Back Sweetening

[BurrTucky]

Hello,

I have an IPA that has finished too dry. I have an idea that doesn't seem to have been part of a prior discussion.

Has anyone ever tried boiling 1-2# of Amber DME in a small volume of water & add into their fermenter to gain more malt & Carmel like sweetness after primary fermentation? Any reason(s) this wouldn't work?

Thanks

 

[Setsumi]

It will ferment dry, most probably. Your plan my work with less fermentables, steep speciality malts rather.

 

[BurrTucky]

It will ferment dry, most probably. Your plan my work with less fermentables, steep speciality malts rather.

Thanks, I'll look into that! I did use crystal malt but dried the beer out just a tad higher than where I want by adding fruit juice. It's actually good enough to bottle, but I'd like a little more carmel sweetness to balance. Any reccomendation on lovibond scale? 80L, 120L?

 

[BurrTucky]

After doing some research, I'm going to try Munich (60L) steeped.

 

[JimRausch]

You could try adding a nonfermentable sugar like xylitol or even stevia. The cider folks do it often, so check out that part of the forum. And I would do it to taste, so you don't overdo it.

 

[BurrTucky]

You could try adding a nonfermentable sugar like xylitol or even stevia. The cider folks do it often, so check out that part of the forum. And I would do it to taste, so you don't overdo it.

I've seen some threads on that. I want some more Carmel notes as well, so I'll try the Munich first & then maybe try that to taste in a seperate sample to see what it does. Thanks for the advice!

 

[BurrTucky]

After doing some research, I'm going to try Munich (60L) steeped.

Well, from what Briess says about their munich it sounded like what I was after. After more research I'm leaning toward plain crystal 60L. I may mix a little 20L & 80L to get some more complexity. I will mill the grain very fine for steeping to get the most out of it as possible.

This beer is already VERY drinkable without carbonation. I'm just not after a shandy style, the target is an all late hopped (Citra) pineapple IPA with good malt balance. I appreciate the advice.

 

[BurrTucky]

Well, I did it. Steeped 1# each of Briess crystal 20L & 60L (finely milled) in 3 quarts of water @150 for 30 min. in muslin grain bag. I sat the grains (in bag) in a colander atop the kettle & Sparged with another 2 qt of 168F water, then boiled down to aprox. 1 qt while periodically skimming trub.

Cooled the sweet stuff down and carefully poured into the fermenter to avoid oxygenating wort. I'll report back with results. I can say that the flavors of the reduced grain tea where what I hoped for. Soon we will know.

 

[BurrTucky]

I bottled yesterday using amber DME for priming sugar. Sample taste did seem to reflect some of what I was after. I think I could've even used more Carmel malt but we will see how it finishes..

 

[wysiwyg]

You could try adding a nonfermentable sugar like xylitol or even stevia. The cider folks do it often, so check out that part of the forum. And I would do it to taste, so you don't overdo it.

Unless you want your beer to taste 'diet', I wouldn't use any of those fake sugars. I used stevia to back sweeten a cider and it tastes diet - and I don't like diet.

As always, YM (and tastes) MV.

 

[BurrTucky]

Unless you want your beer to taste 'diet', I wouldn't use any of those fake sugars. I used stevia to back sweeten a cider and it tastes diet - and I don't like diet.

As always, YM (and tastes) MV.

I didn't rule that out, but I wanted to keep this recipe "all natural" as far as using natural sugars, malts etc. without any artificial flavors. I'm sure it would've been a lot easier but not what I was chasing on this one.

 

[BurrTucky]

I tried one last night after one week of bottle conditioning. I think that it had the effect I was looking for, it certainly didn't hurt the final product. I could've used more..maybe..?

The outcome was good! My wife is a Miller lite/Coors light drinker & she actually likes this beer. I aimed it to be a
full flavored, easy drinking beer, brewed with Pinneapple juice & it turned out to be just that.

IMO it could improve still, with more time conditioning (which, it will by the time I enter it into a local competition). Hopefully it does well. I may tweak it some by either adding a touch more crystal malt yet (during the mash or steep) or by backing off of the juice some to see if it hits the ideal version of what I was after. Then, it may be suitable to submit into the recipe forum here.