Fixing my apricot golden strong ale

[ChrisfromAbby]

I was very keen to brew with apricots this summer.

I had 10lbs of fresh apriots and decided to do do a golden strong ale with WLP500 as the alternative looked to be a wheat ale but I'd done way too many of those lately. I wanted something different and was itching to to do something with a Trappist feel.
I brewed on August 9th withh a OG of 1.072. After 10 days of primary I added the pulped, frozen and thawed apricots. Also threw in some pectinase to keep the haze down. Still took forever to clear, even with gelatin and kiesosol added.

Decided to give up on clear beer and keg. It smelled MARVELOUS! And it was nicely dry.

And so sour it is just about undrinkable!

I wondered about reducing acidity like as (and I have experience doing) for wine making, however the primary acids for apricots are citric and malic. Calcium salts of citric are still soluble, so no go. I even tried on a small sample and it was terrible. The solution was worse than the problem.

So, I can think of two options
1) steep a few pounds of crystal malt, maybe 15L, reduce and then back add it to sweeten the beer.
2) malolactic fermentation - but it's a bit late for that now as it's a pretty high alcohol beer and I'm not sure about the lactic profile in the beer.

ok, third option a friend suggested - adding stevia to sweeten the beer, it apparently doesn't ferment.

Regardless, I'll be out of style but then there is no apricot golden strong ale category I suppose and I'm only going for drinkability anyhow.

 

[Stauffbier]

I think it would take a good amount of back sweetening to make that level of sourness go away. Possibly another situation where the solution would be worse than the problem. Have you tried sweetening a sample to see?

The other solution would be to brew a neutral, fruit-free batch and blend it. Not ideal as far as time is concerned, but it may be your best option.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Yes. I suppose that's another option. It will leave me with a LOT of this particular beer. Which is great if the beer is good.

 

[Stauffbier]

Yes. I suppose that's another option. It will leave me with a LOT of this particular beer. Which is great if the beer is good.

It may not necessarily take a full 5 gallon batch (assuming that is the original batch size) to tone it down. You might be able to get away with blending a smaller amount. Say, 1 to 3 gallons... Pour a glass of this beer and dilute it with another neutral beer. Pay attention to the ratio that it takes to make it taste good and scale that up to the full amount you have currently.

 

[chri5]

Over the summer I did an apricot blonde with pureed apricot. It also had a very pronounced sourness when I racked off the apricot. The sour faded after about a month, and left a nice fruity flavor.

Not sure how long your beer has been off of the apricot, but time may well cure your problem as it did mine.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

I brewed mid-August. It's been off the puree for about 9 weeks now.
Chris

 

[chri5]

I brewed mid-August. It's been off the puree for about 9 weeks now.
Chris

Well damn.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

I'm going to try the dilution experiment. From my experience with wine I suspect the problem is total acidity more than the pH itself. I have the tools to perform a TA test but the number is not really important. I should be able to drop TA by 1/2 by diluting with another batch, but I like the idea of using a test beer first. Maybe I'll grab a bottle of Piraat to try it with.

Chris

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Dilution worked. I brewed a 2 gallon batch and blended the two after doing a taste test with the Piraat and the original brew.
It's got a tang, but is quite enjoyable.

As a side note, I also experimentally tried using acidity reduction (KHCO3) as I would for wine. Uggh. DO NOT do this with your overly sour beer if you are reading this for insight.

Chris