What to do w/ underattenuated sweet beer?

mixmasterob · 03-19-2010, 05:45 PM

Bottled a Centennial IPA in which I used 7 ounces of hops throughout the process. Started at about 1.063 an finished at around 1.020. It was somewhat sweet when I bottled it but not overly. I tasted one after a week of carbing, i know way to early, but it was damn sweet with decent carbonation. Will this sweetness fade w/ time or am I just in for 2 cases of sweet IPAs?

**Jumbo82** · 03-19-2010, 06:05 PM

I'd wait at least a month before drinking it. The quality of the carbonation will improve which should change the flavor somewhat. If it is still too sweet for your liking, I'd mix them 50/50 with a dry beer. Kind of like a black and tan. Works for me.

damdaman · 03-19-2010, 06:37 PM

A lot of the sweet you're tasting is probably non-fermented priming sugar, I can taste a huge sweetness decline between 1 week carbing and 3 weeks.

Next time you end up with a beer finishing high though, try amylase enzyme. I've used it with great success on two different extracts batches recently that finished higher than I had hoped. 1 tspn added to the carboy and give the yeast a rouse (and make sure temps are good, maybe a little higher than normal) and you can get an extract 5-10 points in a few days.

jjones17 · 03-20-2010, 08:15 PM

Yeah, I did a porter using Windsor yeast and it finished at 1.028 or so. The 'sweet' flavour does fade, but the beer farts do NOT. Let me tell you, I drank 2 in one night last week, and this is how my sleep went that night:

10 pm - Snoozing
12 am - loud fart which wakes me up
12:30 - woken up by the foul smell in my room. More farts.
1:30 am - Huge fart, wakes up wife. No fun times here.
1:00 am - Oh my god, I need an enema
2:00 am - Jebus, save me. I sure hope my houseplants can survive in such a high concentration of methane
3:00 am - fart fart fart fart fart
4:00 am - Ok, had enough gave up on sleep. Got up, tried to make the farts turn in to a number 2. No go, just ended up sweaty and frustrated.
6:30 am - Gas goes away, time to have a shower and get ready for work.

I have never been so tired at work in my life. I still have the beer, and 1 in a day does not keep me awake but I do not reccomend drinking more than that unless you have a spare colostomy bag.