Bit of advice needed on a Tia Maria clone

[screamlead]

Made a 1 gall batch of this a while ago and it went down a bomb and was lovely.
Then i made up a 5 gall batch and to be honest its turned out a bit insipid, cloudy and very bitter tasting?
I can cure most of it as i have just added a ltr of vannila syrup and a ltr bottle of myers rum but still getting the bitter taste, just racked it off too and also added about 30ml of glycerine too. I will give it a couple of days in the fv to settle then rack it again and add quickclear finings to it as well.
Anyone any idea as to how to get rid of the bitter taste to it? anything i can add? :wha:

 

[BigYin]

This is a wild stab in the dark for me, as I've never attempted anything like this before, but if the opposite of bitter is sweet, then could you add an artificial sweetener???? - something the yeast can't attack....

Feel free to tell me it's a rubbish idea :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[graysalchemy]

Too much of that Turkish coffee I suspect :rofl:

I to would sugest sweetener to combat the bitterness.
:thumb:

 

[Frogfurlong]

Is it this recipe you used? viewtopic.php?f=41&t=17491&hilit=tia+maria

Have you loaded the yeast until it can't take any more sugar? (reached its max. alc tolerance limit?)
This can lead to bitter flavours due to the stressed yeastie trying desperately to adapt to the increasingly toxic atmosphere.

Since the recipe is effectively a sugar wash flavoured with coffee, any off flavour will be quite pronounced. Addition of sweetener (e.g. Splenda) will improve the sweetness but may never remove the bitter edge.


I hope I am wrong and it turns out great. :thumb:

 

[screamlead]

Thx for the replies - i think the sweetner idea is the way to go.
I chucked in some kwikclear two days ago and it now seems to be dropping clear. So i'll give it another day and add sweetners to a sample batch and see what happens.

 

[suzie]

I made a lovely tia maria clone, see the recipe on the link above. I bottled it in small bottles and capped them just because I knew I wouldnt be able to drink a wine bottle full in one go!

I still have a few bottles stored and it has definately improved with age. Right now. probably a couple of years later it is devine. If I make it again I will put it away and leave it alone for at least 18 months before sampling.

good luck