Blonde Ale Fail

[Mrott]

The title basically says it all... I made up (3) 5 gal batches of a blonde ale based on a made up recipe and put all 3 into a 1/2 bbl keg.

Fast forward a few weeks to maybe a week or two ago now... I tapped the keg and it's hella over carbed, but that's not really my issue. I'll just keep bleeding off the pressure every night until it settles to a better pressure (no spunding valve). My real problem is that there is too much blonde and not enough ale. The beer doesn't really taste bad, but it just doesn't taste good. I'm sure part of it has to do with a really ****ty efficiency, but it's too late to correct that for this batch.

In an effort to bring back the ale flavor and kick some of the blonde to the curb, I was planning to add a few oz of hops (need to see what I have in stock) to a spice ball and drop it in the keg for a bit of dry hopping as well as some elderberry and/or juniper for additional flavor. Let it sit for another month or so and try it again.

So the question... does this sound like a reasonable approach? I know the solution isn't to dump the keg...yet, but I'd at least like to take a reasonable approach and this so far is what I've come up with.

Comments/thoughts/suggestions/admissions of guilt? All are welcome (be light on the admissions for all our sakes)

 

[soupfist]

Never had one on my beers, but overcarbonation and bland flavor are textbook gusher bug infection symptoms.

 

[Mrott]

I thought infections would generally impart off flavors of bitterness/sour flavors. I don't have any bad flavors, it's just a bit bland.

 

[TopherM]

Dry hopping is really only going to add aroma, it isn't going to add much bitterness that you need to balance the beer.

A decent idea would be to maybe make about 1-2 gallons of concentrated wort and blend it with the existing beer. Add as much DME as you can fit in 2 gallons of water, boil it long enough to dissolve it, cool and ferment for a few weeks. Add that beer to the beer you have in little chunks to "fortify" the existing beer.

That's an alternative to dumping 15 gallons of beer!

 

[audger]

you might even try putting that 2 gallons of concentrated wort into the fermented beer and try sort of refermenting it. that might clean up some off flavors itself. you would need to pitch a HUGE amount of yeast as you shouldnt add oxygen to the beer you already have fermented.

if you are afraid of oxygenation, you could pitch a whole lot of yeast into that 2 gallons, let it ferment for 24 hours (majority of the O2 will be gone by then) and then add it to the rest of the beer. i would suggest fermenting everything together if possible, if you ferment the 2 gallons seperately, you are essentially just making two completely beers and just blending them. adding yeast and giving it time to work will fix a lot of flavor problems on its own.

 

[soupfist]

I thought infections would generally impart off flavors of bitterness/sour flavors. I don't have any bad flavors, it's just a bit bland.

Again, never happened to me, but Palmer's "How To Brew" says a gusher bug infection eats dextrins & other sugars that yeast won't ferment. The result is a beer with no body and bland flavor that just keeps bubbling.

The only remediation I've heard about for it is drink your beer quickly before it stops resembling beer. I would think adding more wort would just keep fueling the infection.

 

[TzeentchPlayer]

Never had one on my beers, but overcarbonation and bland flavor are textbook gusher bug infection symptoms.

I'm under the assumption that off flavors accompany this.

I brewed an AHS Holiday Ale and bottled it when the gravity hit the recipe's FG. Fast forward 3 weeks and I have gushers, no off flavors. I let a sample go flat and the FG went down another 6 points, yet the beer tasted fine.

I was skeptical about bottling it when I did as there was clearly still yeasties fermenting at the top when I bottled and I didn't check for stable gravity. Hope this helps.

 

[Jwood]

i don't know if an infection is really going to leave a...bland...taste. I've tasted metallic, tart, and acetic but never bland. It sounds like he just overcarbed the keg. What was the recipe and what was your OG/FG?