Slightly too sweet

I've been meaning to ask this question for a while, and I think I have it figured out, but...

My first brew was a porter (extract using dry and liquid with steeping grains). It was in primary for a week, secondary for two, and was bottled probably over a month ago (I have the dates, but am too lazy too look it up right now ). It's still not very carbonated and has a sort of oversweet character to it; the sweetness has been getting better with time, but it seems to have gotten as good as it's going to get and still isn't very carbed (there also doesn't seem to be much/any yeast on the bottom of the bottles). It's drinkable, for sure, but not particularly enjoyable; this isn't going to be one I give away to people.

Could putting the yeast back into suspension help? I read somewhere about flipping the bottles over but wasn't sure if I should store them upside down for a day, etc, or do a quick over-and-back.

Also, would anyone be able to confirm (as much as you can over the internet) that the problem is hop underutilization? I'm pretty sure that was my problem (which would be nice, as it'd mean it won't happen again): like I said, it was my first brew and when the directions said "Take off heat, add DME, LME and hops and boil for an hour" I tossed everything in and started the clock. It was probably about 30 minutes to get it back to a boil (my stove sucks; one of the reasons I'll be doing PM rather than AG for a bit), which according to Designing Great Beers means that the hops were severely underutilized.

(For what it's worth, it was fermented around 70* +/- 2* or so and had tons of time to get aerated when I, in my youthful hubris, attempted to rack to secondary without an autosiphon; I don't think either is relevant, but it doesn't hurt to have an anal retentive attention to detail)

yes, you should wait till you get your boil going again before using your hops, but i'd say your problem is from unfermented sugar in your bottles...rolling the bottles might help to get the yeast in suspension. what did you use for priming?

I used the packet of corn sugar that came with my kit; I don't know exactly what the measurement was, but it was the same as the wheat I made that carbed fine (that one is slightly sub-par for other reasons ). Should I just take each bottle out, tip it over for a second or two and put it back in the box?

Sigafoos said:

I've been meaning to ask this question for a while, and I think I have it figured out, but...

My first brew was a porter (extract using dry and liquid with steeping grains). It was in primary for a week, secondary for two, and was bottled probably over a month ago (I have the dates, but am too lazy too look it up right now ). It's still not very carbonated and has a sort of oversweet character to it; the sweetness has been getting better with time, but it seems to have gotten as good as it's going to get and still isn't very carbed (there also doesn't seem to be much/any yeast on the bottom of the bottles). It's drinkable, for sure, but not particularly enjoyable; this isn't going to be one I give away to people.

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It would be good to know the starting and final gravities. What was the hop schedule? How long did you boil and what hops did you use? You might have underhopped, but I'd speculate that the problem is that your beer didn't ferment out all the way.

Could putting the yeast back into suspension help? I read somewhere about flipping the bottles over but wasn't sure if I should store them upside down for a day, etc, or do a quick over-and-back.

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Probably won't help ... won't hurt either. If they've been bottled for 1+ months at room temp, they're about as carbed as they might get.

Also, would anyone be able to confirm (as much as you can over the internet) that the problem is hop underutilization? I'm pretty sure that was my problem (which would be nice, as it'd mean it won't happen again): like I said, it was my first brew and when the directions said "Take off heat, add DME, LME and hops and boil for an hour" I tossed everything in and started the clock. It was probably about 30 minutes to get it back to a boil (my stove sucks; one of the reasons I'll be doing PM rather than AG for a bit), which according to Designing Great Beers means that the hops were severely underutilized.

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No, they weren't under utilized as long as you did the full boil (1+ hour) after that. If it's the hops, the problem would be that you didn't use enough hops or strong enough hops for the style.

(For what it's worth, it was fermented around 70* +/- 2* or so and had tons of time to get aerated when I, in my youthful hubris, attempted to rack to secondary without an autosiphon; I don't think either is relevant, but it doesn't hurt to have an anal retentive attention to detail)

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Autosiphon doesn't matter, never used one myself. Like I said, I would venture to say that your beer didn't ferment out all the way. The sweetness is the residual sugars and it's probably under-carbed because you pitched an insufficient quantity/quality of yeast.

Oh yeah, and aerating from primary to secondary is a big NO-NO. It does you no good and will oxidize your beer and make it taste like crap. You aerate prior to or at the time you initially pitch the yeast.

Yeah, I know aeration was bad. What I meant was that I tried not using an autosiphon and things got messy. Bucket had its top off for a while, hands got sticky, etc. I don't think that was the problem, but I thought it was worth mentioning that I suck at life.

The problem is that I didn't boil the hops for an hour. It was 60 minutes from the time I added the extract/hops to the time I started cooling, and it only started boiling maybe halfway through. I corrected my mistake for my second brew and didn't have any problems.

I don't have all the info on me, but it was 1.5 oz for 60 minutes and .5 for 15 or so (don't remember the type offhand). I think the SG was 1.048 and the FG was 1.018 or so; whatever it was, it was what the kit said it'd be.

Thanks for your help.

i suppose you may have underpitched, but i think the yeast would still do their job. did you use dry yeast or liquid yeast and did you make a starter?

The hops are underutilized because they were only boiled for a half hour instead of an hour. The op timed his boil from when he added the hops and extract, which is incorrect you're supposed to time it from the beginning of the actual boil.

Sigafoos said:

Yeah, I know aeration was bad. What I meant was that I tried not using an autosiphon and things got messy. Bucket had its top off for a while, hands got sticky, etc. I don't think that was the problem, but I thought it was worth mentioning that I suck at life.

The problem is that I didn't boil the hops for an hour. It was 60 minutes from the time I added the extract/hops to the time I started cooling, and it only started boiling maybe halfway through. I corrected my mistake for my second brew and didn't have any problems.

I don't have all the info on me, but it was 1.5 oz for 60 minutes and .5 for 15 or so (don't remember the type offhand). I think the SG was 1.048 and the FG was 1.018 or so; whatever it was, it was what the kit said it'd be.

Thanks for your help.

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It sounds like your gravities are fairly close, but I'm not so sure your hops utilization is the entire problem. Even if the wort was not boiled for a full 60 min, you'll see some hop utilization just because your wort will still be hot, unless you threw the hops into cold water then started the boil.