help me save this beer i need to serve

[marx102]

I have a beer, that I have already kegged and carbonated, ready for a party in a week. The problem is, the beer isn't really good. I tried making a belgian IPA and ended up with what can best be described as hop tea.

5 lbs Pilsen Light DME
12 oz Caramel 60L

1.5 oz Columbus @ 30 Minutes
1.0 oz Cascade @ 10 minutes
1.0 oz Simcoe @ 5 minutes
1.0 oz Amarillo @ flameout
1.0 oz Amarillo Dry hop 7 days
1.0 oz Cascade Dry hop 7 days
1.0 oz Citra Dry hop 7 days

Wyeast Belgian Abby ale 1762

30 minute boil

The beer seems thin. Hop tea with some belgian yeast flavors is basically what it tastes like.
So I am thinking of ways to make the experience better since I plan on serving it either way.

ANy thoughts on throwing in ~48-64 oz of tangerine juice(odwalla/bolthouse farms) into the keg the day of serving? Or Pom?
THat is the only way I can come up with creating more mouth feel and counteracting the bitterness.

Thanks for any input

 

[jaytizzle]

Never heard of a belgian IPA. Not sure how you go about combining those two styles. Your malt side is definitely too light (read: not enough) to balance with all of those hops IMO. I'm not sure there's much of anything that you can do to salvage it. I certainly wouldn't go throwing in fruit juice all willy nilly. Have you tasted a glass of this beer mixed with a proportionate amount of fruit juice?

 

[brewski08]

i had this exact same problem when i dry hopped a light bodied beer with an oz of citra and an oz of cascade for a week:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/my-beer-tastes-like-hop-tea-303178/

the "hop tea" taste subsides with time.

 

[Pie_Man]

In my experience, the base beer needs to be good for a fruit, or specialty, beer to work. What you have is a recipe design issue.

If you're going to try adding fruit juice, definitely mix the juice into a pint of beer until you get the flavor you want. Then scale up in the keg. You may be able to add more wort to the keg, but idk if it'll work. Time will definitely help.

 

[tjpfeister]

You could always blend the beer with another solid pale ale... assuming you have something laying around. If not, I'm afraid you really don't have time to brew anything up to blend into it. Raid your friend's kegerators!

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

I 2nd what Brewski08 said. The bitterness of the hops will mellow over time. I think you'd better give this one a lot of time and get something else for your party.
I dry hopped a cream ale (yes, I know, not enough body) and the hops were overbearing for many months. After 6 months in the bottle... very good.
I suspect that your fruit juice plan is going to wreck your beer and get some bad responses at the party (sorry, it's better to be honest)