This is going to get better, right?

I made an imperial stout from 6# light LME, 1# dark DME, and 3# corn sugar. OG = 1.082, FG = 1.022. After 2 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, and two weeks in the bottle, it's so tangy that it's almost undrinkable. This is going to get better with some age, I hope.

I should also mention that the beer seems to be a bit overcarbonated, which could possibly be affecting the flavor.

With 25% of the fermentables from the sugar, it may not improve too much. That is a pretty high percentage of sugar. Still, time does great things and so it may mellow quite a bit. I've never used that much sugar in a batch, besides the old Cooper's kit (which WAS undrinkable) but I would think that time would help smooth it out somewhat.

Over carbonation can cause a prickling sensation on the tongue that may be part of what you are calling tangy. That's easy to fix. Pour it (not gently) into a glass and then pour from that glass to a second glass. Voila. Repeat if necessary.

I'm with Yooper on this one (though it's actually 42%)... dude that's a ton of corn sugar. Corn sugar is used on high alcohol brews to dry them out and make them more drinkable (according to style). This applies to styles like tripel, but only use MAX 20% sugar. I freaked out when I used 15%

You probably don't want your stout to be that dry.... stouts are meant to be rich and malty. Also, that high a percentage of sugars will impart that tangy flavor you spoke of.

Superkabuto said:

I made an imperial stout from 6# light LME, 1# dark DME, and 3# corn sugar. OG = 1.082, FG = 1.022.

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Just curious, but where did that recipe come from? I don't even
use corn sugar to bottle carbonate, I use dme.

Ray

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

though it's actually 42%

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actually it's 30%. 10 lbs total and 3 lbs corn sugar.

do you do full boil or partial and add water later?
did you add all the fermentables at the beginning of the boil? late additions?
lightly hopped or high ibu's?
did you add any specialty grains?
how quickly do you cool your wort?
what's your fermentation temp?

i don't know if time will fix that beer completely but it'll certainly taste better in a few months. yooper is right about using too much corn sugar, though. <zen> nobody can fix your beer, only your technique <zen>

Tell me about your yeast.

Experience tells me, no, it's not going to get better.

However, not all is lost. You can blend this with another brew to make it more palatable.

If it's cidery sweet from the corn sugar you can blend it (always start at 50/50) with a very bitter brew or something very effervescent like a Bud. That'll improve two beers right there!

You'll have to experiment some to come up with a good blend. And don't rule out Dr. Pepper or something like Sprite either (non-brand named products are also acceptable).

rayg said:

Just curious, but where did that recipe come from? I don't even
use corn sugar to bottle carbonate, I use dme.

Ray

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I made it from some odds and ends lying around. I didn't have anough extract to get the ABV I wanted, so I added some corn sugar.

petep1980 said:

Tell me about your yeast.

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I used WL099 Super High Gravity Yeast (see above post about making this from odds and ends lying around)

homebrewer_99 said:

Experience tells me, no, it's not going to get better.

However, not all is lost. You can blend this with another brew to make it more palatable.

If it's cidery sweet from the corn sugar you can blend it (always start at 50/50) with a very bitter brew or something very effervescent like a Bud. That'll improve two beers right there!

You'll have to experiment some to come up with a good blend. And don't rule out Dr. Pepper or something like Sprite either (non-brand named products are also acceptable).

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This is a good idea. I wonder if I could blend it with the IPA I have bottled and get something worth drinking.

By the way, this is only my second brew. Lesson learned. I thought it would be acceptable to add the corn sugar after reading another thread on this forum in which there was a debate about whether one should add corn sugar to up the gravity. Now I know the real answer.

Superkabuto said:

This is a good idea. I wonder if I could blend it with the IPA I have bottled and get something worth drinking.

By the way, this is only my second brew. Lesson learned. I thought it would be acceptable to add the corn sugar after reading another thread on this forum in which there was a debate about whether one should add corn sugar to up the gravity. Now I know the real answer.

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Well, for a higher gravity beer you can had some sugar. I've never used more than a pound, though. Corn sugar ferments out more completely than malt extract, so you can boost the fermentables without making the beer "thick". But using that much will cause a "thin" beer without the malt flavor that you need.

Honestly, I wouldn't do ANYTHING for a couple more weeks. Sorry but you are only tasting a beer after TWO weeks. It's still GREEN. And since there is so much sugar in it, it's going to be hotly alcoholic. So it's going to need some time to mellow that out. I know other people are talking about blending and stuff, but I don't know if they caught the TWO WEEKS in the bottle, (that's the first thing I look for when a brewer starts a thread like this, how long it's in the bottle.)

I don't recommend people do anything until they are positive they are past the window of green-ness. We recommend 3 weeks minimum @ 70 degrees in the bottle for normal grav beers, just to carb, let alone condition. But I don't even concern myself with off flavors til 6 weeks.

Before you start mixing, or monkey-ing with it, just walk away for a few weeks, THEN re-visit it.

Many times what we're not happy with when the beer is young, changes dramatically AFTER the greeness is gone. Your beer isn't even done on it's conditioning journey. So declaring it bad, or coming up with solutions this soon, isn't really a good idea.

I have had hotly alcoholic beers with lots of sugar added, take months to mellow out. It may not be the same beer you planned on.....but it MAY be a better beer, in a few weeks.

Thanks for the optimism, Revvy. There's no reason why I can't let it sit for a while.

What's the difference between letting it condition in the secondary and in the bottle? It was in the primary for 2 weeks and the secondary for 2 weeks. Plus 2 weeks in the bottle = 6 weeks, which seems to be the standard for beer being "ready". I understand that off flavors require more time to mellow out, but should you always wait 3 weeks in the bottle, even if the beer has spent extra time in the secondary?

I explain it all here- Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." .

There's certain process that don't happen UNTIL co2 is present in the beer, i.e. carbed. And that can only happen in the bottle or keg.

Right, Revvy...didn't catch the 2 weeks comment.

If it were mine I'd let it age for at least a month before sampling it again.

I am patient...

what was the OG and FG? is 1.022 seem high? did you take a few different measurements?
if it still tastes sweet, could we have issues with bottle bombs?

Revvy said:

I explain it all here- Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." .

There's certain process that don't happen UNTIL co2 is present in the beer, i.e. carbed. And that can only happen in the bottle or keg.

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I did go read this. Well said. I will definitely wait until my first batch has totally run out before I dig back into this one. Yes, it is still green. So what am I complaining about? It can only get better and cannot get any worse.

beerloin said:

what was the OG and FG? is 1.022 seem high? did you take a few different measurements?
if it still tastes sweet, could we have issues with bottle bombs?

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Yes, I did take several measurements. It's funny, the barley wine I made with the WL099 pooped out the the same FG.

It's possible it could have still been fermenting. That might explain the over carbonation. But I'm more inclined to listen to Revvy and assume the carbonation thing will resolve itself as time goes on. After 2+ weeks in the bottle, I'm hoping the threat of bottle bombs will have passed.

For a high strength beer like that, it can take months or even years to hit its prime. Don't be too concerned at only 2 weeks, I made an imperial stout that seemed over carbonated for weeks or possibly months and had a couple gushers but I think they calmed back down over time and got better in several ways. The recipe I made suggested it might be best at 3 years old!