Masking the Alcohol Taste, when already bottled?

How do I mask this flavour once its already bottled?

I Bottled it, from not tasting anything in the samples taken.

Its been in bottles for 3 weeks, and I have small 330ml bottle for keep tabs on when its ready (i don't mind drinking flat beer, it normally tastes pretty good.) All through my process its tasted fine, but last night, it noticed in one bottle a very strong alcohol flavour, and one the second bottle it was there, but nowhere near as bad.

Now to my questions:
I think the cause of off flavour is ferm temp too high, but why could i not detect this sooner?
theres honey in my recipe 4oz of it, this wouldn't cause some of the "hot" flavour would it?
the only other thing i can think of is; that the high alcohol taster bottle, was conditioned then in fridge then conditioned again and fridged again, THEN DRUNK
and lastly and probably most importantly, im very disappointed, so want to kinda get rid ASAP, so i can put nice beer in my bottles.

I also have cider i could cut it with, which tastes quite sour? maybe it would cancel out??

crusader1612 said:

How do I mask this flavour once its already bottled?

I think the cause of off flavour is ferm temp too high, but why could i not detect this sooner?

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Usually, you'll get fruity esters as an undesirable trait in your beer if you ferment at higher temperatures. What you're suffering from in your beer is more likely you using a highly attenuative strain of yeast which is doing an excellent job of converting those sugars into alcohol, perhaps more than you'd like.

theres honey in my recipe 4oz of it, this wouldn't cause some of the "hot" flavour would it?

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It sure would. Honey is almost 100% fermentable and you must be careful how you use it in your brewing. In fact, yeasts will consume honey sugars preferentially over Maltose, so it's best to add it after the primary fermentation has ended. Also, honey has the effect of thinning and drying out a beer which can definitely make the alcohol content stand out a lot more. So, more alcohol due to the fermentability and a dryer beer was the result.

Brewing is a trial and error process, which is why it's as much an art as it is a science. So many people have run into this issue with honey (myself included) and most brewers just substitute in some honey malt if they're looking for the honey flavor without all the dryness and alcohol.

You might also get a result from a less attenuative yeast, such as Windsor ale yeast, which will leave behind some of the residual sugar sweetness.

I'd ignore the batch for a month and try it then to see if it mellows; if not, wait another month. For SURE I wouldn't cut it with anything! Give it time - it'll mellow eventually

How much will it mellow?
I used Safale US-05 as the yeast, in a blonde ale, and the honey only made up a very small portion

It could completely mellow out but it could take many months. Just don't rush it and give it time. Good luck!