Poured boiling wort into 32 bottles of old beer...

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Philodendron

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So I made an unbalanced batch a couple of months ago. It was my first time brewing AG and my efficiency was really poor. I’ve since fixed my process but what remained was an ESB that was all bitter, no malt. About 90 IBUs with a OG of 1.030. It tastes like hop tea. I waited for it to condition in the bottle 3 months, still tastes like tea.

So yesterday I decided to “Fix” the bad batch. I could have just poured it out, but having Revy’s words ringing in my ears I didn’t want to commit the sin of alcohol abuse and pour out 32 bottles of tea-beer.

I mixed up a really malty batch. I made it 2.5 gal, with a OG of 1.080. Unhopped. Then I uncapped and poured all 32 bottles (3gallons) of beer from the fridge into the fermenter bucket. Next I poured the boiling wort onto the cold beer. I shook it up and tested the temp. It was about 100 degrees. I waited until it hit yeast pitching temp and then pitched one of my washed yeast starters into it. Shook it up for about 5 min to oxygenate the wort and help the yeast be successful.

My hope is that fermentation will help blend the two together and the malty wort balances out the hoppy tea-beer and it makes a drinkable brew. What do you think? Terrible idea? I’ll update this post when this bizarre brew is complete with the results but I’m interested in hearing if anyone has done anything like this and how it turned out.
 
I think you might end up with a bitter beer with no hop flavor or aroma. By that time all the hop flavor will be long gone.
 
interesting.

as a side note, my first beer was an ordinary bitter. good beer, i decided to let one sit a year to see what happened. when I tried it a year later it was the same beer except no bitterness at all, like i made a beer without hops.

so, i guess the moral of my story is if you were willing to wait, hop presence seems to fade.
 
Or you could have brewed another batch of a really malty, low hop beer of the same style. Fermented and bottled that and blended in the glass.
I have to admire your determination to not waste it. Hope it turns out good.
 
Good point Billvon, I do want it to still have some hop presence. I still have the option to dryhop it at this point to try and at least infuse some aroma. Do you think it is worth it to throw some in after the primary fermentation has subsided?
 
If there isn't one already, we need a "how to fix a bad batch" thread. I have a feeling I could use such a thread.....
 
I like your thought process. i don't know if it will be the best beer you ever make but unless you have contamination you should have beer. I had a problem once where I didn't have enough malt in a batch and I din't find out till everything had cooled and I pitched. The next day I added 3 lbs of honey to bring it up. Long story short it came out fine. It wasn't what I was originaly brewing but i let it ferment out kegged it and let it sit. It tasted pretty good and I din't have any other problems with it.

Let it sit and see how it goes. If your like me you'll just take it as a learning point and go from there.

Let us know how it turns out.
 
I recently added 2.5lbs of DME boiled up in .3 gallons of water to bring a combination incorrect recipe/add-too-much-water mistake 90 minute IPA clone in line. I now consider adding 2.5lbs of DME to .3 gallons of water in a 1 gallon pot to be my most challenging task yet in homebrewing. About 5 disasters in a row making it, but I think it will turn out OK.
 
Good point Billvon, I do want it to still have some hop presence. I still have the option to dryhop it at this point to try and at least infuse some aroma. Do you think it is worth it to throw some in after the primary fermentation has subsided?

Maybe split the batch and dry hop half. Either it will work and you'll have 16 good bottles, or it won't and you'll at least learn how dry hopping contributes to aroma?
 
Well the yeast took off and it's bubbling merrily away right now. I'll update this in a few weeks with how it turns out. I agree that it would be nice to have a "how to fix bad batches" section or thread. I'd like to know what others have done and what works. The reason I made this post is because I couldn't find anything about this sort of thing.

I almost added the bad beer to the boil instead, but I didn't want to lose all of the alcohol. But I was torn because I thought that having the alcohol present in the fermentation might inhibit the yeast from starting off as strong. Usually when people add spirits to beer they add it in the secondary. I did not think about the hot-side ariation issue so it might taste a little stale, but we'll see. Anything's better then what it was before. If it ends up awful then I'll have learned a nice lesson and all it cost was 6lb of grain.
 
"I did not think about the hot-side ariation issue so it might taste a little stale, but we'll see."

I just was listening to an old brew strong podcast about hotside airation and they where saying that it isn't that big of a deal. The yeast will take care of a lot of the issues hotside airation might try to bring. I think if you let the yeast do their thing your going to be happy with the end result.
I could be wrong but I don't think so.
 
OK, this has been in the bottle along enough to carb up and the result is... fine.
It's not the best beer ever, but it's quite drinkable, tastes like an amber without much hop presence. The hops didn't disappear altogether, but they are not very evident. It's pretty easy to drink, mellow enough that it doesn't raise any eyebrows, acceptable. It's far better then it was previously so that's all I care about. This turned out to be an acceptable way to rescue/tone down a really strong batch. Thanks to everyone who offered their suggestions.
 

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