Over sweet Brew

[barbender]

Hi all,
In November I fermented a Pale ale which called for 250gms of Dextrose as part of the recipe, I mistakenly poured about 150 to 200 grams of lactose into the fermenter before I realized what it was. I went ahead with the fermentation anyway, I kegged 9.5 litres in a party keg and bottled the rest. I sampled a bottle the other day and found it obviously over sweet. The secondary fermentation in the bottles and keg was done as usual with dextrose, after filling the keg I burped the keg with Co2 just as a sanitary precaution. The bottle I sampled had gassed quite nicely. My question is - should I dump the beer in the keg or as it is in a sanitary enviroment can i perhaps hop the beer in some manner to introduce a fair bit of bitterness to offset the over sweet flavor of the lactose. I obviously would perform the proceedure as as fast as possible, seal the keg and again burp it with C02 to try and retain the carbonation. Any comments would be greatly appreciated, regards all.

 

[Pappers_]

Dry hopping isn't going to help balance your beer, I think. The bitterness from dry hopping just isn't very much, its mostly aroma that you get from dry hopping. Plus the beer is already carbonated.

I'd leave it be, give it a new name, drink it as is (although perhaps not as quickly as you would if it have turned out the way you want it), and get going on another batch. We've all done this, the good news about homebrewing is that we're brewing small enough batches that we can experiment, make mistakes, and its not the end of the world. We just pick ourselves up and try again.

 

[barbender]

Dry hopping isn't going to help balance your beer, I think. The bitterness from dry hopping just isn't very much, its mostly aroma that you get from dry hopping. Plus the beer is already carbonated.

I'd leave it be, give it a new name, drink it as is (although perhaps not as quickly as you would if it have turned out the way you want it), and get going on another batch. We've all done this, the good news about homebrewing is that we're brewing small enough batches that we can experiment, make mistakes, and its not the end of the world. We just pick ourselves up and try again.

Thanks Pappers for the advice, I'll drink it, it's not bad - just sweet, not what I'm used to, regards

 

[Pharaoh Bob]

It you wanted to add bitterness you could always boil a couple oz of high alpha hops in a liter or two of water for 30mins or so and then pour that into the keg after it cools and after filtering out the hops. It would dilute the beer down a little but the bitterness might balance out some of the sweetness. I have never tried this before but I think it would work.

 

[JimRausch]

How about if he adds some of those hopshot oil? I haven't used them and basically only know the name. Maybe someone who has used them can pipe in.