I inadvertently screwed up a recipe by adding orange simple syrup to keg vs fermenter (major brain fart). This is a Christmas Ale. I have used the candied orange rinds and subsequent simple syrup combo before in other recipes and when added to the fermenter–no problem at all. So, now, obviously beer is much too sweet. So…….my question/questions are…..is there something I can add to the keg to offset the sweetness, or……can I raise the temp of the finished beer and add more yeast to eat up the extra sugar??? I have already added some pumpkin pie spice and an allspice tea to the keg as part of the original recipe…FWIW.
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There’s really nothing you can do to offset the sweetness. Even if you added more bitterness or tartness to try to balance it, you will still have a beer that is too sweet.
The residual yeast still floating around should be enough to ferment the added sugar. This is the same thing as priming in a bottle, only you are using a keg. Yes, keep the keg at room temp or thereabouts. If the keg has been cold crashed, shake it a bit to re-suspend the yeast at the bottom once the keg has warmed up.
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Thanks for the quick response. Makes sense. I’ll give it a try…….and definitely pay more attention next time LOL
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Depending on how much you added, you might want to vent the keg periodically. It only takes a few gravity points to fully carbonate a beer.
I’ve been doing exactly that….but thanks for the reminder. I’m feeling a little lazy so I might just attach a blow off tube via the gas connector….just like during typical fermentation
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Iirc, the rule of thumb is 1 volume CO₂ per 2 gravity points.
Make it a boilermaker cocktail and add a shot of bourbon or whiskey and wash it down with your Christmas ale. Sounds pretty nice to me!
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