Bittering bottled beer?

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Moonshae

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One of my brewing attempts turned out to be too short on hops, and ended up very cloying (it was a braggot). After conditioning for 4 months, and all my waiting and hoping, I'd hate to just uncap the bottles and pour it all down the drain. Is there anything I can add to my glass when I pour the stuff to make it drinkable? Some kind of hop concentrate or anything? The flavor is actually pleasant, but it's so sickeningly sweet, I can't drink it as is.

Thanks!
 
You could always brew yourself a real dry, bitter IPA and mix them in the glass. Only downside is that you'd then have to have two pints... :D
 
Hopsdirect sells a hop oil (or someone does), but IIRC it adds flavor and aroma, not bittering. I'm pretty sure that some of the big breweries use hop extracts for bittering, but I've never seen them available for homebrewers.
 
David, do they add any bittering, or just flavor/aroma? The only ones I've seen are just for the latter.

If it's cloying, it may be as much an issue of the beer not attenuating enough (not just that it needs more bittering).
 
I'll at least start with the extract. If it doesn't work, well, I'm only out a couple bucks and one more bottle of the undrinkable stuff.

David, your greyhound is cute! I have two myself.
 
Blender said:
How about this stuff. I have never tried it .......http://morebeer.com/view_product/7835/102162

Not sure this would work, it looks super concentrated and seems to need to be added in even small amounts to gallons of beer. 1.4 ml for 10 IBU in a 10-gal batch. That works out to 0.0175 ml/pint. Maybe that would amount to a drop, I don't know. maybe combined with the hop extracts for flavor, it may work.

The instructions say to MIX WELL, so...that could be tricky.
 
Yes, it does work. The simplest way to deal with the extreme concentration and the mixing, is to 'sacrifice' a bottle of your ale and add about 15 drops to it. Recap it and mix well. Uncap all of your bottles and add a measured (5 ml) teaspoon to each and re-cap. I'd test a bottle or two to determine exactly how much to use.

An ounce of this stuff will give a 10 IBU boost to about 200 gallons. And since it is iso and not tetra, it will skunk. A very big skunk. Keep it in the dark.
 
The hop oil was a good start. I found the oil at http://www.hoptech.com/, but the oil only adds flavor. They also sell Iso-Alpha Acid Extract, which adds bitterness.

Both are generally used right before bottling, but a drop per bottle at the drinking stage should make this beer at least drinkable.

Thanks for the help!
 
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