A Matter of Ethics

[mr.jay]

Our building got struck by lightning a few weeks ago. Long story short, I have these problems, two.
Problem the first: My flagship gold is way too sweet (3.7P as opposed to the 2P norm). This beer normally takes 2 months to kill from the serving tank. It is our slowest moving beer, and I only brew it because the craft beer "newbies" love it, as well as some older gentlemen that frequent the bar. It is filtered, and I have about 2.8 Bbl left. I thought, rather then waiting for the beer to kick, I could just filter this right into the tank and blend the two. It may cut down the sweetness just enough. I regularly clean my lines every 2 weeks. What is the harm in me just pumping a newer beer in with an older one. A "golden gaueze" if you will. What are your thoughts on this?

Problem the second: I have a heffe that is WAY too dry (.9P). The tank temp ramped up right at the end of frementation, and it went crazy. That is the only thing I could think happened. My mash temp. was 153, and my bill was 70 / 30. I've done it before, and usually finish at 2.8P. It also has a very, very faint metallic finish. What do you suppose I should do with the 6Bbls I have of this stuff?

[burlybeer]

If your beer doesn't taste good to you, you should not serve it to your customers.

[v2comp]

Ethics......

If your beer doesn't taste good to you, you should not serve it to your customers.

WURD!

if you cant blend it so that you would drink it, you really should probably just dump$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ it!

[BrewinLou]

Time to break out the pitchers and beakers and find that tasty blend percentage.




"If your beer doesn't taste good to you, you should not serve it to your customers."

Last time I checked taste was still relative to the taster. Have you never brewed a style you were not that fond of? It does not stop you from trying to make it the best beer possible.

[Brancid]

I see no problem w/ blending the gold, but I would definitely figure out your blend percentage first, via the grad cylinder method. You may have to dump a bit, but you should at least end up with enough to hold the thirsties over until the next batch is ready to rack.

As for the Hef, maybe back sweeten with a bit of honey; if it's not a regular brew anyway. I would be worried about it taking off again, but if it's been crashed for awhile and you keep it cold it shouldn't do much in the server.

If they turn out nice, why not market it. We had the power drop on us about a year ago during a knockout of an IPA and the whirlpool hops ended up with alot more time than normal. It was still tasty, not the same beer but still damb fine. Power Outage IPA was born. The servers had a ton of fun explaining the brew name and it was a twist on a standard.

My two cents anyway.

[Moonlight]

If you will lessen the quality of the better beer by adding the worse beer, you are destroying your reputation. Many customers won't know, but the ones that do will be the better and loyal beer drinkers that you instead need to cater to.

I have never regretted dumping beer down the drain. It feels good. You know it is the right thing to do. You sleep far better than knowing you are insulting your customers by giving them something you know isn't right.

[GlacierBrewing]

Yup, power failures suck. Had my boiler die in the middle of a brew, got it running several hours later. Put the wort in the FV with only about a 20minute boil (weak one at that). Frankenbrew limped through a weak fermentation and tasted awful! I used it to clean my trench drain. No way was I going to release THAT thing! I always thought it would've be fun to use this "beer" in some other venue like "donating" it to a fund-raising dunk tank or something like that.
luck to ya'
Prost!
dave

[beerking1]

If the Golden is too sweet, and the heffe too dry...maybe the two of them would make a good beer blended together.
Try it with a couple of pitchers. You got nothing to lose.

[Gordie]

Makes sense to give blending a shot, but never blend anything unless the result is better than both the individual parts. Draw a gallon or two and blend up a few pints. Unless you'd rather drink the blend than either of the two components - dump it. Beer can be replaced easily, reputation not so much. Speaking of which, I have an IIPA that went off the rails that needs to find a drain this evening...

[Scott M]

Your Golden Ale is your flagship, so why not add some Brett and throw it into a new French Oak barrels for a few months.

As for the Heffe, if it isn't a regular offering, give her a special name like 'Summer Wheat' and serve it up (as long as dryness is the only flaw).

[mr.jay]

Thanks for your responses! The Gold blend went with out a flaw. Still pondering the wheat. The metallic finish has mysteriously disappeared. Gum chewing at 8 am could have been the culprit for that off flavor in the first place. I ran a small amount of the wheat throught the filter, and blended in some gold (no dice on that -tasted pretty nasty, actually). Then I tried the wheat on it's own, and stirred in a very small amount of honey. Bingo! Now I have to do some math. If it turns out to be lousy, I'll toss it. I did take the above advice, and also racked off 3 firkins with Brett. Cheers!

[beertje46]

Thanks for your responses! Gum chewing at 8 am could have been the culprit for that off flavor in the first place.

You are probably correct.
I highly recommend a lower-tier Cuban cigar with maduro wrapper prior to tasting beer. I say lower tier because they need to start bleeding tar with-in the first half. Also, a double espresso prior to lighting the cigar will enhance your taste buds too.

[mr.jay]

Honey

Thanks for the advice on cigars and 2x espresso. Of course, nothing adds to the "enhancement" more than popping a few handfulls of "after cigar" Red Hots.

Any advice on getting a viscous liquid such as honey into a 33 degree beer without causing it sieze up?

[beertje46]

Thanks for the advice on cigars and 2x espresso. Of course, nothing adds to the "enhancement" more than popping a few handfulls of "after cigar" Red Hots.

Any advice on getting a viscous liquid such as honey into a 33 degree beer without causing it sieze up?

Yep, forgot the red hots although I'm an Altoids man myself.

How much honey to what quantity of beer?

[Ted Briggs]

I did a honey brown by boiling the honey to sanitize it in a 50/50 solution with water. I would add to server hot and filter beer into it. Even with this mixing it tended to statifi. About the third time I made it I figgured to put the honey in a couple of cornys and inject it into the flow as I was filtering the beer. Worked great.
Your beer is in the tank though-- Can you transfer to another empty tank and mix while transfering?