reboiling bottled beer to get rid of DMS

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Hi all, new member here. I've been using this forum as a resource for a couple months now, so thanks! I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried reboiling bottled beer to get rid of DMS flavor - I looked through the wiki, the "Think you ruined your beer?" sticky for newbies, and did some google searches, and didn't find anything. I did a version of the "Who's in the Garden" Grand Cru from Papazian's book, with the following recipe:
7# Belgian Pilsen Malt
2# Flaked Red Wheat
2# Clover Honey (added 55 min into boil)
1 Oz Hallertau (60 min boil)
.5 Oz Hallertau (30 min)
.5 Oz Hallertau (5 min)
1 oz bitter orange peel
1 oz coriander
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.007

Did grain in a bag method - mashed forever because of inconsistent thermometer readings, but eventually did about 60 min at ~150 F and it took over 30 min getting up to 170 F (because of my slow glass-top stove). It then took over an hour getting up to boil, it stayed at a very slow boil for 60 minutes (no lid), then cooled over 2 hours in a shallow ice bath to pitching temp. Needless to say, this was a LONG brew night. I used Wyeast 3944 Witbeer yeast without a starter - there was vigorous activity after 8 hours.

Fermented 7 days in primary, 6 days in secondary. At bottling, I noticed an awful odor/taste of stale corn. After 5 days in the bottle, I popped one, and the nasty corn flavor was overwhelming. I'm concerned about this because the weak boil, the pilsen malt, and the long cool-down all point to high DMS. It's the exact same flavor I had in the first batch I did, which is still strongly present after over 18 months in the bottle (can't bring myself to throw it, but can't drink it either :( ).

So... has anyone tried reboiling an already-bottled beer, adding some malt extract/sugar, repitching yeast, and refermenting? I just bought an immersion cooler, so that variable will be better controlled at least. Any help would be appreciated!
 
chalk this one up and get yourself an outdoor burner on craigslist or amazon.com, whatever your budget is.
 
Try to keep your temps & times in line. Seems to me that's part of it. And don't rack off the yeast too soon. It will not cause off flavors. But,rather,get rid of them. you're not giving the yeast time to finish & clean up in one week flat. Looks like you don't need the secondary either,since you did no additions at that time.
I wouldn't bother trying to re-process it. It'd just make a bigger mess out of a lost cause.
 
It may or may not get better if you let it sit with age, but if you try to reboil it, you will basically lose all the alcohol since its evaporation rate is lower than water (or wort).

Your beer is only a few weeks old? You should have left it in primary for an extra week or three. Taking it off the yeast cake was probably your biggest mistage.

Stick it in a corner of a cool room for a month or so. Many people say that you cant get rid of DMS. But there may be some other off flavors in there that you are attributing to DMS that will clean up and allow the beer to be quaffable with time.
 
It may or may not get better if you let it sit with age, but if you try to reboil it, you will basically lose all the alcohol since its evaporation rate is lower than water (or wort).

Your beer is only a few weeks old? You should have left it in primary for an extra week or three. Taking it off the yeast cake was probably your biggest mistage.

No, the OP is correct in thinking that not having a vigorous boil coupled with a slow cooling was probably his biggest mistake. DMS comes forth from the grain and boil, not from yeast metabolism. Having it sit on the yeast for extra time won't do anything to clear DMS.
 
Couple of issues that I can see...

1 - Pilsner malt - Beers with a large percentage of pils malt need a 90 minute boil to drive off DMS
2 - Weak boil
3 - Long cooling time - Need to drop the temp to under 140f ASAP to avoid DMS creation

Get a outdoor burner, a wort chiller and boil for 90 minutes with pilsner malt bills.
 
Thanks for all the comments. It sounds like reboiling wouldn't be a good idea.. but at the same time, I'm pretty sure this flavor won't go away with time (the bad taste/aroma is EXACTLY like my first-ever batch, which, 18 months out, is still super-musty/corny). The suggestions about leaving on primary longer are probably good ones - my current batch will sit on primary at least 20 days.

But for the 48 bottles I have now which are terrible... I guess I'll just toss them or use them in cooking whenever I need the bottles.
 
I think trying to reboil is just going to cause other issues, since this is a finished beer. Flavors and aromas will be lost, and then you have to re-cool it RAPIDLY, repitch an active yeast, and try to re-carb in the bottle.

use it for cooking instead of drinking...its not a total waste.

ditch the glass top stove...they caused me nothing but trouble too. a $40 turkey fryer/kettle combo will set you on a good path, although I do recommend the slightly more expensive outdoor burners like the SQ10, SQ14 and KAB4/5 if you're thinking of going to 10 gallon batches and a keggle (otherwise the KAB5 is almost too big for your typical 9 gallon kettle)
 
No, the OP is correct in thinking that not having a vigorous boil coupled with a slow cooling was probably his biggest mistake. DMS comes forth from the grain and boil, not from yeast metabolism. Having it sit on the yeast for extra time won't do anything to clear DMS.

You left out the third part of my post. Having it sit on the yeast will not do anything to clear DMS, but its very possible that there are other off flavors involved that could have been cleaned up by the cake. It was his biggest mistake at the time.

And now I think the biggest mistake you can make is dumping 3 week old beer because it tastes and smells funny. Like you said, use it for cooking, and taste it once every couple weeks. If after a month or so the beer is not improved at all, then you can start thinking about dumping. Even then I wouldnt do it if you have space to let it sit and don't need the bottles.
 
Work on a beer/corn bread recipe.
Send it to an alcoholic relative that you don't like.
Look into recipes for beer shampoo and soap.
Use a LOT of it to boil brats for a neighbor's or church cookout.
Use it to develop a cornmeal based fish fry batter.
Serve it to your most annoying beer snob buddy and tell him that it is a new Dogfish brew that is sold in unmarked bottles.

Lots of options for funky beer other than throwing it out.
 
Serve it to your most annoying beer snob buddy and tell him that it is a new Dogfish brew that is sold in unmarked bottles.

That is genius. I have a buddy and a witbier went wrong that I am going to try this on. Maybe I can get him to finish the miller tap a draft thats been takin up room in my beer fridge for 2 months.
 
I could be wrong but I think if you reboil beer you get non alcoholic beer.


most likely correct, as water boils at 212F, alcohol boils at something like 175F. A vigorous boil to drive off any DMS would drive out all the alcohol.

chalk it up to a lesson learned, and move on.
 
I could be wrong but I think if you reboil beer you get non alcoholic beer.

LOL I know... I suggested reboiling then adding back in sugar/malt in some ratio and refermenting. It wouldn't be very alcoholic or very good, but it's hard to imagine it being worse than it is now (or worse than my other DMS-catastrophe batch that has sat for 18 mos and is still undrinkable).

But yes... I think I'll work on making up some beer 'n cheese soup, some beer-battered stuff, and whatever else I can think of until it runs out/magically stops tasting like ***. Thanks for all the suggestions!
 
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