Sweet Brew?

My first brew attempt was a basic beer recipe kit provided by the LHBS.
It was:

1/2 lbs Crystal Malt
6.6 lbs Light LME
3 oz. hop pellets (can't remember name while at work)
Water Salts
Dry yeast

Partial boil on my electric stove(boy that took forever).

I followed the instructions, and fermented for 4 days, then racked to seconday for 7 days, hyd. reading was constant, so I bottled.

@ 2 weeks later, I cracked the first one open, and Wa-hoo, it was pretty good.
BUT after 2-3 of them, I notice it has a slightly sweet taste, and is not very hoppy.
Good amber color and decent head, but the sweetness bothers me.
Any thoughts on the root cause of the sweetness?

Sweetness could come from a few factors.

1: The fermentability of the malt extract. Different brands are malted differently and thus some will leave more residual sweetness than others. Muntons is one of the dryer brands IIRC. Laaglander is one of the sweetest (more residual sugars).

2. Your yeast may have low attenuation (ability to convert the 'convertable' sugars) or may just have been weak. Look at the attenuation % of the yeast and make sure it is fresh. Higher attenuation means a dryer beer.

3. Partial boils don't get very good hop utilization so you may need to use more or a higher AA% hop. For a good round hop profile, add some hops at 60min, some at 15, and some at 0-1 min to flameout.

Hope these tips help!

What were the gravity readings at the end of your fermentation?

-walker

1.012 at 75 deg. F was final gravity. I used Mutons extract, and put hops in for 60 mins.

Plus 2 packs of mutons dry yeast that i did a starter for. It bubbled like mad for 2 days, then slowed to nothing by day 4.

Maybe if you wait another week then the residual sweetness should level off. This specifically applies to where you use sugar as the carbonation source.

I'd say give it a couple weeks or so to condition. Meanwhile, brew another batch!

Never mentioned which hops you used... this is important. Perhaps the LHBS woudl know....