Extract Kits Turning Out Overly Sweet

Hello All,
I've brewed a few extract kits(from Northern Brewer) now and each one of them has turned out overly sweet. I started with the White House Honey Ale and Caribou Slobber kits. I did partial boils(per the instructions) and kept the fermentation vessel at steady temps for 3 weeks before bottling. There were no other "off" flavors with these other than the sweetness. I used the recommended Danstar Nottingham dry yeast for both brews and got an attenuation that was within the manufacturer's expected percentage range. I realized after the fact that this yeast gets low attenuation compared to others so I figured that was why these brews were overly sweet.

I then brewed the Dead Ringer Ale extract kit. I did a partial boil, used the recommended S-05 dry yeast, and kept in primary for 3 weeks before bottling. Although, temperature control during fermentation was an issue this time so I had some off flavors in addition to it being overly sweet. It had to sit in the bottles for over 2 months before I(or anyone else) considered it drinkable. Attenuation was within the yeast manufacturer's expected range.

I recently tried the Dead Ringer extract kit a second time. My methods were the same except that I had great temp control(stayed at 63F for all 3 weeks in primary). It's been in the bottle 3 weeks now and tastes much better than my last try, only it is overly sweet again! OG was 1.067 FG 1.018 for an attenuation of 72%.

Does anyone have any ideas as to where this sweetness is coming from? It is not just me, others have tasted and said the same thing.

I recently got a burner and 10 gallon brew pot to start doing full boils. Could this help any? With my past brews I thought I was pretty good about stirring in the extract before returning my pot to the heat each time but I did notice a little bit of caramelized extract at the bottom of the pot.

Does anyone have any tips for me? I don't want to end up with another 5 gallons of overly sweet beer!

Hmmm... not really sure what's going on here. NB has earned a ton of my business and while many brewers will complain of the extract "1.020 curse" because they struggle with their extract kits' final gravities getting below 1.020, that's obviously not the case here. Given your FG on the Dead Ringer, I wouldn't think that would be causing your sweetness. Your temp sounds good and if you're using dry yeast it sounds like everything you're doing is quality. I've never really had a "sweetness" problem with any NB kits and I've probably done 15 of them. I do think my beers got better when I got my Darkstar Burner and my bigger full boil kettle (also from N.B.). Hopefully it helps you out. In the meantime, enjoy the Dead Ringer as best you can. It's probaby their best selling kit that I have not tried. Might I suggest their milk chocolate stout. HOwever, if you are "anti-sweetness" it might not bre the kit for you, but man - I LOVE that one.

What kind of impact would temperature fluctuation during fermentation have? I just checked an IPA that has been in primary for 3 weeks and it is currently at 75% attenuation using S-05. This is the only brew that I have gotten a decent attenuation on and I just realized that all my prior brews had temperature fluctuations, but all within the safe temp range. I use a plastic tub filled with water and during the summer the temp would fluctuate each day between 62 and 69. Would fluctuations like this, even though they are within the safe temp, cause poor attenuation? I was able to keep my IPA steady between 62 and 64 for 3 weeks. This is the only difference I can think of. I tasted the IPA and it definitely doesn't have the sweetness of my other batches.

I meant that if the temps were too low then maybe the yeast went dormant and thus, were not able to consume fermentable sugars, that's all. A lot of people post about stuck fermentations (thus a higher than desired FG which can result in sweetness) and a common remedy to that is to warm up the yeast a few degrees. So, MAYBE upping the temperature to say like 68 might kick those yeast into higher gear and lower your FG, which could lower your sweetness to a more desired level. I'm glad to hear this IPA has not had that sweetness issue. Enjoy.

I would think an FG of 1.018 would taste pretty sweet. If you don't have it already, buy Beersmith (especially since it would be a good tool to have doing all grain), and type in all of your ingredients for your beers to see what the estimated FG would be. Just to check if you're hitting the attenuation that should be expected.
Temp fluctuations can be something that could affect the yeast. Going from the colder temp up to the warmer temp can give you some off flavors if it's still early in the fermentation. Then dropping back down from 69 to 62 could make some of the yeast flocc out. If that temp fluctuation is happening every day, it could definitely cause some problems for the yeast.
Some of the best advice given for newer brewers is, obviously, 1) sanitation, and 2) temp control. You can even just get the kits that are completely ready you literally just mix with warm water and then fill the rest with cool water, but if you get those 2 steps down with that, you can still make good beer.

You need to get the beer attenuated down to the Fg of the kit/recipe, not so much what the yeast manufacturer says. I've gotten 1.065OG's down to 1.012 with no problems. Under-attenuated beer is usually a bit sweet. And/or if you bulk primed & bottled the beer, then tried it a week or so later. Same effect.

The full boil will make all the difference!

Here's why. No matter how many hops you add to a boil, there is a maximum of hops oils that can isomerize before becoming saturated. The maximum is about 100 IBUs, but that's in the best case. Usually, it's even a bit less due to break material and things. For example, even a beer like Pliny the Elder, which calculates out to something like 250+ IBUs has been tested and is at more like 85 IBUs.

What that means is that when you do a partial boil, you are immediately cutting those IBUs. It may not matter much in a cream ale, or another beer where the bittering isn't a crucial but in something like Dead Ringer, it's definitely noticeable.

Here's a simple example of how that happens. Say you're boiling 2.5 gallons and you have two ounces of hops as bittering hops, maybe 80 IBUs. When you finish the boil, you have immediately cut those IBUs in half- 2.5 gallons of 80 IBU wort plus 2.5 gallons of 0 IBU water = 40 IBUs. And that's in a best case scenario. So that means that some beers, particularly higher gravity beers and highly hopped beers will be underbittered. Adding the extract at the end of boil helps quite a bit with this, as then there is more room in the pot for more liquid for the boil as well as having less break material in the pot (which is thought to maybe pull hop oils out of suspension according to John Palmer).

So, boiling more wort, as to minimize or eliminate the dilution with water, will go a long way to helping the beer not 'lose' the bittering IBUs.

In addition, the caramelized extract is another clue that the beer isn't as "clean" as it could be, as that proves that there were excess/increased maillard reactions, which means a bit less fermentable sugars from the extract as well as a cooked extract taste that can come across as sweet or even cloying.
I hope that is helpful!

Can you describe your yeast hydration process? I've found that there is a very strong correlation between how long the yeast floats and viability.

I'm doing an article for the HBT main page about hop bitterness which, among other things, address the issue with hop bitterness and partial boils that Yooper mentioned. You might want to keep an eye out for it.