overly sweet brew?

Hi all...first post so bear with me...

I've made two brews, one bottled (and almost completely finished by now), and another I bottled last night.

The first was an extract kit, "amber waves", for obviously an amber ale. No big deal there; 6.6 lbs of liquid extract, 2.5 gallon partial boil, bittering/aroma hops...3 days in primary, 7 in secondary, bottled and drank after 2 weeks. SG measurements were 1.052 at the start, and 1.012 at the end, so I'm confident fermentation was complete. However, I can't escape the fact that the beer was *extremely* malty, with the hops only detectable in the finish. Most girls who've tried it really enjoy it, but for the wrong reasons...its too sweet!

I just bottled a hefeweizen (with 1 lb of clover honey added with 15 min left in the boil), primary for 7 days, secondary for 13 days. Tasted a sample before it mixed with the priming solution and...again...sweet (1.048 OG, 1.015 FG)! I'm hoping after carbonation this one balances a little better...

My question to you guys is, my boils weren't quite "vigorous"...almost more like a simmer. Could that be enough to not break down the sugars enough for a full ferment? The SG readings tell me the ferment's going fine, but my tastebuds differ...any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Actually, without knowing more details, the beers sound underhopped. The key to a beer is balance- bittering hops balance out malty sweetness. At a fg of 1.012, you shouldn't have much residual sweetness. Although, if you used alot of crystal malt, you'd have that sweet taste in spite of the fg.

I'd ask that you post your actual recipes, and we can look at it and see if it's truly underhopped or over "crystal"ed or something entirely different!

your hefeweizen FG gravity seems pretty high for a OG of 48...I know when you use honey the fermentation cant take a little longer than expected.

Several thoughts:

1) Partial boil will only partially extract the bittering acids from your hops. Your choices are to go to go to a full 6+ gal boil, increase your bittering hops and/or do a late addition of your extract to the boil.
2) Ditto for simmering - you need a good boil to isomerize the acids and get them into solution.
3) The boil will not affect the degree your sugars will ferment

thanks for the tips guys...after reading Brew Chem 101, my main theory was the lack of isomerization in the hops. I admittedly threw the finishing hops in too late on the amber ale I already drank (as in, just after the boil finished instead of 5 minutes left), so that was always theory #1. However I made sure to correct that mistake w/the hefeweizen and the taste of the hydrometer sample seemed just as sweet...but that could be the honey; i did a 1 week primary and 2 week secondary on that batch. I'll reserve judgement until I drink it in 3 weeks, and in the meantime I'll whip up a bock with a good vigorous boil (still partial, don't own a full-boil kettle or any immersion cooling equipment), follow the hop schedule to a T, and hope for the best!