Dump it or no? My failed Christmas ale

[mttaylor1066]

Over the summer I brewed a copy of Scaldis Bush de Noel. What was supposed to come out was a 12% ABV strong dark Belgian Ale.

The actual result is a 10.3% ABV ale, very sweet and barely carbonated. I know what I did wrong, I failed to pitch an adequate starter for such a high grav ale. (Brew and learn, boys and girls!)

I added a new batch of yeast about 5 days before bottling to try and get the ale to finish... but to no avail. I got maybe one-tenth of percent more alcohol. I bottled any way.

Three months later, I took it into my LHBS (Maltose Express) and let Tess have a taste.

She pronounced it "pretty good, has all the flavor you wanted. Perhaps the sweetness can be overcome by more carbonation. Have you tried shaking the bottles and raising the temp to 75 degrees for 10 days?"

I did just that. I used a heating pad in small cabinet to get the temp to 75.8 F for most of the ten days.

The result? Some weak fizz and still too damn sweet.

I feel like dumping all the bottles. What do you guys think?

 

[Revvy]

Do you like the taste? Tess evidently did. It's not like it's soured or vinegared. It's just not carbed to your liking. If it tastes good I wouldn't dump it.

You could also try to re-carb it. Add a small amount of sugar AND fresh yeast to each bottle and re-cap. And wait three more weeks.

But really, the barleywines I like are sweet with little carbonation. So I would probabyl drink it.

 

[mttaylor1066]

Do you like the taste? Tess evidently did. It's not like it's soured or vinegared. It's just not carbed to your liking. If it tastes good I wouldn't dump it.

You could also try to re-carb it. Add a small amount of sugar AND fresh yeast to each bottle and re-cap. And wait three more weeks.

But really, the barleywines I like are sweet with little carbonation. So I would probabyl drink it.

Champagne yeast, perhaps? This thing is already at 10.4% or so.

 

[hough77]

I had a similar issue with an extract IIPA. It came out to 9.8%. I bottled all of them in bombers and I brewed this in may. 7 months later, it's perfect! It had off flavor, too sweet and barely any carbonation. So now I have one left in the closet. Wish I would have waited on the rest. It would be nice to have them back right now.