my doppelbock is too sweet

i made a decoction mash doppelbock almost two months ago. it had a OG of 1.084. i used wyeast munich yeast and applied oxygen. it now has a gravity of 1.026 and tastes too sweet. i racked the beer three weeks ago when it had a gravity of 1.030. apparent attenuation is about 70%.

should i pitch more yeast to dry it out?

Ya know... I had the same issue. The correct answer is...

is... next time use more bittering hops to balance the sweetness out. You probably will not gain too much more in the ways of gravity drop by pitching more yeast since the existing yeast is probably within a few attenuation % of any yeast you might pitch.

What yeast was it? Did you look at the potential attenuation and compare it to the actual attention?

What yeast was it? Did you look at the potential attenuation and compare it to the actual attention?

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i used munich lager yeast by wyeast 2308 which has a predicted attenuation between 70-74% and my actual apparent attenuation was about 69%. the decoction worked well as it defintively has a malty taste. but the sweetness is too much.

do you think dry hopping or lagering will help?

Maybe. Dry hopping will add hop aroma / flavor but not bitterness. You might try doing a very small beer with some extra extra hops and then inject the small beer into the larger beer. I guessing though.

You can boil some hops in a small ammount of water and add it carefully to get the bitterness you want. Or you can get some hop extract.

How long did you let that beer sit in the fermentor?

elmwood said:

i used munich lager yeast by wyeast 2308 which has a predicted attenuation between 70-74% and my actual apparent attenuation was about 69%. the decoction worked well as it defintively has a malty taste. but the sweetness is too much.

do you think dry hopping or lagering will help?

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Take those 'predicted attenuation' numbers with a grain of salt. They are just VERY rough guidelines to compare yeasts to each other but do not necessarily indicate what you will get. The fermentability of your wort will have more effect on the attenuation.

Do you mind posting the recipe?

There's two ways your FG can be too high. Either your wort was not very fermentable and the yeast did all it could (which would leave unfermentable sugars)...or the yeast just didn't finish the job (which would leave fermentable sugars in addition to any unfermentable sugars). Or a combination of those two. Generally speaking, fermentable sugars are sweet...unfermentable sugars are not (but they add body). So if it tastes too sweet that could indicate the yeast just didn't quite finish the job. Doing a Fast Ferment Test is a great way to know 'why' your FG is too high. It's all in Kaiser's Understanding Attenuation article.

Did you make a starter? At 7-8% ABV, it may be too late.

elmwood said:

i made a decoction mash doppelbock almost two months ago. it had a OG of 1.084. i used wyeast munich yeast and applied oxygen. it now has a gravity of 1.026 and tastes too sweet. i racked the beer three weeks ago when it had a gravity of 1.030. apparent attenuation is about 70%.

should i pitch more yeast to dry it out?

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If the beer is too sweet, pitch fresh yeast to dry it out. Select something with a high attenuation, the more neutral the better.

How long did you let that beer sit in the fermentor?

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brewed the beer nov 1st, racked it over a month later. tried warming the beer up and swirling it around to agitate the yeast. i think it may have dropped a couple more points but it stayed around 1.026 for about 5 days.

32 lbs domestic 2 row (Canadian)
2 lbs munich malt germany 30L
1 lb belgian aromatic (I think)
1 lb caramunich malt

3 oz hallertauer 120 min
1 oz hallertauer 30 min

1 liter starter 12 hrs in advance wyeast munich yeast

Hochkurz double decoction

If the beer is too sweet, pitch fresh yeast to dry it out. Select something with a high attenuation, the more neutral the better.

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sounds like a plan. i'll use dry lager yeast and maybe add some yeast nutrient. i may even put some 02 as well. i think it definitively has fermentables left but the alcohol is already around 7.5% by volume. i don't want to mix it with another batch. i was planning on drinking it for christmas.

1 liter looks WAYYYY to small for that grain bill. I could be wrong but it is my understanding that most lagers love love love 2+ Liter starters. Ive seen some people reccomend 1 gallon starters. Im willing to bet that may be the issue. But I still have my first lager waiting to be brewed so this is just my opinion.

i may even put some 02 as well.

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Thoughts on this? Intuitively it seems like a bad idea to me but I could be wrong.

1 liter looks WAYYYY to small for that grain bill. I could be wrong but it is my understanding that most lagers love love love 2+ Liter starters.

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actually, i used a 2 liter--64 oz--starter. that was a typo. since it was 10 gallon batch, i probably should have used even more considering the high gravity. the weird thing is that half the batch finished at a 1.020 but i don't know exactly what was different because it was fermented at a friends house.

Have you checked the accuracy of your hydrometer? I have one hydro that reads 4 high and another that reads 6 high.

I put your recipe in Beersmith and it looks like your expected FG is 1.020 I find beersmith to be reasonably accurate.

If your hydro is reading high, I would think you reached your gravity within a few points but giving a few more weeks might be worthwhile.

On the other hand, I put your hops in beersmith was reading 24 IBU's - while I don't know your alpha acids (I used the default figure)... it appears to be on the higher end for the style.