Pale ale tastes very sweet after bottle conditioned

For my 4th batch I brewed an extra pale ale extract kit with specialty grains from northern brewer. It sat in primary for 2 weeks and then secondary for almost 3 weeks. I just tried the beer after two weeks of bottle conditioning and it seems pretty sweet, with not much hop flavor at all. Similar to my cream ale I brewed my first time. Also there is plenty of carbonation so I thought it would be ready. Do I jst need to wait longer? I would have thought that I would at least be able to taste the hop flavor I was looking for in a pale ale even if it still needed conditioning time.

Is there anything I can do to it now? Or just wait a couple weeks to give it a final judging? Maybe I've just goten used to drinking such hoppy beers like modus that I was expecting too much. Haha, but a couple of my beers have also seemed pretty sweet and never changes much. What can I do to make my beer taste better!!?

When I sampled my very first batch after only a week in the bottles it seemed very sweet (and it did have good carbonation) which I figured was just some of the priming sugar that hadn't been eaten up yet. The sweetness faded after another week and it turned out to be an excellent first beer. From what I've read, and am slowly learning, when it comes to home brewing, patience is a good thing. I'd just wait a bit longer and it'll probably turn out just fine.

Without a bit more info on the brew it is hard to say, but my gut says "wait and see what it tastes like in another week or 2". Yeasties do amazing things when you give them the chance.

What was the O.G. when you pitched?
How about the F.G. when you bottled?

I guess I will wait for a couple weeks to see if maybe the sweetness tones down. In the mean time I'll check my OG and FG I wrote down and get back to you. Thanks guys

Just looked at my notes. OG was about 1.045 and FG before bottling was around 1.017.

brewstev said:

Just looked at my notes. OG was about 1.045 and FG before bottling was around 1.017.

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You probably bottled too early and are tasting residual sugars. That is only 62% attenuation (you should be in the 70-80% range).

alright. so will this work out over time as there is still some yeast in the bottles? Or am i just going to have some sweet beer to drink?

brewstev said:

alright. so will this work out over time as there is still some yeast in the bottles? Or am i just going to have some sweet beer to drink?

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You can either store the bottles warm, and they'll dry out and be over-carbed, or you can refrigerate them and they'll stay sweet, but retain the current level of carbonation.

5 weeks is more than enough time to ferment out 1.045. Either you had a low attenuating yeast or, more likely, the extract you used had a large amount of dextrines.

I would think bitterness would be most noticeable early and fade with time.

If you can get your water profile from your provider, it might be interesting to see what your Cl and SO4 levels are. You might want to put a 1/2 tsp of gypsum in your next pale ale.

Two weeks later...I've tried the beer again and a lot of the sweetness has disappeared and I can taste much more of the hops in the pale ale. Guess I didn't need to worry and should have just relaxed and had a homebrew. Thanks for the tips though

Good to hear! My first batch still tastes sweet too. 24 days in primary and now its been 21 in bottles. Guess i'll give it a few more weeks.

http://harakabaraka.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/patience-1.jpg

I did a Fat Tire clone that I had to carbonate with Cooper's tabs. Those tabs took two weeks to dissolve completely. After five weeks in the bottle, they tasted very sweet, so I let them sit for another month, 9 weeks in total. They finally started tasting good, but never lost all of that sweetness. I give them to the ladies when they come over. My wife's friend called it breakfast beer, so I've just stuck with that, and it's been a hit ever since!