Beer tastes too malty - what to do?

Long story short - tried to make an ESB, and it's now ready to bottle after being in primary for a month. Took a FG reading, it's been steady for 7+ days now so it's all good. But it just tastes too malty to me. Like, there's no real balance to it - it's just all malt taste in your face.

What's your take on my situation? The way I see it there are 3 possible outcomes.
a) Hey Paul, just bottle it up! The malty-ness will kind of balance out over time in the bottle, it's just green beer you're tasting. It'll turn out great!
b) Hmm, maybe you could give it a mild dry-hop, say 1/4oz or so just to give it a little pizzaz and draw the tastebuds in another direction a bit.
c) You might as well just bottle 'er up - the malty taste is there forever. Perhaps you will grow to like it once it's all carb'd up!

On the plus side there are no strange off-flavours from the yeast. Last time I got bananas (wyeast british ale 2 - 1335 I think).

I guess I might as well tell you this was supposed to be an ESB kinda beer - these normally start out malt-heavy and then settle out a bit? First time brewing one. All-grain batch.

I'd say go with a).... It will mellow out in the bottle..

Send it to me for disposal.

Comparing the taste of beer out of the fermenter against the desired finished product is like eating cookie dough and wondering why the house doesn't smell like fresh baked cookies.

Carbonation is a major element in flavor and mouthfeel profile. Once that carbonic bite sets in, it will taste totally different.

If after you've finished carbonating you still want to dry out future beers, adjust your mash temps and rest times. These can influence your attenuation levels and just how malty your beer turns out.

Here's a read on controlling attenuation through mash times.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/controlling-attenuation-through-mash-times-60576/

I've made mostly malty beers to this point. I always taste the last bottle since it's never full. They all taste so much more malty then after bottle conditioning. Especially since they have the just-added corn sugar.

Drink beer. Smile. Repeat.

Maybe it didn't turn out the way you expected, but seriously, it's YOUR beer and it's bound to be as good as anything else out there. Appreciate it for what it is.

Figured as much. I'll bottle 'er up on Sunday and will make a note here how it all turned out. If it's good I'll throw a recipe in the recipe database. Thanks for the reassurance.

The others have said it, but I'll repeat it anyway! I would agree that once the beer is carbonated and has blended a few weeks it will be much better. I made some extract ESBs a while back that meet your description. They ended up delicious and the EKG came through beautifully.

B

The upside is that you will have a good sense of how the green beer compares to the finished product for future use and comparison. I try to take tasting notes for all of my beer both green and finished.

I made 2 ESB's using extract & steeping grain that fit your description. Both stayed pretty malty after carbonation but were enjoyable. They were 1.048 OG to 1.018 FG. The carbonation helped offset the maltiness, but I never thougt the hopping tasted right.

I've got an all-grain ESB fermenting from Brewing Classic Styles (at 2 weeks now, doing a 4 week primary) and it's bitter and hoppy tasting, but also malty from about 95% Maris Otter. 1.056 OG, 1.015 FG.

UK Kent Goldings hops were used with "similar" hopping schedules, but the extract beers were brewed with hops in loose bags (fine mesh), and the all-grain with no hop bags. I've learned that hops settle out with time and a cold crash. I was convinced that my hop bags where getting in the way and am believe that getting rid of them significantly help my hop flavor.

Another difference is that the all-grain was done with an immersion chiller and about a 10 minute cool where the extract batches were chilled in a cold water bath for about 60 minutes. I'm sure that also makes a difference at least to the aroma hops.