IPA came out sweet

Second extract batch. Made from British IPA kit. Fermented a week, racked to a car boy and conditioned two weeks. Primed and bottled about two weeks ago. Everything was kept at exactly 65 degrees from initial fermentation through to the time I refridgerated the first bottle. Beer pours nicely, good head, but there's a predominent sweetness about it. I was shooting more for a Saranac IPA taste. Any thoughts? Longer conditioning needed? Thanks.

Did you happen to take a gravity reading before you bottled?

Yeast didn't attenuate enough -- you probably didn't let it finish fermentation completely or your yeast health/pitch rate was insufficient for a proper fermentation.

Conditioning won't help sweetness -- in fact, it'll make it more dominant cause the hops will die out with age.

I'd just enjoy the beer at this point. If you REALLY want to get it to what you were aiming for, the only other thing you may be able to do is repitch yeast into it and hope they can chew up your residual sugars-- but I personally wouldn't mess with it.

Or the other option would be to make a second batch that's dry and bitter as hell, and blend the two. Though whether it'd be worth the effort is a moot point.

Sometimes beer kits come with really crappy yeast - the sweetness here may be because the kit yeast pooped out early. For future IPAs I'd recommend binning the kit yeast and buying a sachet of US-05 dried yeast instead. It'll only set you back around $1.50, and it gives a good, dry finish that could cure the excess sweetness.

Your beer is bad. Send it to me and I will dispose of properly.

Homercidal said:

Your beer is bad. Send it to me and I will dispose of properly.

Click to expand...

You beat me to the punch lol

I know there are other threads discussing the +/- of using a hydrometer. For now, ignore them and use one. Take the beginning SG, and "final" SG to see where you are at. I had an IPA take 4 additional weeks to creep down to the actual FG of 1.014 from 1.025.

Don't guess and waste the $ and time you spent on the kit... use the hydrometer. Think of it this way... how do you know when your chicken is done cooking... do you check it?

Eric

could be the recipe. I think IPA's should have little or no crystal malt or any malt other than pale. Also they should have some sugar in the grist to attenuate lower.

You may have racked it prematurely. Sometimes, especially with weaker fermentations, a week isn't enough time for the beer to finish. Leaving beer in the primary 2-3 weeks is generally a good idea, especially if there are any signs of fermentation. Also, fermenting a few degrees higher could have helped. Finally, +1 on the Safale US-05 suggestion. It has to be one of the best yeasts to use when you want high attenuation and a clean ferment.

This is all great input. Thanks guys. However, I cannot give the beer to any of you since I have lots of research to do with it before I barrel down the path of self destruction on the next batch when I take delivery of my new rubbermaid ten gallon mash lauter tun. I suspected I fermented at too low a temp. It was a reaction to my earlier summer batch that spent 10 days at 89 degrees in the basement in August. I have to say that batch had some very, very high notes flavorwise. Still, I think with quality yeast, all grain and some luck I'll overcome the slight imperfections.

Again, appreciate the input.

Cheers!

Any info on the recipe? You said it was a kit, was it from hopped extract? If so, those things never have much hopiness to them at all. What was the temp, I ferment all my ales in the 60s with no problems.

I just cracked open my first bottle of Williams Brewing's American IPA kit (3 weeks primary and three weeks bottle conditioned). You won't worry about sweet with this one as it has 80 IBU's and like 4 oz. of hops.

Tastes just like the local brew pub's stuff.

I'll bet it's the yeast. Exactly what yeast did you use??

This was a kit from HomeBrewers.com. Specialty Grains steeped for 20 or so minutes, 7 lbs Briess Golden Light Liquid Malt Extract, 1 oz Columbus Bittering HOPS, Finished with 2 oz Kent Goldings Hops. Yeast was 11 Gms of dry Nottingham Danstar.

Specific gravity after the boil was 1.05. I didn't take a reading after it fermented a week. I just racked it.

I'm happy with the flavor and pouring quality. I'm just surprised it's not more hoppy.

Did you dry-hop at all? Dry-hopping is a great way to add some extra hop flavor and smell without making your beer more bitter. I dry-hop all of my IPA's and about half of my pale ales (I really, really like hops!).