there, I brewed a NEIPA recently that I was really happy with from brewing to fermenting to bottling. I used my usual water adjustments, more or less typical neipa grain bill. Generous hopping of Strata, Sabro and Talus and for the first time used lactose late in the boil. I also used MJ Hophead yeast for the first time.

The problem? The first bottle I opened was slightly darker than I anticipated but not too much and the taste was good, or at least accurate. However every bottle since has been a much darker hue. Could this be oxidisation due to the oats? There are no obvious off flavours though, just the colour change?

Any comments or advice welcome. I know my brews typically come out darker than the calculated ebc but they don't normally get darker from one week to the next in the bottle?
 
IMG-20230225-WA0000.jpeg
 
Yeah, that looks severely oxidised unfortunately. Can be really really tricky to bottle NEIPAs. Some on here have had success with using Ascorbic Acid, minimal headspace in the bottles, and no shaking of the bottles.

Personally, I'm not brave enough to try to bottle them because my first 5/6 ever NEIPAs were ruined within a week of bottling. Only ever keg them now with a closed transfer.
 
I may just be lucky but I (touch wood) haven’t had any problems with Oxidation. Although not quite an NEIPA my Benfleet Haze (Hazy American) was awarded 1st place in the January THBF, and that just clinched the win because there was no O2 pick up in the view of the judges.
Im obviously very cautious when siphoning from the FV, no splashing etc, but there’s no closed transfer or anything.
The plastic bottle I entered into the Jan comp was filled straight from the FV almost to the top, just under the screw lines for the cap, then I gently squeeze the bottle so that the beer is at the very top of the bottle before putting the cap on.
 
Like @Brew_DD2 I do closed transfer on my NEIPAs to a keg. If I want to keep a couple of bottles I use plastic bottles and put a puff of CO2 in the keg to transfer, and like @Benfleet Brewery squeeze the bottle to get the beer level with the bottle neck before fitting the screw cap. Here’s one I prepared earlier :laugh8:

6EF5A4A4-4ECE-4483-A7AE-12D0F6763151.jpeg
 
Thanks for the replies. At least it will save me labelling this on!
My only idea was oxidisation but Only reason I had a doubt over it is that the taste hadn't changed as much as the appearance. I've had load of oxidised beers in the past when I haven't got round to finishing the batch and you can usually tell straight away from the taste. Maybe I just caught these right at the first point. Shame since I got the bloody hops imported from Germany but never mind!

Yours all look great. Maybe an impetus to start kegging....
 

Latest posts

Back
Top