AG PA No character

[phelixoflaherty]

Did a simcoe PA in november using pretty standard procedure but its like all the character was stripped out of the ale  .
Its as clean as a whistle (used Protofloc)in the bottle but there is no flavour or character.

Did a stout before that which was nice.
Any Ideas what would cause this?

Am A novice

[Leann ull]

How much and when in the boil and dry hopping
How old were hops, stored?

[Tom]

Also, which yeast?

[Bubbles]

Can you post the full recipe?

[DEMPSEY]

If the hops were old and stored poorly allowing the oils dry out then they would not give you any umph .

[phelixoflaherty]

Yeast was Safale US-05.

Simcoe was 2013

[Bubbles]

80g of rye malt is going to make little or no impact in that recipe, even though the batch size is 8 litres.

The word "character" is a little vague.. Were you expecting it to be maltier? If so, up the gravity next time, or use more specialty malts. If not hoppy enough, simply use more hops, or as Dempsey suggests, make sure you have fresh hops.

Did you actually hit your intended original gravity?

[phelixoflaherty]

Never checked.
Was just chancing it

[Leann ull]

stored?

[Tom]

Not much in the way of hops there anyway, even for 8 litres. And from November to now you'd expect the hop character to dissipate a little. US05 should help the hops, but I don't think it'll do much for your malt character. I've no experience of rye, but Bubbles makes valid points. Although your FG implies a high mash temp, I think US05 will drop it lower, thus losing any body you would have expected.

[phelixoflaherty]

stored in a campbell tea tin at room temp

[Leann ull]

So you know exactly what I am going to say next

[phelixoflaherty]

I can guess.
I learned something new today

[auralabuse]

I suspect the old enemy "campbell's tea tin" off flavour, the fear of every brewer

[Leann ull]

Invest in 2 things, beersmith, it will auto calc HSI, the amount hops lose in varying environmental storage conditions and your NHC membership
There is nothing wrong with using 2 year old hops if stored well, you just need shed loads, potentially double depending on variety.