please help? beer too sweet after three weeks in bottles!

I'm a new brewer and this may be crazy but , can I open my already carbonated beer and referment it in my conical. My brown sugar clone is to sweet and not hoppy enough so I would like to save my batch if possible. I've never heard of it being done

I would not. You make no mention of the recipe,how long it fermented so we have no way of knowing how the beer should finish some beers finish sweeter than others. That said,once I take the time to clean and sanitize my equipment and the needed bottles I have no desire to pour them back in the bucket and risk oxidation and then have to clean everything to do it again. The beer may still turn out fine given time.

I agree with BrewerBrear. Post the recipe, the steps taken, and the bottling process. It could be any number of things that went wrong. Or maybe it just needs more time, but not likely. Drink you mistake, and try again.

Starting gravity was 1.78 and final was 1.26 . Fermantation was left for three weeks and its been in bottles for 3 weeks. I had a problem with the yeast slowed cause I believe my temps were to cold about low 60s so I wrapped it and seemed to have helped the krausen drop.

Recipe was 9 lbs malt extract, 1lb Crystal 40, 14 oz crystal 80 and 2 oz northern brewers hops Assad first 15 min and last 15 , I think I shoulda dry hopped. Then last ten minutes of boils I was told to add 2 lbs brown sugar.

I've been always trying to shoot for high gravity beers. Next time can I repitch my yeast?

There's nothing you can really do except learn from your mistakes and try to improve it next time. If you dump your bottles and try to referment then you risk/most likely will oxidize your beer and ruin it.

You could brew a similar beer that is really dry and blend them in the glass...

raider72 said:

I've been always trying to shoot for high gravity beers. Next time can I repitch my yeast?

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do you use a calculator to determine how much yeast you should be pitching? Do you also use starters? Very important for a healthy fermentation in high gravity beers. Also making sure you get enough 02 in there for yeast reproduction.

MOst likely there were a lot of less fermentable sugars from the extract as well as the additional almost 2lbs of crystal. To add then 2lbs of brown sugar put it over the top!

Most likely what happened is the yeast consumed the more simple sugars in the brown sugar and did not have enough energy left to break down the longer sugar chains in the extract leaving the beer sweet. IMO, the brown sugar should have been added in the primary as a simple syrup as active fermentation began slowing down. Using this method you may have gotten a few more points out of it.

At this point I would enjoy the beer for what it is. There are too many things that can ruin the beer by trying to re-ferment it.

Thanks for all the help. So a no go on refermenting and another trial and error. Well I'm batting 2 for 5

Hey, you made beer I wouldn't count that as a zero...

My oatmeal stouts turned out awesome. Maybe ill stick with that for now!

raider, if you like big beers start using a yeast calculator and learn how to make a starter. At very least double pitch your yeast. Another thing is forget about your preconceived timeline. Let the yeast tell you when it is done working. Check your gravities and only when they read the same over the course of a couple days is it really done. You also did not mention a secondary? I also am a fan of big beers and move all of mine to secondary. As for pouring your beers back into carboy/bucket? Go ahead and try it. I haven't heard of anybody doing it but if you think it is undrinkable then try it. It might oxidize but the only way to find out is to do it. Just make sure to post back with the results so others may learn from your mistake.

raider72 said:

Recipe was 9 lbs malt extract, 1lb Crystal 40, 14 oz crystal 80 and 2 oz northern brewers hops Assad first 15 min and last 15 , I think I shoulda dry hopped. Then last ten minutes of boils I was told to add 2 lbs brown sugar.

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Plugging into my brewing software and assuming 9LB Pale LME you should have finished around 1.020 with a OG of 1.080. Depending on the exact hop schedule 1oz at 60 minute and 1 oz at 20 minutes the beer should have been balanced to slightly malty (assuming full boil).

So it seems like it was boarder line sweet to begin with, and finishing with a higher gravity just seems to make that a bit worse.

So I should have let it sit for a bit longer. Keep checking til gravity stabilizes for a couple days.

Yeah keep checking it. On big beers after, IMHO, 2 weeks. Take a reading then wait two or 3 days and take another one. If it didn't move then it's done.

Ok so little off topic that happened to me on last batch of vanilla bourban stout little funny. First batch I'm my new homade s.s. conical...was excited did everything right, oxygenated it ..kept a heated blanket on it to keep a steady temperature had my tube running to my bottle from top to release co2 with star san in it to keep out contamination. Two weeks later agent to show off conicaland pulled blanket off , forgot to rewrap it . and next morning went down stairs to check on it and because it got so cold it sucked my 2 cups of water+plus star san into my brew + the air around it for I don't know how long....ouch. so as you can see I'm definitely on a learning curb. Thanks for all your help and where do I get the year calculation?

DonMagee said:

Plugging into my brewing software and assuming 9LB Pale LME you should have finished around 1.020 with a OG of 1.080. Depending on the exact hop schedule 1oz at 60 minute and 1 oz at 20 minutes the beer should have been balanced to slightly malty (assuming full boil).

So it seems like it was boarder line sweet to begin with, and finishing with a higher gravity just seems to make that a bit worse.

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I figured the same thing from wxperience. 1.026 was a few points too high,since he said it tasted sweet. My 1st go at Burton ale did that. Had to knock off a few points more to balance it. So you're right there from my experiences.

Where can I find the software?

Thanks ill check it out!

Beersmith is great and what I use. But brewtarget http://www.brewtarget.org/ is free and a very good product as well. There are others out there too.

Just seconding what others have said. Put it away, out of sight and out of mind. Mark your calendar for a month from today and don't think about it again until then. THEN open one up. I'll bet you that you love the result.

Thanks and cheers all!

Dowloaded brewtarget. Very helpful just need to mess with it. Thanks

The advise on mixing my sweet batch with a stronger beer was awesome I definitely will be able to enjoy the what I thought I would be struggling to drink. Thanks, also I purchased a yeast starter kit for my next batch of oatmeal stout hope it helps.