Techniques for backsweetening

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undyingpirate

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Hey everyone,
So, I recently brewed up a barleywine that I'm going to be aging until about 2/18/13 in celebration of a big moment in my life. The problem is that it way over-attenuated. I had an expected OG of 1.108, but I didn't realize with such a large beer that getting your normal efficiency is tough, so I ended up with a 1.091. I had already made a really big starter with WLP099 and that took it all the way down to 1.004, way too dry. So now I have this really high ABV beer with no body like you would expect from a barleywine, so I want to restore some of that body. I have only heard of backsweetening with lactose and have never done it before. Would this be the best way to restore some body? And if so, what is the technique on how to do it? I would like it to be somewhere in the 1.018-1.022 range. It has been in primary for just about a month and I'm not planning on moving it to secondary for about another month. Thanks in advance for any help,
-SEAN
 
You can add the lactose in the way you would bottling sugar; mix it into just enough water to get it all in solution, boil for 5-10 minutes, chill, and add it to your beer. It's a different sort of sweetness than you typically get from a malty beer, but it might work. Maltodextrose is another unfermentable sugar that might be worth a shot, though I haven't used it myself.

The unfermentable sugars will definitely add sweetness, but I don't know how much they'll improve the body.
 
Buy some dextrine and add it. Before doing so, raise the temp to drive off CO2. If you don't, then you'll get the "mentos in pop bottle" effect. On second thought, keep all beer as cold as possible, turn on video camera, and pour in the powdered dextrine :)

I hope it turns out OK.
 
beertroll said:
You can add the lactose in the way you would bottling sugar; mix it into just enough water to get it all in solution, boil for 5-10 minutes, chill, and add it to your beer. It's a different sort of sweetness than you typically get from a malty beer, but it might work. Maltodextrose is another unfermentable sugar that might be worth a shot, though I haven't used it myself.

The unfermentable sugars will definitely add sweetness, but I don't know how much they'll improve the body.

Have you tried this with lactose? I considered this one but concluded it would take a lot of water since lactose isn't very soluble. Worst case, you could dump the lactose in straight. It is a barleywine after all. :)
 
is it in secondary now to sit until bottling time? I would make a simple syrup with maltodextrin and add it until you bottle.. might start with a pound and boil it down with water and add and come back to it in a couple weeks.. you can boil most the water out since its a barlywine and color isn't a issue.. that would add a better mouth feel and just a slight sweetness :mug:
 
You've got some time so consider this:

Find a Strong Ale or Belgian Dark Strong Ale recipe that you like. Brew that. In January do a bench trial with maybe 20/30/40/50% increments of the Strong ale blended with the Barley Wine. The easiest way is with a 100ml graduated cylinder using 20ml, 30ml, etc of the blending beer and topping to 100ml with the Barley Wine. I label glasses on the bottom, mix up the trials, shuffle them around then have a couple buddies taste with me picking their favorites. Once you select, scale up the percentage to blend the entire amount of Barley Wine....bottle or keg the left over Strong (if there is any!).

I think blending arrives at a better product than trying to add ingredients late. It is very hard to add body as a single component.

Cheers.
 
I should have noted that I in fact recently back sweetened with lactose an imperial stout that was too dry. I just dumped in the equivalent of 0.5 lb for a 5 gal batch. Tasted like artificial sweetener at first but after a few weeks it mellowed and now the beer is great. I figured at 9.5% alcohol, boiling it in water first wasn't needed. Possibly unwise, but it seemed to work fine.
 
Awesome, thanks for the advice guys. I think I'm going to go with edmansters advice and make a maltodextrin syrup and add it when I transfer to secondary. I'm sure it will turn out to be a very drinkable beer after I do this. And I'm sorry for the confusion, but I didn't mean I wanted to add body, I meant I want more sweetness.
 
undyingpirate said:
Awesome, thanks for the advice guys. I think I'm going to go with edmansters advice and make a maltodextrin syrup and add it when I transfer to secondary. I'm sure it will turn out to be a very drinkable beer after I do this. And I'm sorry for the confusion, but I didn't mean I wanted to add body, I meant I want more sweetness.

Maltodextrin is going to add body and not much sweetness... You might want to reconsider.
 
DrHop said:
Maltodextrin is going to add body and not much sweetness... You might want to reconsider.

+1. That's always been my understanding of maltodextrine too. Malto for body, lactose for sweetness.
 
Ok, so then lactose will be the best way to go for sweetness and maltodextrine for body. Man, I wish I had more knowledge about this type of thing, I'm starting to doubt whether or not I even know what it needs. It has a pretty good mouthfeel, so I'm pretty sure the body is good, but it is definitely lacking in sweetness. I wish I had a really knowledgeable person that could taste it and tell me what it needs. Normally I have no problem with RDWHAHB, but this is my biggest beer and most important to date, and I just want it to be perfect.
 
You could also just let it age a little. As the bitterness fades it might seem sweeter.
 
Small samples of just about anything taste better when they're sweeter, but the sweetness gets cloying, sticky and gross in a 12oz sample.
 
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