No hop flavour or bitterness

[simon12]

Just tried my 1st brew in a few years, it was supposed to be a very bitter hop bomb. My main worry was it would be to over hopped and overly bitter but theres no hop flavour or bitterness. The only flavour in the finished beer from hops is a bit of a planty/leafy taste with little to no bitterness. I have done many brews before and this has never happened the only thing I have not used before is Edenbridge water no idea on the profile but the kettle never gets furred up and it makes great coffee, but can the water strip all hop flavour and bitterness?
Recipe
5Kg marris otter mashed at 63C for 1 hour then 2 step batch sparge, only got 75% efficiency but was more down on volume and SG was slightly higher than expected 1.056, FG was 1.010
40g Target 60 min
40g cascade + pinch of Irish moss 15min
40g cascade 5 min
20g cascade 0min
any ideas what went wrong?

 

[foxy]

I don't know what your target gravity was supposed to be, but going over the target gravity will cancel out some of the bitterness.
If you used any clearing agent that can also strip some of the hop profile.
The other place to look is at your water, and just see what you may be lacking.

 

[Harbey]

I'm sure you will have considered this but as you said this was your first brew in a few years, were the hops and grain fresh?

 

[Linalmeemow]

Just tried my 1st brew in a few years, it was supposed to be a very bitter hop bomb. My main worry was it would be to over hopped and overly bitter but theres no hop flavour or bitterness. The only flavour in the finished beer from hops is a bit of a planty/leafy taste with little to no bitterness. I have done many brews before and this has never happened the only thing I have not used before is Edenbridge water no idea on the profile but the kettle never gets furred up and it makes great coffee, but can the water strip all hop flavour and bitterness?
Recipe
5Kg marris otter mashed at 63C for 1 hour then 2 step batch sparge, only got 75% efficiency but was more down on volume and SG was slightly higher than expected 1.056, FG was 1.010
40g Target 60 min
40g cascade + pinch of Irish moss 15min
40g cascade 5 min
20g cascade 0min
any ideas what went wrong?

What was your expected IBU and BU:GU ratio? Did you use whole hops or pellets? 140g of hops isn't all that much, especially with most of the additions late on.

 

[foxbat]

100g of Cascade in the last 15 minutes is guaranteed to give a nice big grapefruit hit... if the Cascade is good that is. Did it smell good in the packet? And I'm sure it's not the case but have you got someone else to taste it to confirm your own sense of taste?

 

[An Ankoù]

Cascade is notorious for losing its alpha acid content and aroma more quickly than many other hops. If it was an old open packet then that's probably what's happened.

 

[simon12]

Thanks for the replies, the hops were delivered the day before from cross my loof and smelt fine, the grain was fresh from a local brewery. According to the calculator on here the IBU should have been over 60 but no idea on the IB:GU ratio. The only finings used were the irish moss. It was force carbonated in a corny. Any other ideas what gone wrong or is it even possible it could be the water?

 

[An Ankoù]

Thanks for the replies, the hops were delivered the day before from cross my loof and smelt fine, the grain was fresh from a local brewery. According to the calculator on here the IBU should have been over 60 but no idea on the IB:GU ratio. The only finings used were the irish moss. It was force carbonated in a corny. Any other ideas what gone wrong or is it even possible it could be the water?

Then I'm at a loss. Not being funny, but is there any reason why your sense of taste and smell might be temporarily impaired?

 

[simon12]

Then I'm at a loss. Not being funny, but is there any reason why your sense of taste and smell might be temporarily impaired?

No all other beer, food, coffee etc tastes fine

 

[The Baron]

Simon12 do not take this the wrong way have you maybe got the virus as loss of smell and taste is a major symptom
Ps hope not
Edit sorry did not read all the posts

 

[An Ankoù]

No all other beer, food, coffee etc tastes fine

Glad to hear that. Some time ago, more than a year now, I made a AIPA and dry hopped it with Cascade and it tasted awful- just grassy and herbal. I commented about this in a thread about "grassy" flavours at the time. I vowed never to use Cascade again, but now I mix them with other hops if a recipe calls for them and they're fine. This is an issue for me as my favourite glugging beer of all time id Oakham's Bishop's Farewell, which, I understand relies very heavily on Cascade.

 

[Linalmeemow]

my favourite glugging beer of all time id Oakham's Bishop's Farewell, which, I understand relies very heavily on Cascade.

Have you tried Oakham Green Devil? Lovely drop, essentially an amped-up version of their Citra. Oddly I can't get it here in Leicester, but they have it in the Tesco in Burscough, Lancashire whenever I'm up visiting my folks.

 

[foxbat]

It's a bit weird that you get neither flavour from the Cascade nor bitterness from the Target. It's not like Target is a shy and retiring hop either. Very strange.