losing hop flavor during carbination

[grant green]

I have been consistently losing hop flavor/aroma after force carbonating.  There is a distinct difference in the hop profile right out of the fermenter (full and aromatic) and after being carbonated.  I do shake the keg to carbonate.  I purge the headspace in the keg before shaking, but only once usually.  It seems to actually lose more flavor over time and just gets overwhelmingly malty tasting.

Any ideas?

[jomebrew]

Delicate aromatics will be forced out of solution when shaking the keg to force, force carbonate.  Once they are gone, they are gone.    Vigorous shaking also risks releasing head forming proteins which can reduce the head as well as how it slowly dissolves.

I imagine you also drastically reduce the beer temperature when you carbonate it.  This too mutes the finer hop aroma and flavor leaving more bitter and malt on the tongue.

I would recommend allowing the beer to carbonate over several days to a week rather than treat it with brutish disrespect and abuse.  Then, allow it to rise to a balanced drinking temperature.

[Maine Homebrewer]

I have had that experience as well, and I patiently wait for the brew to carbonate over a week or so instead of rolling and shaking.

My theory is that as the brew goes down and the aromatics have more head space to occupy, they occupy the head space instead of the brew. But that's just a theory.

Even at the bar you can tell when they're getting near the bottom of the keg. Especially if it's a specialty brew that takes a while to kick. It loses the hop character and gets more and more malty.

I suppose you could bottle the brews where you value the hoppiness, or drink it faster.

[grathan]

Or serve your beer line through something like this:


http://images.geirove.org/randall06.jpg



add more hops to your recipies, or perhaps buy something like this:


http://www.webstaurantstore.com/stainless-steel-tea-ball-infuser-2-diameter/stainless-steel-tea-ball-infuser-2-diameter.jpg

and add more hops to the keg when it starts to get weak.