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Brown Mystery Ale
I recently took the plunge and decided to use some of my dad's nine-teen year old 'Oliver's Choice: English Ale Malt'. Without much expectation for the finished product I eagerly poured in all four 300g (2.65Lbs) cans of the aged liquid malt into my pot, hoping for an O.G. around .030ish (cans claimed to make 4.5 liters of deliciousness each) I also threw in ,5 ounce of the following hops: Willametta @ 30, Mount Hood @ 20, Fuggle @ 15, and 2.5 ounces Horizon @ 60, What I ended up with was a wort of 1.020 O.G. instead. A week later a gravity reading read 1.010, undaunted by the low O.G. I added roughly 8# of Bing Cherries and 1.2# of Honey several days later to the primary, with the attitude of "why the hell not, not much can make this any worse then 19 years already have". Checking the gravity today revealed that fermentation has brought it down once again to 1.010, (forgot to check after the addition of cherries and honey). The wort at the moment is fairly light bodied and has a pretty bitter after-taste to it.
My main question is; does anyone have any suggestions or requests of what to add or do next, this is a sort of 'Frankenstein' English dark ale if you will. I do not have any grand expectations for the final product, but want to experiment and enjoy the brewing process!
A brown ale with 19 year old extract, honey and cherries and you're looking for more ways to experiment? Well I guess you could sour it by adding some Brettanomyces and letting it sit for 6-12 months.
Or if the flavor is interesting enough you could always boil it and add it to future batches. Guiness adds sour beer to it's stout to help give it it's unique flavor. you could try doing small additions to different beers.
Me, if it wasn't drinkable or what I would like I'd just dump it.
DC
The malt was probably fine, especiallyh after you boiled it. You'd notice the oxidation from the tinny taste the wort would have, but you say it's nothing but bitter, so probably no off flavors that you can detect.
I'd throw it it bottles, and let it age until chirstmas, and give it out as a holiday ale. Cherries are really frickin good in a holiday ale.
Yeah, I'll most likely let it sit in primary abit longer then off to secondary for awhile. Would it be advisable to add some DME at secondary to give it more 'body'?
It's kind of tough to see what kind of body a beer is going to have before it's carbed, at least it's always been that way for me. You might just leave it as if you add the dme now you might lose that cherry aroma that you have now. Although it is kind of an experiment, so it really cant hurt. I've never added Malt after primary before, but if you have, and know that it works, what the hell throw it in.
GuyNMT wrote:
Yeah, I'll most likely let it sit in primary abit longer then off to secondary for awhile. Would it be advisable to add some DME at secondary to give it more 'body'?
I'd add Maltodextrine. It's an unfermentable suger used to add body and mouthfeel. Just boil it in a pint of water and add to secondary. If the beer is pretty bitter you could try a pound of MD unless others chime in with different ammounts.
The DME will ferment out and add more alcohol then add body.
DC
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