Recipe Fail: Bourbon Porter w/ Cherries. Thoughts?

Any responders to your questions will likely want to know more about your process. I'm not familiar with Balaton cherries. Were there canned in syrup (adding the syrup too?), frozen, or fresh from the produce section of your supermarket? These were added with other ingredients in the secondary fermenter, but did you take a gravity reading before adding these items as well as after you think fermentation was complete? Any information that you can add will help determine what the problem might be.

 

Would 3 oz Bourbon in a 1 gal batch be enough to kill the yeast?

How long has it been since you bottled?

 

What is the gravity now?

 

Not 100% familiar with this kit, but I assume that this is a fairly high gravity beer. Do you have the original and final gravity readings? High gravity beers can take much longer to carbonate. I aerate using pure oxygen, and pitch plenty of healthy yeast using a starter and my last bottled big beer took almost 3 months to carbonate.

 

If you didn't take a gravity reading and are unable/unwilling to do that now, I'd suggest waiting it out from very far away.

 

He's suggesting that you may have bottle bombs based on the likelihood of continuing fermentation in the bottle. It's definitely worth taking a gravity reading and making sure fermentation was complete.

 

Yeah but you would think if they were going to be bottle bombs he'd already have some carbonation, no?

 

Not necessarily, if it's a high ABV or Weak Yeast slow burn. What concerns me is the syrupy taste the OP described. Sounds like a bunch of sugar to me.

 

I just looked at the NB website to see if there was a typo or something in the instructions...but no...they are recommending 2-3 oz bourbon in a 1 gal batch and 16 oz in a 5 gal batch. Am I missing something or does that seem like a shit load of bourbon? (not the "wee dram" the instructions also described)

I've soaked oak chips with just enough to cover and then tossed the liquid and it was plenty for my taste (in a 5 gal batch).

 

If you had an active secondary fermentation then the alcohol from the bourbon did not kill the yeast. My next guess is that the priming sugar may not be mixed well, and that the bottles that you've tested so far have had minimal sugar in them. However, that does not explain the sugary taste that you experienced. If the bottles are still at the 68-72 degree range, then I'd say just sit tight and monitor those bottles by opening one occasionally to see how the carbonation is progressing. If you start to see over-carbonation because too much sugar was left available for the yeast to feast, then you'll have to chill them quickly to put the yeast to sleep and stop the carbonation process.

 

How long was it in the primary? in the secondary?

 

Do you still have the package the cherries came in, or can you go get a new package at the store? At least go look at the package? Dried cherries probably have sulfites added which will kill the yeast. This would stop all further fermenting, including the sugar in the cherries and what was added to prime, thus the syrupy sweetness.

 

Something still doesn't sound right

 

Unless it was degassing?
Just throwing ideas around

 

That's what I was thinking too. A lot of people equate airlock activity with fermentation activity. Could just be a whole lot of CO2 escaping solution from the cherries as nucleation sites. Unless the OP saw active churning of the wort kicked up after adding the cherries then I am still wondering if it is sulfutes in the dried fruit.

 

Shit went downhill once Dawson left.