Beer has a bite to it, trying to correct that in the secondary.

So my last brew I forgot a hop addition and overshot my OG by a bit. I just transferred it to the secondary last night and drank the FG sample as required by brewing law. It's got a bit of a bite to it, can definitely taste the alcohol.

Here's what I was thinking.

1) Dry hop in the secondary
2) Add some orange zest to the secondary
3) Both 1 and 2

If I remember correctly dry hopping is only for aroma and I'm not sure orange zest will do anything without being boiled first.

Any other ideas?

What kind of "bite" is it? If it's tannic, cold conditioning will help a lot. I don't think dryhopping will help, unless the beer simply needs some hop aroma.

I don't think adding orange will get rid of an orange bite. That said I have an APA that I add zest from 2 oranges to and it was really good. Paired with a citrusy hop like cascade, centennial, or citra its great.

Certainly a month or two in secondary can help mellow out the alcohol bite. All of my higher gravity belgians improve after some bulk aging in this regard. But if this is a hoppy brew, you may not want to age it that long as the hop aroma/flavor will fade over time. If you want to dry hop in secondary, I would delay adding the hops until 1-2 weeks from packaging. That might be your best bet.

I would describe the taste as "alcohol", like when you order a mix drink and the bartender goes a we bit nuts on the alcohol part of the drink.

Conditioning will probably help, time heals all things.

I wouldn't do anything. Once it's bottled and carb'd up I bet it will taste a lot better.

GreenDragon said:

I would describe the taste as "alcohol", like when you order a mix drink and the bartender goes a we bit nuts on the alcohol part of the drink.

Conditioning will probably help, time heals all things.

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Well, in my experience time does NOT heal all things. But it really depends on the cause.

If the "alcohol" taste is because the beer fermented too warm (fusel alcohol) that might fade only a tiny bit. If it's because the ABV of the beer is high, that will smooth out quite a bit with time. If the beer never got above 70-72 degrees, I would say that the flavor will fade. If the beer was fermented warmer than that, I don't think it will fade.

I know this is the furthest thing from an exact temp, but it's what I always do: It was in a basement, that I often have to wear a long sleeve shirt to work in comfortably, on concrete floor, so I don't think it's a high ferment temp issue. I think I'll just relax and not worry about it.

I was thinking someone may have so good masking tips I'd never heard of

Tip: relax. Off flavors in secondary often don't actually exist in carbed, finished beer. Serious pros might be able to diagnose this way, but most newer brewers are going to simply waste time (and possibly damage beer) by trying to fix problems that don't actually exist.

Leave the beer alone.


edit: left out a word that changed my intended meaning.

homebrewdad said:

Tip: relax. Off flavors in secondary don't actually exist in carbed, finished beer. Serious pros might be able to diagnose this way, but most newer brewers are going to simply waste time (and possibly damage beer) by trying to fix problems that don't actually exist.

Leave the beer alone.

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I agree with leaving the beer alone!

But I don't agree with "off flavors in secondary don't actually exist in carbed, finished beer". Believe me- there are lots and lots of flaws in secondary, and lots and lots in finished beer. Maybe they won't be as unpleasant as they could be with some time, but time just won't fix a bad beer.

Yooper said:

I agree with leaving the beer alone!

But I don't agree with "off flavors in secondary don't actually exist in carbed, finished beer". Believe me- there are lots and lots of flaws in secondary, and lots and lots in finished beer. Maybe they won't be as unpleasant as they could be with some time, but time just won't fix a bad beer.

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That was a typo on my part. Meant to state that they OFTEN don't exist. Obviously, there is no magiv forcefield in the secondary that strip away off flavors.

My point is that newbies like me are especially prone to decide that the beer in the fermenter is bitter, bland, watery, or a host of other issues that won't be there once the beer is carbed and aged a bit.