Beer finished to sweet

I just bottled a dunkelweizen I made, and it was WAY to sweet. Is this something that will improve with age, or am I stuck with a "dessert" beer?

What's the recipe look like?

I had an experiment finish too sweet. I dry hopped an ounce per keg and it cleaned it up.

Posting the recipe would certainly help. It could have been a number of things - too much crystal malt, overshooting mash temp or under performing yeast.

6.00 lb Wheat Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 59.82 %
3.15 lb Dark Liquid Extract (17.5 SRM) Extract 31.41 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.99 %
0.38 lb Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 3.79 %
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 13.7 IBU
1 Pkgs Bavarian Wheat (Wyeast Labs #3638) Yeast-Wheat

Measured Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.018 SG

What I tried to do was making something a bit higher in gravity for an alcohol boost, kind of winterize it (from WI it gets COLD here) and I didn't consult the hops graph.

http://hopchewer.com/brew/hopsgraph.jpg

Maybe its just the balance of hops to malt seems light on hops but I dont know much about this kinda beer. So one of the experts will have to say. And I would say you are stuck. The IBU's are not going to increas and its not going to dry out if its done ferminting. But it may mellow out and be good when it gets cold

I looked at some other recipes seems you should have finished out around 1.014 or so and had 25ish IBU to be in style. But like I said im not an expert on it.

With 9.15 pounds of extract, and only one ounce of 4.5% hops, your IBUs will be very low. If you did a partial boil, topping up with water, that will make it even more so.

It looks like you have 7 or so IBUs if you did a 2.5 gallon boil, 14 IBUs if you did a full boil. So, it's sweet because it's WAY underhopped for that OG.

Adding more fementables to boost the ABV works, but then the other ingredients (like hops) have to be adjusted, too.

To add to all of this I just brewed a dunkleweizen myself. I think you're yeast under attenuated. It should have finished much dryer like 1.014 - 1.010.

Your high FG would certainly make it too sweet. I only used an ounce of hops in mine, but my gravity was around 1.050. So I can't say about your hops scheduling. I would focus on the yeast attenuation. Did you do a starter?

daveooph131 said:

To add to all of this I just brewed a dunkleweizen myself. I think you're yeast under attenuated. It should have finished much dryer like 1.014 - 1.010.

Your high FG would certainly make it too sweet. I only used an ounce of hops in mine, but my gravity was around 1.050. So I can't say about your hops scheduling. I would focus on the yeast attenuation. Did you do a starter?

Click to expand...

I don't agree- with an OG of 1.064, it's attenuated over 70% and it's beer that used dark extract (more crystal malt) so it'd be a bit less fermentable. The problem here is simply not enough hops for the OG.

YooperBrew said:

I don't agree- with an OG of 1.064, it's attenuated over 70% and it's beer that used dark extract (more crystal malt) so it'd be a bit less fermentable. The problem here is simply not enough hops for the OG.

Click to expand...

Actually Yoop makes a great point...I didn't take into account the OG.

One problem is this beer is not really instyle with a 'true' dunkle because the OG is too high. You really should keep it between 1.044 and 1.056. So really I don't know, with a beer like you've got and it finishing higher, naturally it would be a sweeter brew.

I think it is mainly a hop issue like Yooper said. However, the high FG would cause an extra sense of sweet. If you brew the style again, I would shoot for a lower original gravity.

What did you prime with and how long?

Thanks for all the input, this was only my second beer so I'm still learning my way around. I guess I'll just call it a dessert beer, or maybe make a dunkelweizen float?

It'll mellow out after a few weeks in the bottle.

I think the best way to make a "bigger" version of a beer is to use beer software like Beersmith and enter the recipe just as it is. You can see the IBU, OG, and other stuff. That way when you increase your fermentables you can adjust the amount of hops to bring the IBUs back in line with the original recipe. At least that's how I've done it.

Seems the grand conclusion is you under-hopped. As far as making this beer more palatable, assuming it is in bottles, there is little you can do. . . I do, however, have one suggestion you can experiment with.

I remember reading on some thread a few months back some member tried putting 1 or half a hop pellet into a BMC beer he was offered, in order to make it more palatable. Maybe you could experiment with the same?

Just put your pellet in the glass and pour the beer over it. If it works out, you can play it off with your BMC drinking friends as a "specialty pouring technique" and make a very ritualistic process out of it - almost like absynthe.

If it doesnt work out then all you did is waste a hop pellet.


PS. if this seems like completely unreasonable advice, ignore it. Im a little amped up on sugar this morning at work, and I have friday jitters (super eager to get off work and have a homebrew)
ROCK ON!

corvax that hop pellet idea sounds pretty interesting I think I'll have to try it at some point. But today I cracked one open, after two weeks in the bottle, and you know what? It was awesome!

RDWDHB!