"Fixing" an over-spiced beer?

[jvector]

Hey folks, first time long time...

Quick background to my problem: I'm a reasonably experienced AG brewer and I'm entering a friendly brewing contest at work in early December. I brewed up my entrant last Friday - 6 days ago.

So I made a lightly spiced winter warmer. It's dark, in the style of Jubelale or something like it. Tonight I racked to secondary and got a taste. It's clean but punched me straight in the face with allspice! Rookie mistake. I overspiced my beer. Wah wah. Those little allspice pellets look so harmless! I added the allspice and some cinnamon for the last 5 minutes of the boil.

I'm thinking about brewing a small 2-gallon batch on my stovetop (w/o spices of course), fermenting it separately, and blending with 3 gallons of the spice bomb into the keg when they're both ready. I'll bottle the extra 2 gallons of spice bomb and treat this like a little experiment to see how the spice notes fall out over time.

Open ended question. I'm essentially looking for thoughts or advice. Good plan? Or, is it likely that the spice character will cool off with 3 weeks to condition? Am I overreacting? Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Cheers.

Jim

PS I realize I can just start over completely, but I like the idea of trying to fix it somehow. Plus, I only have 3 weeks. Oy.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Spice character will fade over time, but I don't think you'll see much in three weeks. I think you're on the right track with the blending idea. 3 weeks is a pretty quick turnaround for a big beer...that's going to be tight. I'd also recommend trying a couple different ratios before blending them in the keg. You might find you only need a gallon of unspiced to mellow it out.

 

[brewcat]

How much allspice did you add? My guess is it will mellow. Probably will be fine once carbed. My concern would be the lack of time. A month tends to push it with a spiced.

You could use it with unspiced rum in a flip. That might be good.

 

[jvector]

Thanks to both.

I don't know the mass but I added about 8 pellet-balls (unit?) of allspice, crushed fresh before adding. I get a lot of trub/lower tank loss in my system so I tend to slightly scale up boiled ingredients (ie hops), so I figured 8 pellets would be fine. I was wrong.

All good advice. My anxiety comes from my short timeline. Typically I would just go with it, age it, and see what happens. But I want to WIN this thing.

I bought ingredients for a 2-gallon stovetop BIAB session tonight. My plan is to brew a clean version, ferment, do some blending tests (thanks @microbusbrewery), and keg 10-14 days before the event. Time is not on my side! We learn by making mistakes. I'll bottle the rest and see how the spice bomb mellows.

I'll post the results at some point.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[Cyclman]

I think you have the best plan. When blending, use a beaker or something to get fairly accurate measurements. Then blend accordingly. I did a pumpkin imperial, waaaaay too much clove. A year later, it was delicious. But unless you want to win for Christmas 2016, you have the best plan.

 

[kh54s10]

Six days ago?? Is it even finished fermenting?? I would say the taste will be dramatically different after the fermentation is done and the beer has bottle conditioned. Entering a contest with spices in unknown amounts/strengths on a tight timeframe????

I guess I would do the new brew and plan on blending. But time will tell you what ratio of blending you need to do.

 

[jvector]

kh, you're a downer man! Cut me some slack! We're all just here to have fun.

It's in secondary, so no, it's not done fermenting. I do know exactly how much spice I put in... 2 cinnamon sticks and 8 allspice, I just don't know the weights for purposes of this thread. And, to clarify my own statement, this "contest" is among mostly beginner brewers in my workgroup, and will be judged by extremely amateur judges... Like, most of them don't like any hop flavor and think Guinness is the best stout on the market. So, it's sort of a crap shoot, but we have fun and drink a bit too much, and that's what the holidays are all about, right!?

My small batch brew went mostly well and I'll blend in 10-12 days or so, once fermentation is complete. Thanks for the tips and discussion everyone!

Jim