Backsweetening a fruit beer

[Guido]

I made a Blackberry Baltic Porter that is excellent, but the blackberries turned out to be a bit tart. The beer is kegged. I was thinking about adding a little sorbate and backsweetening with honey. Any thoughts.

Cheers
Mark

[beerhog]

as long as the keg is being kept cold i see no reason for the sorbate. also havce you thought of using just a little bit of lactose, it should work well in sweeteining porter up a bit.

[spiderwrangler]

Either way you decide to sweeten, I'd dissolve your sugar source in water and make a simple syrup. IF you just dumped lactose powder in there, you'd get a fun eruption of CO2. If you just pour honey in there, you'll get a thick couple of first pints, then nothing.

[Guido]

as long as the keg is being kept cold i see no reason for the sorbate. also havce you thought of using just a little bit of lactose, it should work well in sweeteining porter up a bit.

Good idea, but I'm somewhat intolerant of lactose--if ya know what I mean

[spiderwrangler]

You mean farts and poop, right?

[Guido]

You mean farts and poop, right?

Yeah...it's a scene, man.

[Guido]

Either way you decide to sweeten, I'd dissolve your sugar source in water and make a simple syrup. IF you just dumped lactose powder in there, you'd get a fun eruption of CO2. If you just pour honey in there, you'll get a thick couple of first pints, then nothing.

I was discusing the same thing at our club meeting tonight. I think the liquid honey would keep the CO2 in solution. I'd then re-seal the keg, shake the hell out of it, and leave it alone for a few weeks.

[spiderwrangler]

I still think the honey is gonna give you a hell of a time getting it to dissolve, assuming you are storing cold. Even with a good shaking, it will likely still be fairly clumped and settled in a cold keg, all around your dip tube. It may dissolve if you give it enough time and flip the keg periodically, but if it is settled and you hook it up and pull a pint that takes half your honey out, you spent those weeks waiting for no benefit. I'd say get it dissolved in a syrup, add it and shake. Should mix more readily throughout.