[gmac]

I've noticed a real lack of hop flavour and aroma in the last few beers I've made.  The one major process change is the lack of an immersion chiller because it's broken so I've been putting the beer in tubs with ice/water.  The chilling is obviously slower.  Would this be the cause of less hop flavour and aroma?  I've been adding decent amounts of late hops but I'm just not perceiving them.  How important is fast chilling to preserving those flavours?  I wonder because others talk of hop stands where they let the hops seep for a while so what would the difference be?

Last beer had 1/2 oz of Magnum at 60 mins, 1 oz of Centennial and 1 oz of Amarillo at 10 mins and 1/2 oz of each at flameout and all I get is bitter (O.G. 1.042).  Yeast was WLP007.
What would you recommend for the best hop timings to get good hop flavour and aroma?
Thanks

[jmcamerlengo]

Yes that could certainly cause the issue.

I would recommend a blast of first wort hops for flavor and dry hop for aroma.

[morticaixavier]

you cold try adding more hops part way through your chilling process like when the wort gets down to 160 or so. that should preserve some aroma and maybe some flavour

[narvin]

More late hops!  If I'm doing a hop stand (which I've done for my last couple of IPAs and loved the results), I like at least 2 - 4 oz of flameout hops.  I used 2 oz per 5 gallons for flameout and 2 oz of dry hop last time.

[anday6]

If you are above 180 or so for an extended amount of time, you'll get isomerization and IBUs even after the boil.  Either shift all your additions to account for this (40 min addition with long chill to replace 60min, etc) or get that immersion chiller fixed or replaced.

[mabrungard]

I heard an interesting report from Colin Kaminski during our Water Panel presentation at NHC this year.  He said that hop expression is muted as kettle wort pH is reduced. 

I had not put this effect together before in my mind.  But I had noticed that some low pH worts that I had produced in years past, did not seem as bitter nor hoppy.  I just never put the cause and effect together before.  So I think that Colin is correct that there is another effect of too low wort pH and that is low hop expression.  This is in addition to increased attenuation and tart flavor perceptions when wort pH is lower than ideal. 

So if the overall pH of the pre-boil wort in the kettle is less than about 5.2, you might experience this reduced hop expression.  It may be better to keep pre-boil pH around 5.4.  Of course, these are all room temperature pH measurements.

[DrewG]

you cold try adding more hops part way through your chilling process like when the wort gets down to 160 or so. that should preserve some aroma and maybe some flavour

+1