hop sludge

[karl oemcke]

Following a sucession of brews I am sensing a residual hop bitterness that I cant seem to get rid of. They have all been 7ish percent ipa's.

How does one not end up with so much hop sludge at the end of the day?

Do hop bags really work?

I have been told it is good to only leave the dry hops in for 3 days at a time but how do people remove these?

I wish new zealand hop growers would provide us with hop petals (like they do in canada) as I am sure this would alleviate the issue somewhat...

Any help would be fantastic

Cheers

[Samuel Loader]

Hi, 

I would recommend reading, for the love of hops by Stan Hieronymus. (even has advice from our own Epic brewer Luke Nicholas) in here they give some practical advice on temperature and volumes for dry hopping. I had the same issue at first with my beers and the solution for me was to use more hops at the end of primary for a shorter amount of time (24 hours) then crash cool(for clarity) and rack off

Cheers,  

[Crusader-Rob]

Something else to consider is yeast health, if you have off flavors such as diacetyl etc. these can produce "yeast bite", which can be considered quite bitter. or just the bittering hops enhanced slightly, because your hopflavours are somewhat hidden behind the flaws in your beer.

for your 7% IPA's what yeast are you using, are you doing a rest, and how much are you pitching etc.?

Its something that can contribute.

alternatively dryhopping does appearto add some bitterness to beer, abnd prolonged contact times, can cause grassy flavors etc.

[oliver]

Hard to say without tasting the beer, it could be a fermentation issue or contamination. It could be astringency from the hot side. It could be boil pH (if it's too high you can extract a harsher, lingering bitterness). It could be hop selection for the early hop additions.

You can buy whole cone hops in NZ:
http://www.thatbeerplace.com/
https://www.brewshop.co.nz/catalogsearch/result/?q=whole+cone

Maybe flick us your recipe + description of your process and we might be able to spot something. I've had a few IPAs that have had a harsh lingering bitterness, I've never attributed it to hop sludge for what it's worth. I usually try to fix that issue in the boil in terms of pH, hop selection, quantities, etc. Try to figure out whether what your tasting is bitterness or astringency too, that might help you narrow down the possible culprits. Hope that helps

[Peter Smith]

Your profile shows you as being in Tauranga, there is a monthly homebrew meetup at mount brewing It think

Try emailing  western.bay.home.brewers @  g     mail

Nothing better then letting a pro brewer give you feedback.

[Grant R Baker]

I usually dry hop in a secondary vessel for about 5 days then cold crash it. The hops settle on the bottom and I rack it to a keg.

Also some hops do have a lingering bitterness.. its just what they are. Dr Rudi is one that has to be used carefully as it has a big after taste.