[dmtaylor]

I have tried adding bitterness by making a 1-gal batch of beer to add to a 5-gal batch of beer and that was helpful.

I've done this and it works great.  Make a little extract batch of 100 IBUs and add it in.  Problem solved.

[Iliff Ave]

I have a blond ale that is too sweet.  It is well attenuated so I think the issue is just a lack of balance because it does have a high level of adjuncts and was brewed to a higher gravity (1.068 OG).  I was making this for someone else who wasn't a hop head at all so I'm pretty sure that I just need more balance.

Is there anything I can do to back-bitter this?  Would some hops boiled in plain water give me any IBUs that I could then adjust with?  Normally I leave things alone and drink what I get but since this is for someone else I thought I'd see if there was a way to try to adjust the bitterness.
Thanks

What are the stats for the beer? How many IBUs do you think it needs to balance out? It is American or Belgian Blond?

[gmac]

The IBU:SG ratio is only 0.237. 
18 lbs Pils, 4 lbs Munich, 4 lbs Minute Rice, 1.5 lbs corn syrup.
14 g Magnum @ 60
30 g Hallertau @ 60
Estimated about 17 IBU. 

I'm considering adding a 6 pk of highly hopped IPA to the beer to up the bitterness.  I will have to buy it but I'm fine with that too.
This is for a person who normally drinks Busch which is why I intentionally kept the IBUs low.  His brother made it for him with my guidance and he wanted a high alcohol beer.  I think 6 100 IBU IPAs will help.  The slight citrus hop character won't hurt much in my opinion.

[dmtaylor]

That should work!

[gmac]

That should work!

It did. 
I added 5.5 (someone got excited and drank half) - 65 IBU beers and it did a nice job of balancing out the sweetness.  The final result was much more drinkable.
The only problem was that I couldn't really shake the keg so we had to rely on natural diffusion to move the hops around and so the first few beers bottled were still sort of sweet.  Funny thing, when we did a taste test, some folks liked the sweet ones and some liked the more balanced ones.  Those that liked the sweet ones were wrong.

[dmtaylor]

Those that liked the sweet ones were wrong.

I'll drink to that!!