Beer as strike water

[lindormonster]

As far as my list of stupid ideas go this one is probably up the top so bare with me on this one

I have a batch of imperial stout that has been in the bottle for over 2 years now and tastes pretty damn good apart from one small thing - No carbonation

TBH I just left it and forgot about it after a couple of months after bottling it and realising it was flat

I started thinking about getting rid of it and then my mind started wandering and along come a stupid idea...

What if i used it as strike water on another batch of imperial stout?

Would this even work in any way shape or form?

My thoughts and guesses..................

Would still need to top up the strike water with some water although how much would need to be worked out but I would estimate (at a rough guess) I have about 25 x 330ml bottles so my thought process would be to empty the bottles into the HLT and top up with water then bring up to the boil and continue as normal

Would need to be careful about using dark malts as could end up pushing certain dark malts over max use percentage if I added more to the mash so thinking stick to lighter malts and maybe a touch of something dark such as crystal but not too dark

Some alcohol from the strike beer would end up boiling off in the boil so how would one go about working out gravity OR would normal gravity readings still work ( I dont think they would as "strike beer" may have some residual sugar in it as well as some alcohol content)

This could go badly wrong

 

[YeastFace]

Isn't that what a reiterated mash is?

https://grainfather.com/reiterated-mashing/
Edit - no, didn't read the bit about using packaged beer.

Sounds interesting!

 

[YeastFace]

.

 

[samale]

Why don't you open them, prime them with fresh yeast and recap

 

[An Ankoù]

This could go badly wrong

...if you're thinking of using it for a lager.
Joking aside, it's not a reiterated mash because the sugar has already been converted and the alcohol will boil away. I had a similar brew that wouldn't carbonate and I know @strange-steve posted abut a similar disappointment. Rather than throw it away, try drinking it as a shandy with lemonade. No kidding. It's not what you'd intended but it's not bad.

 

[Stu's Brews]

I agree with @samale, would be easiest to re-prime the bottles. Alternatively, have you considered blending it with a new batch?

If you are dead set on using it in place of sparge water then I'll certainly be watching with interest!

You'll need to calculate how much alcohol will be introduced (as it will be diluted) and then subsequently boiled off. From that you can figure out how much fermentable sugar you will need to introduce to reach the target ABV.

I think you are probably right to not add too many additional dark malts but I don't think I'd avoid them completely. The flavour compounds from the original beer are going to be further transformed from the boil so you will want some new ones to act as a base.

For gravity readings, you'll be fine with a hydrometer but not a refractometer unless you can correct for the presence of alcohol.

One thing I keep wondering is whether the sparge itself would be as effective. Potentially you could end up with lower efficiency but that is just a hunch.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Try and get a barrell, age it, then rebottle and prime

 

[MashBag]

.... tastes pretty damn good apart from one small thing - No carbonation.

So fix the small problem... Don't turn it into a disaster and waste "pretty damn good" beer.

Just my tuppence

 

[Pennine]

I would get a pack of fermentis f-2 and open your bottles and sprinkle a little in and recap. If you added the right amount of sugar the yeast should be able to get some carbonation in there.

 

[hoppyscotty]

I’ve a batch of impy stout that has failed to carbonate too. To be honest if any beer style can get away with being flat it’s a thick viscous impy stout, so think I’ll crack on with it. No rush in drinking it anyway. It’ll keep as long as it needs to. Just as well as it’s not exactly a session beer!

 

[DCBC]

I once capped 60+ bottles before realising I had left the priming sugar solution sitting in a bowl - I had not added it to the bottling bucket!

It was a PITA but I calculated the amount of dextrose required for each bottle in grams, diluted it with a known amount of water so I knew there was, say, 15ml of accurately dosed solution going into each bottle, put a good podcast on, opened each bottle and medicine-syringed the right amount into each before recapping.

It took another hour and a half on top of an already long bottling day, but every bottle carbonated perfectly and I didn't get a single infection. I'd say it's worth investing a couple of hours to save what sounds like a very good batch o'beer!

 

[MashBag]

I bottle dose everthing, with a Zevro sugar dispenser. Cannot find an easier quicker way to bottle.