How to fix things that ain't broken but don't quite work

You know what? I've got a few bottles of a coffee/chocolate/milk porter that I made earlier this year that is just a bit too sweet, and I've got my first attempt at a Lager in the fridge conditioning at the moment... Thanks for the idea

(p.s. Oh man, nitro Champagne? Why is that not a thing?)

 

I would suggest making a small batch of icecream with overly flavored lightly hopped beer. I made a schwarzbier ice cream that was amazing. Or an icecream float with your stout.

Early on I had a really thick dunkel that used wheat dme and honey malt among other things. It was really thick and the color was off, almost purple. I decided just to dilute it with store bought wheat beer, don't remember what. When poured like a Black and Tan it shown purple and gold...LSU. Brought the last few to a tailgate, and to the 3-4 people that saw that, they thought it was done purposefully. I still want to try to recreate that but so much beer in the pipeline. I have a pic somewhere.

 

Glad you said this, because technically what you described is a sparkling wine, not a Champagne, which can only be made in a specific region in France using certain prescribed techniques. I would have needed to correct you to clarify for the world that nitro Champagne is not real Champagne, because I'm sure lots of people were confused about what you meant.

As for black and tans, I've been known to blend, especially off of my kegging setup. If I have a pale ale and a dark ale in the house, black and tan is part of the lineup.

This summer, living in WI really paid off, with lots of sour offerings from New Glarus coming my way. I actually had so many sours that I thought it was time to mix things up. I blended one of them with a homebrewed stout. I realized that while sometimes I like breathtakingly sour beers, back-sweetening with something like a dark beer can bring about a different kind of joy.

 

If you write music as entertaining as your posts here we will be seeing you on TV soon!

 

I have an 11% Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Milk Stout that has aged into a very "figgy" flavor...I had almost given up on drinking all of it, but I started to mix it with a 10% Pumpkin Ale I brewed and BAM, one of the best beer combos I've had in a while!

 

I do not know if you have any pumpkin beers in your inventory but you might want to try that blended with your stout.

My wife loves a beer she calls a Chocolate Pumpkin which is typically a blend of Young's Double Chocolate Stout with a Pumpkin Ale. I once made a blend of my homebrewed Oatmeal Stout (which has a bit a chocolate flavor) with a Pumpkin Ale and that was tasty too.

Cheers!

 

When I first brewed after upgrading/adding equipment I brewed one of my ESB recipes designed for 70% efficiency. Unfortunately, I got 87% and decided I would just roll with it...instead of diluting or adding more hops (which I didn't have anyway). Well, I under-pitched quite a bit since the starter was also designed for 70%, and 002 isn't known for it's high attenuation. However, it boldly ate through those sugars as much as it could...and delivered about 73%...which still wasn't enough to bring the FG below the high 20's. It was cloyingly sweet and the alcohol was not hidden at all.

Anyway, my wife hated it, and I wasn't particularly enamored either. My solution was to drink the entire 5 gallons in under 2 weeks, while sobbing, and try to forget it ever happened. Luckily, the alcohol helped with that a bit.

Maybe next time I'll go the mixology route, instead of the Dumbledore route.

 

I always just keg it, put it in the fridge or corner of garage and hop it turns out better.. Usually not the case.

Now I experiment with beers, and leave the door open enough I can just sour it and call it done if I don't care for it. Can always welcome some sours to use to blend around and make something special.

 

I knew I had one last bottle of New Glarus Pumpkin Pie Lust in my fridge, so after reading this, I was prompted to go home and try it. Alas, it was not quite meant to be. To my surprise, my keg of stout was down to the last couple teaspoons of foam. And so was my brown ale. 10 days to Halloween, no more beer in the fridge, and empty kegs. Talk about scary.

(OK, maybe not so bad - still have some saison).

 

Break it harder.

 

My very first homebrew attempt was less than prosperous. My coffee stout just didn't come out as planned. I started mixing it with a few ounces of homebrew wine and what do you know.... Tasty tasty

 

Coffee stout and wine? I cannot fathom.