Russian Imperial Stout SWEET at bottling...

is this normal? I love Russian Imperial Stouts, and I know they can be pretty sweet, but this is downright syrupy.

OG- 1.104
FG- 1.032

Used WYEAST 1728 Scottish Ale, which is supposed to attenuate around 69-73%, so I am around where I expected to be... but man it is super sweet.

Will the carbonation help this at all, balancing the sweet with a little bite?

Spend 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in secondary. Planning on letting them bottle age for at least 3 months before cracking one open...

probably a dumb question, but did you sample after adding priming sugar by chance? That would add some extra sweetness...

kbuzz- actually I did. lol Hopefully that is a good part of it.

I know part of it is also because the hops I used weren't as high AA as I estimated when making the recipe... so the IBU is fairly low for a RIS.

This one's IBU is around 40...

I did the same thing to a Sweet Maple Brown not too long ago. I severely underhopped it and it was a sweet mess. Thank goodness my neighbor liked it, cause she ended up with most of them...

I still struggle with maltier beers sometimes...I never think I want a lot of bitterness. But the amount of AAUs needed to balance out that sweetness is more than I'd think. Just nailed another Brown Ale that had double the hops as that Maple Brown...didn't feel right when I was adding them, but proof is in the bottle...and it is tasty!

Man this ticks me off to no end. I was super excited about this one and it was not cheap to make.

I suppose worst case scenario I will just use it for beer floats. lol

I feel ya...I bet it still comes out better than you think...if you really wanted, you could brew another batch that's a little overhopped and blend them when you serve???

I don't know...grasping at straws here...

Yeah, I am going to let it go for a few months to take care of the sweetness from the priming sugar... if it's good then, sweet.

If not, I will make a slightly lower gravity stout with TONS of hops. (Like maybe 1.085 OG and about 80-90 IBU). Then, like you said, serve as a blend.

Good idea!

It's probably a combination of the priming sugar and low bitterness. I never thought it was possible to make "sweet" beer but my apricot orange ale I made is 10x sweeter and fruitier than any other beer I've ever made. It was a duplicate of recipe I made a year ago that only has 0.5 oz of hops but it wasn't this sweet last time.

I'm sure once it's carbed you'll enjoy it. If not then blending is a great idea. I originally was going to blend my apricot one bc its in a keg and would be easy but i've come to really like it.

Sounds good. I am guessing the priming sugar being eaten up, combined with a small bite from carbonation will bring it to drinkable range. But, if not, a blend is possible.

Although it won't be bottled. Got spoiled with my kegs. Only bottled this one because I wanted to enjoy 3-4 bottles a month over a year or more to see what age does to it. Don't have the will power if it's on tap.

But this will be the last time I ever bottle. SUCH a pain compared to kegging.

pointerDixie214 said:

Sounds good. I am guessing the priming sugar being eaten up, combined with a small bite from carbonation will bring it to drinkable range. But, if not, a blend is possible.

Although it won't be bottled. Got spoiled with my kegs. Only bottled this one because I wanted to enjoy 3-4 bottles a month over a year or more to see what age does to it. Don't have the will power if it's on tap.

But this will be the last time I ever bottle. SUCH a pain compared to kegging.

Click to expand...

Next time just bottle a few out of the keg works all the time................my.02