andrewp
Well-Known Member
So I brewed a session strength IPA a week ago. It fermented quick and is now in the secondary with the dry hops. As always I took a hydrometer sample at this stage to check the fermentation progress and I tasted it.... Wow.... So incredibly bitter. Not a good bitter either. It's an astringent, harsh bitter that reminds me of dishwasher soap.
I've read a few threads on back sweetening, which I am going to try to use to salvage this batch. I have a few ideas that I'd appreciate some feedback and discussion on. I am bottling this batch, not kegging so any option to kill fermentation is out.
1) Lactose seems to be a common sweetener that would work in this case. This seems to be the go to option. Does anyone have any advice to adding lactose prior to bottling?
2) I thought back to my extract days and remembered that steeping grains don't contribute that much fermentable sugar but will give you some body, color, and flavor. Do you think that I could steep some Caramalt or aromatic malt to obtain more malt flavor? I'm worried about adding additional fermentable sugar to the batch although if I did this today the batch will still secondary until Monday which should give this sugars the time to ferment if needed.
3) What about combining these two methods to get body from the lactose but more of a malt flavor from the steeping grains?
I've tried to brew low ABV , highly hopped beers before and have ran into this problem. Shame on me for not looking at my notes from previous batches before doing this one. With that being said the last time I experienced this flavor I tried to wait it out and that didn't work. I generally appreciate the "don't touch it and wait" philosophy but I'm looking to be more proactive with this batch.
Cheers
I've read a few threads on back sweetening, which I am going to try to use to salvage this batch. I have a few ideas that I'd appreciate some feedback and discussion on. I am bottling this batch, not kegging so any option to kill fermentation is out.
1) Lactose seems to be a common sweetener that would work in this case. This seems to be the go to option. Does anyone have any advice to adding lactose prior to bottling?
2) I thought back to my extract days and remembered that steeping grains don't contribute that much fermentable sugar but will give you some body, color, and flavor. Do you think that I could steep some Caramalt or aromatic malt to obtain more malt flavor? I'm worried about adding additional fermentable sugar to the batch although if I did this today the batch will still secondary until Monday which should give this sugars the time to ferment if needed.
3) What about combining these two methods to get body from the lactose but more of a malt flavor from the steeping grains?
I've tried to brew low ABV , highly hopped beers before and have ran into this problem. Shame on me for not looking at my notes from previous batches before doing this one. With that being said the last time I experienced this flavor I tried to wait it out and that didn't work. I generally appreciate the "don't touch it and wait" philosophy but I'm looking to be more proactive with this batch.
Cheers
