Re-bottling an already bottle primed beer

[m_c_zero]

Greetings All,

I brewed a beer about a month ago that I bottle primed and am not really happy with the way it tastes. I'd like to add some flavorings to it and then bottle it again. Anyone ever tried it before? I know I'd be exposing the beer to a lot of oxygen if I were to pour the bottles back into the bottling bucket and bottle from there, but I don't have any other ideas on how to go about it.

Thanks!

 

[FrozenOcean]

What are you unhappy with, and what flavourings are you planning to add? If it's some sort of off-flavour that's bothering you, it might be hard to get rid of it.

 

[sbelongie]

With the oxidation you will get from putting it back into a bottling bucket it will not be worth it. If I were you I would age it a little longer as it may get better. If not look at your processes and try again.

 

[JonM]

If it were my batch, I'd leave it alone and drink it and, at the same time, make a note on that recipe on what should be changed next time, and brew it differently next time.

Monkeying around with a fermented, conditioned beer is just a recipe for disaster. If you really want to fix this beer, try pouring a little honey, or DME, or vanilla, or espresso, or bourbon, or whatever in a glass and pour a single bottle into it and drink it that way - or, heck, get a big glass and blend two beers together. Better than messing up a whole batch.

 

[duboman]

If you don't care for it now you most certainly not care for it any more after you dump it, modify it and re-bottle it unless you like drinking oxidized and potentially infected beer

As mentioned, take notes, let it age a bit and make a better batch next time.

 

[eric19312]

I heard a podcast on Basic Brewing Radio recently where the guest refermented previoiusly bottled beer with bret and lacto. Seemed to work for them (the bret more than the lacto) and I am trying it now.

I had a batch of RIS that was a little underattenuated (1.024 FG when a carboy fermented warmer hit 1.020) and was under carbed in the bottle, probably due to long secondary. The combination was syrupy and pretty much undrinkable. I filled a 3 gallon better bottle with the beer plus 15% of an older barrel aged stout that also never carbed well, and added a pitch of bret brux drie. No clue if it is going to work or not but the beer looks happy to me in the carboy. My guess is 4 months or so with the bret and I will start looking at gravity. Am thinking to bottle some straight and also use it as a blending beer with a pale sour sort of like New Belgium's Oscar and Bruery's Melange #1.

 

[kornkob]

If I were going to do something like this I'd also fill the carboy with CO2 before racking off the bottles. The CO2 will displace the oxygen.