Burnt beer/liqour! What do I do to improve it?

I recently tried making a barley wine / weird beer but the problem is I burnt a bit of the whole grain barley on the bottom of the pot. I tried to remove as much as I could but now after bottling their is a profound burnt, smokey flavor. In fact, the burnt flavor is a bit gross.
Any suggestions? I'm thinking perhaps some light roasted coffee (maybe it would add a touch of coffee flavor that would make sense with the roasted "burnt" flavor of the liquor. What about some cola tea or anise, maybe it would give it a hint of Dr.Pepperness?

I know this is an odd question but any suggestions and thoughts would be most welcome.

first.. distilling is illegal in the US.. don't think that is something you should discuss on here. second.. how did you burn barley in the brew pot? were you boiling the grains?

Mysticmead said:

first.. distilling is illegal in the US.. don't think that is something you should discuss on here. second.. how did you burn barley in the brew pot? were you boiling the grains?

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It's only illegal without a license. Here in WA you can get one for $100!

ooguyx said:

It's only illegal without a license. Here in WA you can get one for $100!

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Nice.

Of course, it's legal anywhere as long as you're only "purifying water".

I'll be damned - $100 permit for distillation.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=12260

dwarven_stout said:

Nice.

Of course, it's legal anywhere as long as you're only "purifying water".

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You can distill alcohol here in WA for a $100 permit. It will also let you sell up to 2L per customer per day. Not bad.

Mysticmead said:

first.. distilling is illegal in the US.. don't think that is something you should discuss on here. second.. how did you burn barley in the brew pot? were you boiling the grains?

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wrong

ooguyx said:

You can distill alcohol here in WA for a $100 permit. It will also let you sell up to 2L per customer per day. Not bad.

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A recent law has allowed for small operations to get a $100 state permit, along with the Fed permit

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its that along with the fed permit that will cost ya.

I was referring to home distilling, not a micro distiller. Maybe I had wrongly guessed that he was referring to distilling alcohol at home, which, unless used for fuel, is illegal in most if not all 50 states.

either way that is not what the OP was asking about.

My question of how he burned the grain is still valid. if he burned them by boiling the grain that will leave a pretty nasty tasting brew.

as far as the OP's question on how to fix it. I would probably say this is a time when it gets dumped

I used 2lbs of pearl barley. Turned into a big sticky mess in my pot and I couldn't stir enough to keep it from burning at the bottom. It was an experiment to see what kind of barley wine like drink I could make with just stuff from the kitchen. I removed all the blackened barley from it before I put it into the fermenter but somehow that flavor just permeated the whole batch.

you're saying that you were boiling the grain? if so, you're going about it all wrong. you don't boil the grain. you need to use malted barely, crush it, mash it and boil only the wort.

Mysticmead said:

you're saying that you were boiling the grain? if so, you're going about it all wrong. you don't boil the grain. you need to use malted barely, crush it, mash it and boil only the wort.

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Hang on a sec. He could be talking about a cereal mash.

Otherwise I agree that this might be a batch to be dumped. That burnt flavor isn't going to go away anytime soon. Also, do your best to get the remaining burnt chunks off the bottom of your pot, since large amounts of burnt material will carry that flavor into whatever else you put in it next.

true.. but even then.. if I burned it I would dump it. burnt flavors tend to overpower EVERYTHING else. burnt popcorn for instance.. it takes a few burnt kernels to stink up a room. burn a piece of bacon and try to use that in some other part of the meal and it will taste burnt. burn the barley and ferment it.. it's going to overpower everything else. like using WAY to much black malt

I boiled the grain. However, I wasn't attempting to make a "beer" in the normal sense. I was hoping to extract a barley flavor from the pearl barley and not convert starches. This is more of a barley wine. I used 10lbs brown sugar as the fuel. As I said, it was an experiment to just see what kind of interesting things I could come up with with what I had on hand in the kitchen that night. At worst I would come up with something undrinkable and learn something and at best maybe I would have a beerish flavored wine.
This is my recipe (roughly):
2lbs pearl barley
10lbs brown sugar
4-6 oz willamette hops.
5 gallons boiled water.
1lb raisons (as yeast nutrient?)
wine yeast

Aside from the strong burnt flavor, which I'm sure will change with time for good or bad, it isn't so bad. I can definitely taste the grain and although I thought I used a lot of hops I can't really tell. If I attempted something like this again I would use fresh hops and perhaps more of it.

That is not how you make barley wine.

Sputnik said:

I boiled the grain. However, I wasn't attempting to make a "beer" in the normal sense. I was hoping to extract a barley flavor from the pearl barley and not convert starches. This is more of a barley wine. I used 10lbs brown sugar as the fuel.

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You're making hooch, not barleywine. I guess you had the "right" idea distilling it.

Yes! I applaud that recipe. Keep up the ingenuity man