FG / sweetness of commercial beers

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brewzombie

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Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that commercial beers are a tad sweeter than my homebrew. I know this is totally dependent on beer style, but I'm curious if others have noticed this or can comment. Say, for example, are commercial pale ales typically sweeter than most homebrew recipes? My FG for a pale ale (5%-ish alcohol) is usually around 1.010-1.012. I realize that the perceived sweetness will be different depending on the recipe, but this observation is pretty consistent when I compare homebrew to commercial. Are my taste buds lying to me?
 
Let some of your favorite commercial brew get warm and shake the CO2 out (usually takes a couple of days....). Do a hydro test.
 
You could also be hitting on the adjuncts they use to thin out their beers. Corn sugar and rice starch leaves a telltale sweetness that I think tastes much different than maltose.
 
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