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So does anyone know if mash temps do have an influence on sweetness? Fundamentally, I just want to figure out what conditions to alter to produce a sweeter or less sweet beer. The question partly arises because I recently tried to brew a relatively sweet fruit beer for my wife, using a...

Jumping back to the original part of this thread, it makes sense that higher mash temps would produce a sweeter tasting beer if long-chain unfermentable, but still sweet tasting, sugars were produced. It is just that I have never read that explanation in the brewing literature. I thought the...

What factors do you use to control the sweetness of your beer? I assume that any difference between the actual attenuation and the limit of attenuation will increase sweetness, as this indicates the presence of residual unfermented sugars. To increase sweetness in this manner, I assume you...

I'm not sure I follow you. Obviously the constituents of the extract matter, because some forms of extract are perceived as sweet, while others are not. Carmelized sugars vs. dextrins, for example. But assuming the residual extract in question does contain some degree of sweet tasting extract...

Suppose we have two beers with the same attenuation percentage and the same percentage of fermentable and unfermentable sugars: Beer #1: OG: 1.100 FG: 1.023. Residual Extract: 1.037 Attenuation Percentage: 75% Alcohol by volume: 10.28% Beer #2: OG: 1.050 FG: 1.012. Residual...

Note that yeast growth is not a separate process from fermentation; fermentation is the process of converting fermentable sugars into ethanol, carbon dioxide, and yeast biomass (i.e. more yeast) and a small amount of flavor compounds. Therefore the greatest period of yeast growth occurs at the...

Ok, so my assumption that this yeast behavior is NOT typical apparently is confirmed. To answer the questions posted so far: 1. I have brewed using distilled water to which pH stabilizer was added, but not calcium. At first I thought THIS was my problem, because I found out that yeast...

In every batch I brew, using very different yeasts in very different batches, I consistently seem to have poor flocculation. By "poor," I mean that the beer will typically secondary for a couple of weeks at 64 F (for an ale) or 45 F (for a lager) and will then sit at near freezing (28 - 30...

On Midwest Supplies' site, they have these instructions for using a 0.5 micron carbonating stone: Using a carbonation stone will cut down the time needed to carbonate the beer to about 1/2 hour. •The beer needs to be cold, between 34 and 40 °F. •Attach the stone so that it is at or near...

So, working on the assumption that my beer was overcarbonated, and that the foaming was CAUSING the lack of carbonation in the glass, I used the CO2 purge valve on the keg to let off CO2 until there was no longer any audible gas leaving the keg (maybe 20 to 30 seconds worth of purging). I then...

I've read some more posts on this topic and it sounds like the basic principle is that the more foam you have, the less carbonation there will be in the beer. So if some problem with the system (overcarbonation, lines that are too short) is causing the beer to foam, then this will result in an...

I have a 12 foot 3/16" line. I can see the beer in the line, without any foam, but as soon as it leaves the cobra head dispenser, it turns into foam. I also tried it with a chilled glass, with the same result. I am actually not adding any additional serving pressure, just relying on the pressure...

I brewed an Eisbock on Monday at 1.089 OG. I had cooled the wort down to 40 F after boiling, with the expectation that the temp would rise about 8 - 10 degrees by the time my secondary whirlpool was finished and the wort had been racked into the fermenter. That is, pitching temp was supposed to...

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I really can't think of any problem with the ingredients. As for water, I am using 7 parts distilled to 1 part spring water (straight out of the container). This is what I have always used. Total water was 7.5 gallons, pre-boil. Boiled down to 6.25 gallons in...

My last two batches, tasted both during fermentation and after fermentation completed, were totally undrinkable. I had to even spit out the tasting samples, they were so nasty. They tasted like cooked, rotting corn chowder. So my intial thought was that somehow, despite extremely rigorous...