Can I lower abv after fermentation

[Coo brewing]

Just put a pale into its secondary and after tasting is to strong for my taste .can I add boiled cooled water to it ,anybody done this

 

[sponge]

Yes.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Just put a pale into its secondary and after tasting is to strong for my taste .can I add boiled cooled water to it ,anybody done this

Well sort of


You could just add plain water to it, to reduce the Alc%, but that will screw up the taste and mouthfeel and the IBU/SG ratio

The other way is to brew a separate low Alc% beer then blend it.

 

[Coo brewing]

I was thinking about this and it does taste a little high on Ibu so I think I can get away with it

 

[wobbly]

You could add soda water either into the fermenter or the glass at the time of consumption

Wobbly

 

[Black n Tan]

will screw up the taste and mouthfeel and the IBU/SG ratio

Wont the IBU/SG ratio remain unchanged when diluting with water because both the IBU and SG are equally reduced.

 

[earle]

Can you be a bit more descriptive about why it tastes strong? Has it got an alcohol taste? Hot alcohol taste? Strong hop flavour? Strong bitterness.

The reason I ask is that if I gave a flavoursome beer to a friend that usually drinks bland lagers they tell me it tastes strong, what they mean it it has strong flavour but their comment suggests that they think it is high alcohol.

Getting the flavour of beer right is partly about balancing the hop bitterness against the malt sweetness, just like with coffee and chocolate. If your balance is too much on the bitter side for your taste, diluting it with water might just make watery beer that is still too bitter. In that case it might be better to adjust the balance somehow.

 

[Coodgee]

If it tastes too strong it's probably not the alcohol you are tasting. It's probably the hop and/or malt flavor you are tasting. This probably means the balance between hop bitterness and malt sweetness is not to your liking. Or you just don't like a strong flavoured beer in general. So yes adding water will dilute the flavor and make it less strong but it won't fix an unbalanced beer.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Wont the IBU/SG ratio remain unchanged when diluting with water because both the IBU and SG are equally reduced.

The IBU wont change, but the FG will

 

[danestead]

The IBU wont change, but the FG will

Ahhhh yes it will.

 

[Droopy Brew]

Or just drink it and educate your taste... There is a whole glorious world of hoppy, malty, high ABV, and highly bittered beers just waiting to be explored.

Embrace the flavour dude.

 

[Spohaw]

Ahhhh yes it will.

If you want to test this out grab an IPA and water it down to see if it seems thinner and less bitter ....... I'd put money on it having less bitterness and less body

 

[danestead]

If you want to test this out grab an IPA and water it down to see if it seems thinner and less bitter ....... I'd put money on it having less bitterness and less body

Yep the IBU/SG ratio will be the same so the beer should still taste balanced. I absolutely agree that it will have less body, that's a no brainer. The relative bitterness should appear the same on our tongue as the IBU/SG ratio hasn't changed however the actual IBU's will be less.

Our tongues don't measure IBU's, they just pick up on relative bitterness. That's why a mid strength lager fermented right out may only have 20 IBU's but will seem more bitter than a RIS with 90 IBU's.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

If it was brewed at 25IBU it will still be 25IBU, granted it will be diluted.

 

[danestead]

If it was brewed at 25IBU it will still be 25IBU, granted it will be diluted.

If you are so certain, please tell us why because what you are claiming makes no sense and does not check out in brewing software either.

To back up my claim that others also agree with, I entered a simple recipe in my brewing software. I then doubled the batch size without doubling the ingredients. The ibus reduced to a figure slightly higher than half the original Ibu figure. The reason it does not reduce to exactly half is because the hop utilisation is greater for a lower og wort. Hop utilisation will not be affected when diluting like the original poster has suggested. The ibus will reduce at exactly the rate of dilution.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yes well by that logic you could take a kit tin rated at 360IBU, dilute it in 23 litres of water and still end up with a finished beer of 360IBU. If you pour half a glass of beer, it has a certain IBU, obviously. If you then fill the other half of the glass with water then the IBU of the whole solution drops due to dilution.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Oh boy.... :lol:

 

[MichaelM]

IBUs are a measure of the concentration of isomerized alpha acids in a litre of beer. The unit of measure being mg/l (mg isomerized alpha acids/ litre of beer) so keeping the mg the same but increasing the volume would reduce the IBUs

 

[glenwal]

If it was brewed at 25IBU it will still be 25IBU, granted it will be diluted.

It would have the same AAU/HBU (which is a measure of the amount of alpha acids used in the recipe), but the IBU (which if the amount of isomerized alpha acids per litre) would definitely be decreased.

 

[Black n Tan]

Homeopathy for beer, terrific, I am going to save lots of money in hops by using this principle. Should work for favour and aroma too