Tasting my first batch...

...and it's a little sweet. It is an all extract brew (English Brown Ale), and sat in primary for 7 days, secondary for 14, and has been in bottles for 8. I can tell by the level of carbonation that it needs to sit a little longer before I try it again, but the sweetness is what I'm worried about. Will it become less sweet as it conditions? Also is there anything that I may have done to cause the sweetness? Maybe I'm just worrying too much, but it's my first brew so I knew I wouldn't be thrilled with the results. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

I'm going to assume you did an extract brew? Personally I'd like to know if there's anything you can do to tweak an extract brew to get a drier finish without (obviously) diluting it. That's kinda the limitations of extract as I understand it.

This is just a total n00b guestimation but maybe try and use an all DME recipe over LME and add a dash of aromatic hops at flameout.

Dunno. I'm sure there's someone else who has a better answer, but I really doubt that your fermentation schedule had a thing to do with the sweetness.

Another thing I thought of is doing some research on yeast and try a similar strain that gives an overall drier finish. The type of yeast you pitch can have a big say in how sweet or dry your beer ends up being AFAIK.

First, give it a couple of more weeks to condition in the bottle. English Browns sometimes do come in on the malty side. Try a yeast with higher attenuation than what you used. Balance it with hops. Just some suggestions

PhelanKA7 said:

I really doubt that your fermentation schedule had a thing to do with the sweetness.

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I wouldn't be sure of that at all.

It's very likely that you racked to secondary too soon. It usually takes at least two weeks for beer to fully ferment, so what you did by racking was remove 80% of the yeast before your beer was done, and then there wasn't enough yeast left to finish the job.

NEW BREWERS: Quit using a secondary. Leave the beer in the primary for AT LEAST two weeks.

In other news, as your beer carbs more fully, it will become less sweet. The carbonation both activates the pain receptor in your tongue, fooling your taste buds, and creates carbolic acid, which will help cut some of the sweetness. Or, if you don't want a sweet beer, you should do something hoppier. But, honestly, N. English Brown is a relatively sweet style with very little hop bitterness. You may also have underpitched your yeast, leading to a poor fermentation. To calculate pitching rate, go to mrmalty.com and use the pitching rate calculator.

I too go for a longer primary fermentation. I bought a hydrometer before my last batch and use it to tell me when fermentation is over. After that I still leave it in the primary, usually about 4 weeks total.

If your beer isn't properly carbonated, it most likely means that the yeast are still eating on the priming sugar. That means there is still excess sugar in the bottles. I bet it dries out to some degree as the yeast continue to eat the priming sugar and produce CO2.

Thanks for all the info, guys. Henceforth, beer shall stay in the primary for a longer period of time.