Pilsner is so sweet. Help!

So this is my second batch and I am experimenting by brewing with green olives. I have had american pilsners with green olives and figured why not experiment. The issue I have is right before I let it ferment, the beer is really sweet and not as light as a pilsner should be. Why is it this so sweet and not light I would have expected?

jdvaldez1 said:

So this is my second batch and I am experimenting by brewing with green olives. I have had american pilsners with green olives and figured why not experiment. The issue I have is right before I let it ferment, the beer is really sweet and not as light as a pilsner should be. Why is it this so sweet and not light I would have expected?

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Do you have the correct volume for the recipe you used?
If this was all grain was your mash temperature to high?

What is the recipe and process you followed for this beer?

This is a joke, right?

Are you saying the UNFERMENTED beer is sweet?

Yes it is sweet and i let the grain steep at about 150-160 degrees (varying) for half an hour. And this was one of those beginner kits that come with everything included: grain, malt extract, etc.

It's sweet because it's not fermented. Fermentation is where the yeast consumes the sugar and converts it into alcohol and CO2. After fermentation, there will be little sugar left and, as a result, little sweetness.

I put green olives in at 45min into the boil and was hoping that it would bring out some flavors or aroma from them. I am also assuming they didn't give the beer the sweet taste. It would have to do with the grain right?

jdvaldez1 said:

I put green olives in at 45min into the boil and was hoping that it would bring out some flavors or aroma from them. I am also assuming they didn't give the beer the sweet taste. It would have to do with the grain right?

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Yes, the sweetness would be from the grain. That's the intended result: to extract sugars from grains to feed yeast which produce alcohol. Have you added yeast to your wort yet? It seems like you might be missing the key idea here that beer is a fermented product, and fermentation is a process which can take several weeks and dramatically changes the product.

Yes I did. I just didn't expect that batch to be so sweet since my first one wasn't near as sweet. Also Why is the color darker? I know a pilsner is a lager but all the pilsners I have drank were light in color.

Thanks everyone that helped

I guess I could have guessed you did get fermentation right since you said it was your second batch. Sorry I missed that part.

Regarding color, it's often known that extract beers are darker than all-grain brews (which of course commercial pilsners would be), and also that liquid extract gets darker as it ages (which is a bad thing). It might ferment out as you'd like but the color might just be something you'll have to accept