Balancing an overly sweet Imperial Stout

[Gustatorian]

I have an 11% Imperial Stout that is cloying. I'm not sure if making a hop tea with enough bitterness will balance it, but I'm willing to try. Any ideas on how to balance out the sweetness? Is there any way to add roastiness to the beer in order to balance it out.

Any suggestions are welcome, THANKS!

 

[Bosh]

Or just repitch some yeast with higher alcohol tolerance?

 

[Gustatorian]

Or just repitch some yeast with higher alcohol tolerance?

I don't think that will shift the balance, just make it more boozy.

It's residual sugar/FG is actually in the normal range for an Imp Stout. I just made the mistake of adding too much vanilla extract to the keg. The extract really accentuates the sweetness.

 

[tjmac5071]

Going to toss a couple ideas out, I have never tried these myself but...

Make a tea with some roasted grains, boil then add the the keg

Add some cocoa nibs to a bag and add to the keg for a few days

Hop tea with or without the roasted grains from the first idea

 

[Gustatorian]

Going to toss a couple ideas out, I have never tried these myself but...

Make a tea with some roasted grains, boil then add the the keg

Add some cocoa nibs to a bag and add to the keg for a few days

Hop tea with or without the roasted grains from the first idea

I had the same idea with roasted grains (either roasted grains or roasted coffee beans, basically adding coffee to the beer). Hoping somebody out there has done this before.

 

[ultravista]

I have the same issue with a Quad, too sweet. I added ~4 ounces of previously used dry hops (transferred from one corny to the other) and left it. No bitterness, but the flavor and aroma seemed to help.

 

[bbohanon]

Had a situation like this myself early in my brewing days when I started brewing bigger beers and nothing I did helped (adding yeast did nothing as the sweetness was coming from unfermentables in the beer which sucked, and adding a "tea" only made the beer taste even weirder and more out of character than I was hoping it would).

I gave up and ended up bottling it and giving it to the folks I know that are my "Mikeys" drinkers of my beer (they will drink anything as long as it gets them drunk).

Were I in the same boat now (and knowing more than I did then), I might drop it on some oak to better tolerate the cloying sweetness which is not something I tried when I had this happen to me. If you do this you will want to package it and let it condition for a while..Imp Stouts take a bit longer to come together when packaged/kegged than your normal ales (Blondes/IPAs) do. Time is your friend with this.


Next time I brewed this batch, I made sure I mashed a little lower (150'ish) and pitched much fresher yeast along with more cells to dry it up a tad more.
Topped it off with some bourbon soaked oak cubes and it was the best RIS I have ever had and its currently in my normal rotation for beers I keep on tap when the pipeline is full.
:fro:

 

[Gustatorian]

Had a situation like this myself early in my brewing days when I started brewing bigger beers and nothing I did helped (adding yeast did nothing as the sweetness was coming from unfermentables in the beer which sucked, and adding a "tea" only made the beer taste even weirder and more out of character than I was hoping it would).

I gave up and ended up bottling it and giving it to the folks I know that are my "Mikeys" drinkers of my beer (they will drink anything as long as it gets them drunk).

Were I in the same boat now (and knowing more than I did then), I might drop it on some oak to better tolerate the cloying sweetness which is not something I tried when I had this happen to me. If you do this you will want to package it and let it condition for a while..Imp Stouts take a bit longer to come together when packaged/kegged than your normal ales (Blondes/IPAs) do. Time is your friend with this.


Next time I brewed this batch, I made sure I mashed a little lower (150'ish) and pitched much fresher yeast along with more cells to dry it up a tad more.
Topped it off with some bourbon soaked oak cubes and it was the best RIS I have ever had and its currently in my normal rotation for beers I keep on tap when the pipeline is full.
:fro:

Can you give me more specifics about the bourbon soaked oak cubes? Did you soak them yourself and for how long? How many did you use? Did you add them straight to the keg and keep them there?

 

[bbohanon]

I usually use the cubes when I oak a beer..buy them with a medium or light toast on them. To use them, I usually fill a large mason jar with them about half way with the cubes, then barely cover them with some good bourbon (like Wild Turkey) and let them soak for a few days (the cubes will soak up some of the bourbon and kill any nasties). Its better to soak them for longer if you can, but if you have the beer ready now, you can skate by with a 3 day soak.

Depending on how much of the bourbon taste you want in the beer with the oak, you can either:
- Pitch the mason jar entirely which includes all of the bourbon and cubes in the fermenter or keg bagged up(what I normally do) - Maximizes the bourbon/oak taste
- Drain the bourbon from the mason jar and just pitch the soaked cubes into the fermentor or keg bagged up - Reduces the bourbon overtones in the beer

Once you do this, you prob want to pull a sample every other day for a few days until you get the "oaky-ness" you desire into the beer (I love a great bourbon barrel imperial stout so I tend to leave them in there a bit longer..a week or more I usually let the beer sit on the oak, but YMMV).
Rack the beer off the cubes (or use a bag with the cubes and just remove the bag) and let the beer age a bit so the oak/bourbon and beer do its magic together (again..time is your friend here!). Aging time will also help to get any "hotness" from the bourbon to die down in the beer.

Over time, the oaky-ness will get less, but that oak should help give the sweetness a nice balance and different character that I think is absolutely awesome..especially in an imperial stout.

Oak also has some nice vanilla/carmel character to it by nature (different oak toasts will give different characteristics into your beer) so that will also get imparted into the beer which could help accent the sweetness note to your advantage.
Hope this helps!

 

[sendai]

I don't think that will shift the balance, just make it more boozy.

I'm confused: why do you think that wouldn't shift that balance? Bosh's suggestion seems right on to me.

 

[JKaranka]

First, do you think it will age out? Second, you could try blending it. Make a weaker, more bitter beer (maybe at 9% and 120IBU) and blend the two to end up with something in the middle. Third, you could try adding brett to it to dry it out through further aging.

 

[JKaranka]

Oh, just read this: "It's residual sugar/FG is actually in the normal range for an Imp Stout. I just made the mistake of adding too much vanilla extract to the keg. The extract really accentuates the sweetness."

Blend it. You might need a couple of batches to bring the vanilla to the level where you want it to be. Other than that, the vanilla will slowly fade with age as will the bitterness too, so it might be a losing battle.

 

[Bosh]

I don't think that will shift the balance, just make it more boozy.

It's residual sugar/FG is actually in the normal range for an Imp Stout. I just made the mistake of adding too much vanilla extract to the keg. The extract really accentuates the sweetness.

Well it'd make it more boozy and less sweet, that's what yeast do.

But they won't do anything about too much vanilla, that can be ****ing overpowering. Not much to do besides blend it, vanilla is so strong you've got to water it down.

 

[Gustatorian]

Well it'd make it more boozy and less sweet, that's what yeast do.

But they won't do anything about too much vanilla, that can be ****ing overpowering. Not much to do besides blend it, vanilla is so strong you've got to water it down.

Any suggestions on a recipe? Perhaps dialing down the ABV of the same recipe and possibly adding 1-2% more roasted malts? How would you go about blending?

 

[JKaranka]

Any suggestions on a recipe? Perhaps dialing down the ABV of the same recipe and possibly adding 1-2% more roasted malts? How would you go about blending?

Wait till the second beer ferments, then take a sample of each and blend them in different proportions to get an idea of how to blend them. Then you can syphon the right proportion from each into a bottling bucket or similar.

I think aiming for: a) lower OG (less hassle), b) more roast malts (more roast backbone), c) higher bitterness (to counterbalance the sweetness); could be the way to go.

Funny thing would be if this beer and process ended up as your go-to brew...

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

Wonder if upping the sulfate level a bit would help.

 

[Gustatorian]

Wait till the second beer ferments, then take a sample of each and blend them in different proportions to get an idea of how to blend them. Then you can syphon the right proportion from each into a bottling bucket or similar.

I think aiming for: a) lower OG (less hassle), b) more roast malts (more roast backbone), c) higher bitterness (to counterbalance the sweetness); could be the way to go.

Funny thing would be if this beer and process ended up as your go-to brew...

Ha, that would be a huge pain! When blending, would I need to de-carbonate the sweet stout in order to transfer? Seems like having it carbonated would cause issues during transferring...

 

[JKaranka]

It's probably easier if you have kegged it. Try adding a splash to a lighter stout to test. Could make a good black and tan!

 

[Gustatorian]

It's probably easier if you have kegged it. Try adding a splash to a lighter stout to test. Could make a good black and tan!

It's kegged and carbed. I was just wondering if it's possible to keg jump a carbonated beer into a fresh keg half-way filled with uncarbonated beer, or would that make a mess...