How do I get my beer sweeter?

When I made my first beer, I did it under colder conditions. I had it in a cold part of my apartment.. below 60 degrees.

The FG was supposed to be .010 and I couldn't get it below .020.

So seeing as that it probably didn't ferment all the way, there was a lot of sugar still left?

Everybody who tried it loved it.

The next beer I made, I kept it around 65 degrees. The FG was supposed to be .010 and thats what it was.

The beer is not sweet at all, and many people don't like it.

So question:
- If you are keeping it at the right temp and the yeast is eating all the sugar.. how can you keep your beer sweet if you want to?

I have a question for you. What yeast did you use for your first beer?

In answer to your question, I'd say your best bet would be to use a lower attenuating yeast.

Generally, you control the level of sweetness with your choice of ingredients in an extract brew. More unfermentables means a higher FG and a sweeter tasting beer. Less unfermentables means a lower FG and a drier crisper tasting beer.

Some beer styles taste better at a higher FG- like Scottish ales for example, or other maltier sweeter styles. Some styles taste better at a lower FG, like pale ales.

If you're using extract and steeping grains, you may want to use crystal malts to give you some sweet taste in the final product.

You can also use less attenuative yeast, but that's not always easy to do. Sometimes the yeast still will munch through the sugars fairly completely, even if you didn't intend for them to do that. You could try it, though- using a dry yeast such as Windsor yeast which tends to leave a higher FG than many of the other dry yeast strains.

Two adjuncts that add the unfermentables sugars that Yooper mentions are Malto dextrine and Lactose. Both will add add a thicker mouthfeel and a certain sweetness and increase your FG.

I have heard mention of adding Splenda to the brew, I guess at bottling.

Splenda is chlorinated sugar and yeast will not ferment it. I have never tried it, myself.

I am not a huge fan of splenda. I will use it in a pinch though.

devaspawn said:

I am not a huge fan of splenda. I will use it in a pinch though.

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It came up on another forum. We were talking about fruit beers, and balancing the tartness of cherries. I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I just have not had the need to try it yet.

I have used it on a Peach Cider kit that was so tart I couldn't drink it without the splenda. It made it palatable enough for me to not have to toss the batch but it's just not the thing that I want to rely on in the future.

add bacon

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-do-i-get-my-beer-sweeter-94105-new/

Bacon sounds good!!! I am going to go cook a lb now!!!

moar maltz man!

If you are brewing extract the yeast strain if your best control. For a malty beer, I recommend the English ale yeast strains; WLP002 will give you a nice malty beer. I recommend trying that yeast first. If it is too sweet, you can try the WLP005.

I started out using Cali ale in everything, now I have gravitated toward using the English yeasts even for hoppy beers because I like the malt character these yeasts leave in the finished beer.

Hmmmmm....do you really want sweet, or just not so bitter? The adjuncts mentioned before are really going to give your beer a sweet stout type sweetness. Not many beers call for that type of "sweetness". I would agree with those before me and go for a malty beer (english or scottish are good) and maybe a bit less hops. Make sure to add body with carapils to your extract brews.

FWIW....I have added Splenda for baking (1/2 splenda, 1/2 sugar) to my apfelwein and it ws absolutely awesome. I just used double the carbing amount when bottling the stuff that I would have used to carb it normally. It turned out a bit dry and not overly sweet.