Longevity of hop flavours in bottled beer

widdersbel · Post by **widdersbel** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 6:06 pm

I'm thinking of making a high-gravity heavily dry-hopped Amarillo stout for Christmas (along the lines of the one Monkey Brew made last autumn). If I make it now, that will give it plenty of time to mature. The only thing that concerns me is: will all the hop aromas have disappeared by Christmas?

What's the optimum maturation period for aroma hops?

Jocky · Post by **Jocky** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 3:59 pm

They'll start fading from the day of bottling - there won't be much, if any, aroma left by Christmas if you made it now.

jaroporter · Post by **jaroporter** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:48 pm

if you want that up front whack you'd be best bulk aging it then dryhopping a few days before bottling, say at the start of december so it's got plenty of time to carb

6470zzy · Post by **6470zzy** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 10:26 pm

jaroporter wrote:if you want that up front whack you'd be best bulk aging it then dryhopping a few days before bottling, say at the start of december so it's got plenty of time to carb

Be prepared to re-dose it with yeast if you go this route. Assuming that you will be bottle conditioning it of course.

Cheers

widdersbel · Post by **widdersbel** » Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:35 am

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll just postpone making it for now - I only considered it because I have the ingredients already but I'll use them for something else.

Padalac · Post by **Padalac** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 2:28 pm

just use more hops? some say the aroma from late hopping is more stable than dry hopping..maybe this is worth bearing in mind.

PhilB · Post by **PhilB** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 5:08 pm

Hi

Jocky wrote:there won't be much, if any, aroma left by Christmas if you made it now

... I don't buy in to this hop flavour & aroma fades from day one, theory ... in my experience "hop presence" (hop flavour and aroma) can go up, as well as down

... in my most recent experience a Coopers IPA that I made last November, tweaked with a hop tea made with 20g Bobek and 20g Dana and then dry-hopped with 20g Bobek and 20g Dana, had lost just about all of it's hoppiness by late Jan/early Feb this year

... but a bottle I found at the back of the garage and opened just last weekend was tasting and smelling hoppier than it ever did

I'll openly admit I don't know the exact conditions and timescales that make this effect occur ... I just wish I did

... and if widdesrbel is wanting to "guarantee" a hoppy beer for Xmas then I agree with the advice above ... but let's not consign ALL hoppy beers to the beery dustbin as soon as they're a couple of months old, just yet

Cheers, PhilB

widdersbel · Post by **widdersbel** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 2:14 pm

As it happens, I never got round to making the brew - partly because brewing has been on hold over summer as it's been too warm and I don't have any temperature control. So the hops are still there unopened in the freezer. I'll probably use them some time towards the end of this month, which should be about right for the Christmas brew.

Some good points there, PhilB.

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