Sweetness.....???

Okay, I've read through here, and I'm sure I'll answer my own question, but I wanted to be sure.

I've brewed a good few handful of times already. All of them have been partial mash/extract recipes, however my first was a "box kit" that was steeped special grains, and then extract.

It was an Imperial IPA, which I ended up not really following the directions, and went ahead and did a full boil, since I had that ability and was told here and at my LHBS that full boil would be better, and okay, although the IBU's might be slightly higher.. which I had no issue with!

OG was 1.084, FG was 1.019 or 1.020.

Brewed, hit everything on the dot from what my records indicate, and went from there. Fermented for roughly 2 weeks I think it was, didn't move for around 3 days. Racked half to secondary, and bottled the other half.

Split the priming sugar for the batch like I needed to, and bottled. Took the 2 to 2.5 gallons I had left in the secondary, and put 1 oz of whole cone Citra in there and left it for 8 or 9 days.

Bottled the dry hopped version and was done with it.

Being a new brewer, we all know that.... it's hard to wait. I tasted a 12oz "test" bottle at 1 week. Decent, hardly any carb, head, and was sweet as hell, hops just didn't come through on the non dry hopped original recipe.

Opened a bomber with my dad this past weekend, and it was carbed MUCH better, but was still sweet, just wasn't what I expected or wanted.

Being bored just a little while ago after a long day at work, I saw that I can snuck in a dry hopped test 12oz the other day, thats been chilled a good few days.. Opened it and got the best amount of fizz when opened, better head, and AMAZING aroma from it..

I know the higher ABV and malt bill will be sweet, considering the original recipe only had like 3 oz of hops in it I think.

The dry hopped just doesn't taste as sweet.. I assume the dry hopping and extra week helped it.

For what it's worth.. I brewed this beer exactly 1 month ago.. My gut is telling me.. "green beer". It's a higher ABV, and needs more time to mellow out, and get everything married up the right way.

If thats not the case, what would be the issue with extra sweetness in the brew? The beer is darker than I'd like, so wondering if I could have scorched some LME, would have cause sweeter, aside from raising the SRM?

Or should I relax and have another beer, other than this one, and let it sit it out a bit longer. I could drink the dry hopped version and be fine with it, so I wonder if it's just not enough of the green stuff for this hophead.

Forgot to add, that the temp did get up to 75 or so around the 6th or 7th day... I had it sitting in my bath tub and had drained the water off. Filled it back up and added ice packs and got the temp controlled around 70/72 for the remainder of the time.

Could I have slowed the yeast down/killed them in a way that I could have stalled out even for the 3 days I checked the gravity that it didn't move?

I personally would not have even touched an og 1.084 beer for probally around 2-3 months. I would say let it sit and mellow. Also to my pallate 3oz of hops in an imperial ipa is going to be super malty aka sweet.

What was the alpha acid % on your bittering hops?

Columbus, I think they were... 14-16 AA.

I too thought that 3 oz wasn't much, but I figured that I love hops, so it wouldn't be enough period.. My father who's NOT a hophead thought it was okay, a bit sweet.

My dry hop version drank nice.. It needs time, but the flavors so far are really good, I'm surprised actually... I almost wish I had another chilled, but I don't. I'm gonna give them all another 2-3 weeks, before I really freak out.. Just wanting to be proactive for future batches if I am messing something up.

I've got a pale ale, and another IPA in the pipeline dry hopping and fermenting at the moment. I actually in my drunken stupor, added .5 too much at my 15 minute mark on the IPA I have fermenting. Figured it wouldn't hurt anything!

Went back and looked, it was:

2oz of Columbus @ 60, 1oz @15, and 1oz @ 5...

Should have been plenty I think.

Green beer. Give it time.

I was AMAZED at how much my 8.4% ABV Belgian blonde changed from 4 weeks to 8 weeks in bottles. Like two different beers.

Aging certainly will mellow most beers out, but it doesn't add any hop aroma. Typically, you would dry hop with 3 oz or so.

Also, I unless you made a big starter for this, I bet you underpitched significantly. You need a LOT more yeast to tackle a big beer. That would have probably knocked a couple points off the FG and reduced the sweetness. A lot of people actually swap out a pound or so of sugar for extract because the yeast will ferment that completely and it will lower the FG.

That is one of my favorite brewing facts - adding sugar makes beer LESS sweet.

billl said:

Aging certainly will mellow most beers out, but it doesn't add any hop aroma. Typically, you would dry hop with 3 oz or so.

Also, I unless you made a big starter for this, I bet you underpitched significantly. You need a LOT more yeast to tackle a big beer. That would have probably knocked a couple points off the FG and reduced the sweetness. A lot of people actually swap out a pound or so of sugar for extract because the yeast will ferment that completely and it will lower the FG.

That is one of my favorite brewing facts - adding sugar makes beer LESS sweet.

Click to expand...

I didn't make a starter... I used US 05 in it, and just pitched it directly. After I brewed it, I started looking around and figured it could have used a starter, or another packet perhaps.

I agree that I could have dried it out more, I think thats the issue. I like a dry hoppy beer, and this one is just a bit sweeter than I wish, but it was my first brew and it's drinkable.

I used 1 oz to dry hop, whole cone, but I used 1 oz for roughly 2 gallons of what I had left that I didn't bottle, so it it should have been a fair amount considering the lower volume. The dryhop has the flavor and aroma I wanted, just the underlying sweetness peeks through.