Well over 6 weeks in bottles, my IIPA is as carbed as its going to get and the problem remains it’s still too sweet to drink. I was wondering if anyone has successfully refermented something after bottling and carbing and if there is any advice you can give me.
I realize this is a huge oxydation and infection risk but its quite undrinkable now so not sure it would be much of a loss. I was thinking of just pouring (very slowly) all the beers into a bucket fermenter and letting it degas for a day or so. Then boiling a few cups of water and 1/2lb of sugar, adding that to the bucket then pitching a packet of US-05 and ferment that as if it’s a new beer. Prime and rebottle after a week or so.
What does everyone think? Any problems I may run into?
Try adding a little bit of gypsum to a glass of beer and see what you think. Gypsum gives a beer a dry finish and adding to a glass works fine. The only problem is getting a small enough dose.
I’ll give it a whirl but I don’t have high hopes. It’s almost like syrupy sweet. I really don’t want to dump it. My wife likes it but she drinks like two beers a month.
Is there any particular reason you think I should avoid doing this? Worst case: it sucks and I dump it anyway.
Im just curious what yeast did you use. I had the same problem once with ipa I
made. super sweet. Yeast that attenuation 68 to 72 percent will leave a lot of residual sweetness in your beer. An apparent attenuation of 73 t77 percent is more typical, having a lower residual sweetness. 78 percent will b lighter and drier. That where i made my mistake, used yeast that was on lower end attenuation. made it sweeter than i cared for.
Why do you say you should have added more sugar? It sounds as if the yeast pooped out before finishing all the sugar available, did you make a starter?
FWIW I have had a similar experience with a high gravity DIPA that wasn’t carbing. I opened all bottles and added a touch of dry yeast to each bottle. Tasted like crap and I dumped the batch.
I feel like this may have been discussed and possibly answered in another thread, but I’m too lazy to look - how big of a starter did you use and at what temp did you ferment? The key to drying out bigger beers (and fermenting any beer properly, really) is to raise the temp through the course of the fermentation.
Use it for brines and maybe even a hoppy bbq sauce (which are awesome btw) if its truly undrinkable.
[quote=“Hades”]Why do you say you should have added more sugar? It sounds as if the yeast pooped out before finishing all the sugar available, did you make a starter?
[/quote]
Yeah I made a 2 step starter, both 1.75L, so I was pitching more than enough yeast. I meant I should have replaced more of the extract with sugar, to result in more fermentable wort and with a lower FG.
Yeah this was pretty steady at 64 for about a week then I finished it off around 67. I probably should have raised the temp a little more at the end. Temp control is pretty difficult for me now as I don’t have a ferment chamber so I basically have to move the beer to different locations in my house to increase the temp Cheap but effective.
this is a good way to do it. When trying to free up my ferment chamber, I will bring a beer out to an area of the house that is 65-70 ambient for it to finish up. Not very precise, but usually has resulted in good attenuation numbers for me.
[quote=“mattnaik”]
Do you have a recipe? That does sound tasty![/quote]
Not really, just search for a basic bbq sauce recipe. I would take 1 bottle of the IPA in a stockpot with 6oz of chicken stock, 2oz of malt vinegar, and 6oz of water, simmer 3-4 de-seeded dried ancho peppers, 1/2 of a cooking onion and some garlic in the beer/stock/water mixture until its reduced by about half and everything is soft/translucent, then blend the whole thing until its smooth, then add ketchup, honey, molasses, worcestershire, mustard, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and some other stuff per a recipe you can find on the interwebs.
[quote=“damian_winter”]Im just curious what yeast did you use. I had the same problem once with ipa I
made. super sweet. Yeast that attenuation 68 to 72 percent will leave a lot of residual sweetness in your beer. An apparent attenuation of 73 t77 percent is more typical, having a lower residual sweetness. 78 percent will b lighter and drier. That where i made my mistake, used yeast that was on lower end attenuation. made it sweeter than i cared for.[/quote]
The attenuation rating for yeast is only a way of comparing one strain to another. It’s not necessarily an indication of the attenuation you can expect. Wort composition is really what determines that.
Not really. What I’m saying is that using a yeast with a higher attenuation rating might not make any difference in FG depending on the wort composition. I can get anywhere from 60% to nearly 90% attenuation with the same yeast depending on what the wort is like. So you can’t necessarily look at the attenuation rating and know what your own attenuation will be.
If the carbonation will improve the flavor (uncarbonated beer can be deceivingly different in flavor from the same beer properly carbonated), then perhaps warming them and inverting them to rouse the yeast in the bottles may help to achieve carbonation and may help with flavor and drinkability. It isn’t a cure for highly underattenuated beer, but worth a try at this point (though the yeast may have given up the ghost at this point).
Mash temp and crush can both affect attenuation and body of the final beer.
Do you have a recipe? That does sound tasty![/quote]
Year ago I brewed a barley wine that was almost syrupy. After adding a bottle of bourbon :oops: , I couldn’t drink it.
Some friends loved it, and it won 1st in a local comp.
Anyhow, I seasoned a pork shoulder with salt and pepper, then cooked in a Crock Pot with a bottle of it.
Came out great. I’ve also added sliced onions and green chiles. I was disappointed when I used up the last bottle.
An update on this: I decided to heed the smart people’s advice and do nothing about this. They are now just around 2 months in bottles and I decided to chill one up and see where it’s at. This might actually make a pretty decent barelywine! The flavors are all starting to come together and it feels almost like this is what it was brewed to taste like. Like I planned it this way or something. At least that’s what I’ll tell people 8)
I actually have good feelings about this one now. I will pop open another one every month and see how it progresses. I really think the mosaic hops and the honey malt with the sweetness play well together. Kinda wish I had planned it this way and I might have aged it on some oak chips.
