Ryanhunt88
New Member
I sometimes like to add a little flavored rum ( 70 proof) on top of my brew . If I was to add it to a pale ale at bottling would it kill the yeast and would that affect my brew ? Would force carbing and kegging be better?
Killing yeast
- Thread starter Ryanhunt88
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In my experience, it wouldn't kill the yeast but could ultimately prevent it from priming your bottles. This really depends on how much rum you are adding, though. If it's just a few caps full to lend some aromatics, you could probably still bottle condition. If it is a quantity significant enough to alter the ABV perceptibly, you'll need to keg and force carb.
Ryanhunt88
New Member
I was planning about a half ounce to a ounce per bottle , so it might be better to keg and force carb
dinertime
Well-Known Member
By my calculations adding an ounce of 80 proof rum to 11 ounces of beer at 5% ABV will raise the alcohol to about 8% in the beer. That won't kill the yeast or arrest fermentation (think of all the bottle conditioned beers that are higher in alcohol than that).
Just to be safe I wouldn't do it to a whole batch the first time around, maybe just a six pack or so.
Just to be safe I wouldn't do it to a whole batch the first time around, maybe just a six pack or so.
It won't kill the yeast, but it will bring your sugar-alcohol equilibrium far enough out of whack that the yeast will stay dormant even after adding priming sugar. It's not about absolute alcohol quantities, but about a ratio of alcohol and unfermented sugars. Big beers have higher alcohols, true, but they also have higher residual sugars.
At that quantity of booze, I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to get natural priming. I've not tried it, though. This is all speculation based on what I know about yeast attenuation, so I'll withdraw that answer if somebody with experience suggests I'm wrong.
