De-Fruiting a beer...?

I made Blind Lemon Lar's "Squeeze my Lemon" Blond Ale about 4 weeks ago for my upcoming block party (this weekend).
Rather than just use slices of lemon rind/zest as indicated, I microplaned the 2oz worth.

Whoooohooooo is it lemony, think of a beer with a lemonhead candy dropped in...

My wife really likes it so I'm sure the rest of the ladies on the block will enjoy it too. But me, not so much. If you've had Bud Light Lime this has more lemon flavor than Bud Light Lime has lime flavor probably on the order of 2x.

So how can I "de-fruit" this? It's already carbed and it has been fined with gelatin. I have a keg of Apfelwein, and a keg of BierMuncher's Sterling Gold ready to go as well, so I'm that concerened and I'm sure others on the block will most likely enjoy it...

Short of diluting it with another batch, I can't think of any way to reduce lemon.

david_42 said:

Short of diluting it with another batch, I can't think of any way to reduce lemon.

Click to expand...

+1. Like in cooking, it's easy to put more in, not so easy to take it out. Dilution would appear to be the only way. Make another batch sans the lemon, put half of the old and half of the new into a carboy together, then mix the remaining halves in one of the original carboys.

That was my fear.
It's goodenough for the ladies that have sampled it and way too late to brew up a second (T-5 days until serving day). If it doesn't go over too well and only half gets consumed, then I'll transfer it to secondary to blend with another batch later.

Thanks.

I can think of two things that might help, not sure how much though.

Serve the beer on the flat-ish side. Higher carbonation levels will add to the bite. I find that the flatter a beer is, the maltier it will taste.

Some sugar might help to cover it up. Pull a pint and try adding some sugar and see if that helps. If that helps, then no sooner than a day before, open the keg and add the sugar. Maybe dissolve the sugar first to avoid a foam gush. You could also just add a little simple syrup to the glasses when pouring

How about a shot of "Elixr G" (ginger flavor). They add it to beer at PF Changs, I bet you forget about the lemon once you throw a shot of this in there. Only drawback is it's $15/750ml.

-OCD