Fixing Bland Beer

[JohnSand]

I brewed a pilsner on new equipment, got low efficiency, corrected with DME. Now I have a bland beer that tastes about like a macro lager. I can just keep drinking it, or brew again and dump it. I also considered dry hopping in the keg, or blending. I could blend it with the current APA, or brew a small batch to blend into it. My current thought is to test the blend first by mixing in a glass. If that works I can combine the two kegs. Dry hopping or hop tea is the next easiest. Hardest but not very hard would be to make a stovetop batch of hoppy malty brew to mix in. What have you tried, and how well did it work?

 

[day_trippr]

I only ever had such an outcome happen once - resulting in an insipidly under-bittered wheat beer. Fortunately that's a rather simple problem that I was able to satisfactorily correct by making up a somewhat concentrated Mittelfrueh tea to get the added bittering with a minimum of additional volume...

Cheers!

 

[Hans O. Lowe]

I brewed a pilsner on new equipment, got low efficiency, corrected with DME. Now I have a bland beer that tastes about like a macro lager...

Sounds like a good one to save for your BMC friends!

 

[GoodTruble]

If It's a bland pilsner, I would definitely try dry hopping. If nothing else, you will get the chance to find out what taste difference results from dry hopping with X hops.

 

[JohnSand]

Sounds like a good one to save for your BMC friends!

BMC friends? I gave them up!

 

[lumpher]

If all that is wrong with it is underhopped, I'd go with hop tea if I just want more hoppiness. If I wanted fresh hops taste, I'd dry-hop. You can put a hop pellet in a glass, let it sit a few minutes, then try it to see if that's what you want.

 

[tracer bullet]

And of course revise the recipe for next time.

I don't care for macro American lagers, but obviously a ton of people love them. There's a chance you perfectly brewed the recipe and just don't care for the recipe.

 

[eric19312]

I've never used this but sounds like it might take care of it...

https://www.homebrewohio.com/hoptimize/

 

[tneary]

You could try adding some quality vanilla extract. Try mixing a little in a glass and if it tastes good add equivalent volume to your keg.

 

[bracconiere]

What have you tried, and how well did it work?

well being i usually distill my 'dumpers' because there's no such thing as a dumper to me...so give a few weeks on some oak?

might turn iot into something like a fine oak aged white wine?

 

[Beermeister32]

The great thing about having several beers on tap is you can blend them. I had a boring Pils one time, I’d fill my pint maybe 80% boring beer and 20% Stone IPA clone in the glass. Woke that beer right up! A hoppy Pils, made that keg drinkable and fantastic!

 

[JohnSand]

Thanks guys. I took the first step and tried an even mix with my Rye Pale, not great. I now remember bottle hopping a faded IPA and improving it, so a keg hop is certainly viable. Thanks @eric19312 , you remind me that I have hop extract on hand. That is likely the simplest next step. I plan to bottle some first, for those rare BMC fans. Maybe I'll bottle hop a couple and see how that goes. Thanks again.

 

[amber-ale]

or use the bland beer to experiment with different additives.
spike each glass with ...
your favorite liqueur, hop concentrates, fruit, spices etc.
use it as the base for a new future unique recipe.
or give it to people who only like light beers
use as slug baite in your garden
or people you don't like...

 

[bracconiere]

or people you don't like...

 

[cmac62]

spike each glass with ...
your favorite liqueur, hop concentrates, fruit, spices etc.
use it as the base for a new future unique recipe.

I'd consider making it a gose (one of my favorite styles) Add maybe 40 gs of salt and a couple lemons worth of juice and it a margarita.