beer is to sweet

Hi everyone. I have been brewing my own beer for a few months now after moving up from Mr. Beer. My first batch came out pretty good but since then, my last 3 batches have been to sweet. It is almost like the yeast stopped early. My newest batch (still in primary) is much more controlled. I have it in a temp controlled room at 74 and used filtered water and injected o2 as well as used a starter batch of yeast. These were things I have never done on my last few batches. Could I have messed up a complete fermentation by leaving my fermenter in my garage where temps vary from 58 to 82 degrees? I am sure my sanitation has been thourough. ANy thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I am upset I put so much work into this stuff and the end result is less than great. I always ferment in the primary for a week and put it in the secondary for 2 weeks. and always use liquid wyeast or equivalent. Thanks ahead of time.

What were the OG and IBU's? Are you using extract? It may be that you just don't have enough bitterness to counteract the sweetness if it's a fairly high gravity beer.

BEER LOG

TYPE OF BEER: Copper Lager

DATE BREWED: November 8th 2006
DATE PLACED IN 2nd FERMENTATION TANK: November 17th 2006
DATE BOTTLED:
BATCH #: 3

STARTING GRAVITY/ ENDING GRAVITY: 1.064/
BALLING STARTING/ ENDING: 15-16%/
STARTING POTENTIAL ALC/ ENDING POTENTIAL ALC: 8%/

TYPE OF GRAIN(S): 1/2 lb. Cara-Munich grain, 1/2 lb. Crystal 90 L grain, 1/2 lb. Victory grain

This is everything I did. As you can see, I forgot to take a final reading because I got excited. Thanks for any info you can provide.
TYPE OF MALT: 8lbs Pale Extract

TYPE OF HOPS: 1 1/2 oz. Northern Brewer hops (boil), 1 oz. Cascade hops (mid boil), 1 oz. Willamette hops (late boil)


TYPE OF YEAST: California Ale Yeast

HOW COOKED: Steep grains in mesh bag while heating 2 gallons of water to boil. Then remove grains and stir in malt completely.

Add boil hops (northern brewer hops) for 30 minutes
Add mid boil hops (cascade) in final 10 minutes of boil
Add finishing hops (Willamette) in final 1.5 minutes of boil

Cool wort to about 75 F and add to fermentor and fill to 5 gallon mark

Try making some hop tea from extract n add a bit-o-bitter...

If the ferment has been dropping to 58f then that will stop the ferment or slow it.
Try keeping it around 70f and see if it ferments out further. Then it will be less sweet.

You still need to get a gravity. It is the ONLY way to know if you have a stuck ferment. And yeast really doesn't do well when the temperature changes more than a few degrees. If you have to ferment in the garage, wrap the fermenter with a couple old blankets to damp out the temperature swings.

1-2-3 is a guideline for low gravity ales and controlled fermentation temperatures.

I think you are on the right track with using a starter and aerating the wort prior to pitching. Try to keep the temp stable at around 67-70 degrees and your beer should turn out better.

Ok everyone. I think you guys (possibly gals too) pretty much confirmed what I thought was wrong. Thanks for the advice. Gooooo beeer.

You may want to try adding the bittering hops without the extract, and boiling for 20 minutes, then adding the extract and revert back to your current schedule.

You're doing a boil with a very high gravity wort. From what I understand, this considerably reduces hop utilization.

-a.

I don't know why. What I do know is that 1.5 ounches of the bittering hops that you use is a lot on a 5 gallon boil. I used that much on a Microstyle Pale ale and gadzooks!!!! That stuff was WAY TOO BITTER for me. Completely lost all the sweetness that I had liked. I would say you need to work on fermentation.

Also, just an aside, but, you said you fermented in a "temp controlled room". If you can control the temps, I'd get it into the low 60's, not 74. I've got some Pacman yeast munching away on my Winter Ale right now, and the fermometer sayeth 59f. Yeeeehaw! John Maier, Rogue's brewmaster, says he ferments at 60f. Personally, I have noticed much better quality (and much crisper ales) when fermenting at lower temps.

Get those temps down, man! 60-65f.

As for why it's too sweet, it could be the massive fluctuation in fermenting temps that you talk about. You're on the right track by making a starter and oxygenating the wort. You might also add yeast nutrients to the starters.

Don't worry, though. Every day, I like my Irish Red less and less. It was my first go at brewing by myself, and it was all extract with a few specialty grains. It turned out okay, but ferment temps were way high because it was the dead of summer...so it has this weird taste...drinkable, but it's just odd. I'm down to my last few bottles, so, good riddance. My point, though, is that we make less-than-perfect beers from time to time. If I were you, I'd take the advice from above and make a "hop tea" that you just add to your wort...just to balance it out a little bit.