Just crowned my champion here. My "Project X" Spiced Mocktoberfest Ale. Just too much darned spice. I used 1.5 oz of mulling spices coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle at 5 minutes before flameout. The spices consisted of cinnamon stick, allspice, clove, star anise, and bitter orange peel. Thought it would taste nice (it smelled AMAZING when I dropped the spices in), but something (I think it is a combination of the star anise and allspice) gives it a really harsh off aroma and taste - almost "plasticky"
. The taste lingers too after you drink it, which is not pleasant. It's actually not bad if you mix it 50/50 with a stout, but it's not very good either (and seems like a waste of a perfectly good stout). On top of that, I pitched it on T-58, which can give some Belgian style funk which probably didn't help. I still have it in a secondary right now, think I'll leave it there a few months and see what happens with it.
Other thoughts I had on how to potentially save it, or at least go all experimental R&D on it
:
1) Add some pumpkin. However, pumpkin doesn't give a strong taste, so I don't think it can counterbalance the spice.
2) Dump or bottle about 1-1.5 gallons, and then put about 1-1.5 gallons of stout wort in there and let it re-ferment. The roastiness and bite of the stout seem to help when mixing it with a sample, maybe it would help in the fermenter even more???
3) Dry hop it to get some hop aroma to counter the spice. This may make it even more nasty though with clashing aroma and taste.
I have never dumped a batch, but this one is making me consider it!!! However, I definitely won't dump it until I let it age at least 3 months and see what happens. Dumping just seems so... wrong!
Oh well, it was an experiment to begin with - live and learn I guess!!!