Saving a too-bitter espresso stout

[famousmortimer]

So, I'm on my third all-grain brew and was looking for a little help.

Here's the recipe I constructed for the brew:


10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US
2 lbs Oats, Flaked
1 lbs Chocolate Malt
1 lbs Red Wheat
8.0 oz Roasted Barley
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min 25.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.60 %] - Boil 30.0 min 19.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [6.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min 14.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [6.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min 3.8 IBUs
5.00 oz OQ Archimedes Espresso Flameout
4.00 oz Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate

Total IBU: 62.5 plus extra perceived bitterness from espresso.


So, the issue is that we used too much water in batch sparging, causing the OG to be very low - 1.052. It's been about five weeks since the brew date, haven't taken a gravity reading, but it's expected to be pretty dry and around 5.5% alcohol. The OG should have been higher, which I think would have made the 62 IBUs no problem, but upon tasting it, it's extremely bitter and flat tasting - there's not as much of a malt presence as I would like.

Now, my goal was to go into secondary any way with a pistachio "tea" (from what I've been reading, this seems like the best way to incorporate nuts into beer). I was thinking, to save this, I could add more baking chocolate/oats with the "tea" to bring up the gravity and alcohol level. With this, I was also thinking that lactic sugar might also save it since it won't ferment out.

Thanks for reading and I'd really appreciate any tips, whether it is regarding my recipe or how I might potentially rescue this beer!

 

[famousmortimer]

Sorry to bump so soon, but does anyone have advice? I'd really appreciate it, thanks.

 

[brewmeister13]

Age it. If the hop bitterness is too much it will mellow out and decrease with age.

 

[ThreeSheetsBrewing]

Or back sweeten with some maltose?

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[BigFloyd]

I'm not sure that you can do anything about it for this batch, but it's much better to not add the coffee to hot wort either during the boil or at flameout. The higher temp releases compounds that cause an astringent bitterness.

If you cold brew the coffee and add it at bottling/kegging, the flavor will be much less bitter.

Also, when you add unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate prior to fermentation, it helps to balance it out with 1-2 times the same weight in lactose.

 

[famousmortimer]

I'm not sure that you can do anything about it for this batch, but it's much better to not add the coffee to hot wort either during the boil or at flameout. The higher temp releases compounds that cause an astringent bitterness.

If you cold brew the coffee and add it at bottling/kegging, the flavor will be much less bitter.

Also, when you add unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate prior to fermentation, it helps to balance it out with 1-2 times the same weight in lactose.

Thanks for this. I don't believe we got any astringency from the coffee - this was something we did worry about, though. I was essentially concerned that the coffee's perceived bitterness plus the high IBU was too much for this relatively light beer. However, Looks like I'll only be doing cold brew for my next coffee beer to play it safe.




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[BigFloyd]

However, Looks like I'll only be doing cold brew for my next coffee beer to play it safe.




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You'll like the result. I have a coffee porter on tap right now that got dosed with 4oz of cold brewed (overnight) dark roast at kegging. Yummy.

 

[JaimeTheLimey]

Age it or brew another with more malt/less IBU's and blend it.

 

[masteraviator]

I cloned Stone Russian Imperial Espresso Stout using the BYO recipe and adding 8 oz of my fairly weak espresso from my fully automatic machine in the fermenter. Damn it's good; and very close to the Stone.

http://byo.com/mead/item/1721-brewing-in-the-stone-age