Strong Overpowering alcohol flavor, Bitterness in Coffee Stout

Made a coffee stout and it tasted great before bottling. After a few weeks I cracked open a bottle and there is a strong alcohol and bitterness. Will this go away after a few more weeks in the bottle or should I just crack em all open and dump?

Both of those flavors mellow with time. Let 'em sit. I'd think many might agree, no beer should be dumped for as long as a year. Especially something like a stout. What was your og?

Spintab said:

Both of those flavors mellow with time. Let 'em sit. I'd think many might agree, no beer should be dumped for as long as a year. Especially something like a stout. What was your og?

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1.079 with a .740 IBU/SG

Might be the coffee, I actually brewed a cup instead of using coffee grinds.

Yeah, 1.079 is pretty big. It could use time anyway. As far as the brewed coffee, that's a possibility, I usually add mine during cool down or in the secondary. You may have pulled a little bitterness out of it by brewing it but I still think that would mellow out. You'll get more roast from the stout itself over time that would help to balance the coffee.

I brewed a terrapin wake n bake clone recently. 1.088 og coffee in the secondary two days prior to bottling. At three weeks in bottles it was overly sweet and a tad alcohol intense. At about six weeks it's spot on the commercial version and getting better. Now if it would just carbonate, I could actually enjoy it. I'm thinking another two or three for that to happen.

One last question, how warm did you ferment. Big stout need special attention to keep them cool for the first couple days. One thing is it will ferment really strong if it's too warm and will put off a lot of esters, possibly fusel alcohol. The fusel will give you that kinda rubbing alcohol flavor. Again, though, that will mellow with time.