Balancing Crystal 120 flavour in keg?

A buddy and I made a best bitter based on Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles recipe about a month ago. We didn't use the exact malt bill that he suggested, though. While I'm about to keg it, my friend has his on tap already and I've found it a bit one-dimensional.

It seems that the 'baked raisin' flavour of the Crystal 120L is really dominant and that the bitterness seems a bit too low. I am planning on keg-hopping it to bring a bit more balance, but am looking for suggestions.

I know that there presumably isn't much that I can do to tone things down in terms of the speciality grain dominance, but thought that I'd ask.

Thoughts?

Cheers, HBT'ers.

If you can transfer under counter pressure throw the hops in a bag and wait for it, then transfer off the hops to the actual serving keg.

As a first guest I would use the same hop variety I used for flavor and aroma aditions.

What percentage of C120 did you use? I've used up to 16% in a mild and it was raisiny while it was young, but the raisin flavor faded completely after a few weeks of being bottled.

Yeah, 120 tends to really calm down after a month in the keg. I'd give it some time yet. You could also make a hop tea and infuse that to the keg, or you could brew another batch and blend. I'd just wait for a month and see how it goes.

You could steep 1-2 ounces of a dark malt to provide contrasting flavors. Chocolate, black patent and roasted barley are used in small quantities in Milds for that purpose.

If it were me I'd just brew another batch using a lighter malt bill, and mix the two together.

Thanks for all of the advice.

Much appreciated as always.

Update:

Added 3/4 oz. of whole Goldings in hop bag to keg. Much more well-rounded IMO. Crystal still comes through quite a bit, but it's much better. More like a brown ale than a bitter, though.

One thing to ask the forum. Do you think that the choice of yeast (Wyeast 1056) or, perhaps, high-ish fermentation temperature - low 70s F - could have been a significant contributor? I don't normally use 1056 for English ales, but it was what I had on hand.

Thanks again as always.

Nugent said:

Update:One thing to ask the forum. Do you think that the choice of yeast (Wyeast 1056) or, perhaps, high-ish fermentation temperature - low 70s F - could have been a significant contributor? I don't normally use 1056 for English ales, but it was what I had on hand.

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Yes. An English yeast with a lot more character would have given it a different ester profile and would have changed the dynamic of the raisiny flavors you tasted.

I try to keep my 120 additions to .25 lbs per 5 gal. I like the subtle nuances it provides at this level.