Belgian Quad Too Sweet - What are my Options?

[ultravista]

I have about 2.5 gallons of a Belgian Quad that is too sweet. It has been in the keg for approximately two years - it has taken me that long to drop 5 gallons in half.

At this point, I don't want to dump it and prefer to salvage it if possible.

What are my options at this point (no further fermentation)? Perhaps a high IBU hop tea?

 

[didinho]

Brett it!
what OG and FG values did you have?

 

[dmtaylor]

Brew 2.5 gallons of strong saison then add it to the keg. Saisons fermented with Belle Saison yeast or Wyeast 3711 will finish at about 1.002 on average so when these batches are combined, you'll cut the final gravity of your existing quad in half and then have 5 whole gallons of excellent Belgian beer. Yum.

 

[pdxal]

Wow, long time to tie up a keg.
We need more information- OG/FG, grain bill if possible, yeast.
Brett might be an option, but could take a long time to chew through remaining sugars and infect your keg/lines. Wine yeast+nutrient might be another but would kill other yeasts and might not do anything if the sweetness is from higher sugars and dextrins. Hop tea might balance out a sweet beer, but could be difficult to balance and might taste out of place with a Belgian style beer.

 

[HLSheppard]

I have this same problem! I'm pretty sure my yeast was too old / underpitched. I finished at 1.025 (from 1.094). It's SO cloyingly sweet I can't stand it. I've had awesome results from this same recipe twice prior. This was a real disappointment. Eagerly following this one! Used a 1.8L starter or WY 3787 but it just didn't take off...

 

[bolus14]

Grain bill, OG/FG would be helpful to know where it stands. Without that info here's a couple ideas:

1. Make a lower ABV dubbel, mash low so it's more fermentable, use a good amount of either table sugar or candi syrup as part of the grain bill, then blend them.
2. As others mentioned, make a Saison or build a healthy starter and throw some Belle Saison or 3711 in there and let them do their thing
3. As odd as it may sound make a 7%-8% dry stout and blend them. I've done this by combining a bottle of quad and a bottle of stout and the dark sugar flavors of the quad and the roasty malts of the stout are delicious, at least IMO. Make the stout a little hoppier than you normally would, then the bitterness from the hops and grains will hopefully bring the taste into balance for you.

I don't get into Brett as I'm not much of a fan of most of the beers I have tried with it, but it's an option as someone else mentioned.

 

[HLSheppard]

I don't get into Brett as I'm not much of a fan of most of the beers I have tried with it, but it's an option as someone else mentioned.

^^^ THIS!

I know I'm odd but I just don't get into sours much. Making one (to me) involves infecting my keg lines and equipment and it's just not worth it.

That said - to each his own. I'm definitely going to try and mix with an Imperial Stout I have on tap!

 

[bolus14]

Depending on the FG of the Impy Stout you might be mixing sweet with sweet and may end up more cloying... still worth a shot.

 

[HLSheppard]

Depending on the FG of the Impy Stout you might be mixing sweet with sweet and may end up more cloying... still worth a shot.

I tried it last night. Not terrible - but not worth doing again. LOL

Hey - you never know!

 

[ultravista]

I have a Heady Topper batch ready for dry hopping. I though of taking the hops out of the HT batch (after 4 days) and dry hopping the quad. I'll have to add a bit of bittering too. Dry hops are in a mesh screen so I can move them from keg to keg easily.


Not sure which way I am going.

 

[bolus14]

I would think you'd get a lot of "grassy" flavor if you do that