Cancelling out lactic acid flavor?

[ATLbrewer]

So a friend and I brewed a raspberry blackberry sour for my wedding. I'll admit he has a lot more experience than me.

We tasted after fermentation and it did not have the tartness we wanted so my friend suggested adding lactic acid. He bought some and added it. Last week he put the beer in a keg and force carbed it. He brought one for me to try over the weekend and it had a very strong lactic acid taste.... borderline stomach acid flavor. We are bottling today and I realize there's probably nothing I can do at this point, but I wanted to check. Is there anything we can do to cancel out this flavor? or lessen it? Can I add something to each bottle before filling? Any help appreciated.

 

[Vale71]

Activated carbon treatment is the only treatment to remove lactic acid. It's well beyond the means of most homebrewerws unfortunately.

 

[ATLbrewer]

Damn! If you can't remove, is there a way to lessen it at this point?

 

[bucketnative]

Brew another batch and dilute.

 

[ATLbrewer]

Brew another batch and dilute.

What about adding sodium bicarbonate?

 

[Vale71]

You'll be replacing lactic tartness with plain saltiness. Sodium lactate tastes salty...

 

[ATLbrewer]

Brew another batch and dilute.

We don't have time to brew another batch unfortunately. If this were a normal brew, I'd probably dump it. Given it's for a wedding, if I can salvage it I'd like to try. Would blending with a store bought beer be a bad idea? I only need about 50 beers for the wedding so if I don't have to add much to each bottle to blend it may be worth it.

 

[Vale71]

If you don't want your relationship with the new couple to sour (pun intended) I'd just bring store-bought beer and dump the batch.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Would blending with a store bought beer be a bad idea?

I think that would work.

Check out this thread before making fast sours in the future:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/fast-souring-modern-methods.670176/

 

[Dland]

Activated carbon treatment is the only treatment to remove lactic acid. It's well beyond the means of most homebrewerws unfortunately.

I was just curious what process would one use with activated carbon. How much would one need? It does not seem that expensive. Is special equipment involved? Medium is readily available for aquariums, ponds, water treatment systems, etc.

I don't have any over soured beers I want to scrub now, but have dumped a few in the past. If it means that much to OP, materials wise does not seem to costly, if he really wants to save the beer.

 

[IslandLizard]

I was thinking adding lactose may help overcome the sourness perception as it adds sweetness. That also helps with the fruit flavors.
Note: You should declare the use of lactose clearly on the label, some people are lactose intolerant.

How bad is it?
Table salt also changes the perception of sourness. But..., you quickly get saltiness in return if you overdo it. Strike the perfect balance and it may be the best ever. You can test with regular salt but use kosher salt to correct the batch if you choose that path.

Do some test with small amounts, and have 2 people unaware of your tinkering do blind tastings (triangle test can be appropriate) once you think you struck indeed gold or fool's gold.

When I flavor beer (or other things), due to palate fatigue, I typically half the amount of what I think is perfect. Then let that being judged.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Blending is definitely the best option to reduce sourness.

I would guess activated carbon would remove a LOT more from the beer than the lactic acid. I've never heard of this being used and I think there's a good reason for that.

Sweetening does also reduce the perception of sourness, but adding sweetness has problems of its own. Same for for salt (iodine-free is good, doesn't need to be kosher). Potassium chloride and calcium chloride can also be used.

Tasting trials are always a good idea and would have prevented this problem in the first place.

 

[Vale71]

I would guess activated carbon would remove a LOT more from the beer than the lactic acid. I've never heard of this being used and I think there's a good reason for that.

And still this is how commercial breweries do it. You don't throw away a 500 hectoliter batch because it has gone lactic (lacto infections constitute over 50% of infections), you treat it with activated carbon, sterile filter, pasteurize and then blend at most 1:5 with regular batches as treatment lightens color and takes away a couple of IBUs.
As I said, this is the only effective treatment but it's beyond the capabilities of most if not all homebrewers.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Interesting stuff. Now we know what to do when we start brewing 500hL batches on a commercial system.

 

[Vale71]

Yeah, don't get a lacto infection unless you want to do a lot of overtime...