My first batch is too sweet - What did I do wrong?

Hi Everyone,

I brewed my first batch of beer a few weeks back and I think it's too sweet, and that something went wrong in process. The beer is still drinkable and I will continue to let it bottle condition and move forward with a second batch this weekend.

I'll post the recipe below, but I have some ideas of what I think may have gone wrong. Can anyone help me identify the likely culprit?

-I had a hard time getting 3 gallons to boil vigorously. I am not sure how long I tried to get it to a strong boil, but I eventually clued in and straddled by pot between two burners to achieve a strong boil. Did it simmer/boil for so long that the wort over reduced and I ended up with a more concentrated wort?
-I wasn't well prepared to chill my wort, I didn't have enough ice to chill it fast enough.
-My instructions from the brew store told me that transferring the wort from the pot to the fermented would be enough to sufficiently aerate the wort, as long as I did it vigorously. Other instructions seem to spend quite a bit of time on this step?


My initial reaction was that I over reduced the wort by trying to get it to a rolling boil for too long, and ended up with too much priming sugar in my bottles.

But now I am thinking that the sweetness may be residual malt extract that was never consumed by the yeast due to poor aeration.

What do you guys think?

Ben

Thanks!

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Liberty Style IPA (given to me by the proprietor of San Francisco Brewcraft, Griz)

Liquid Extract + Steeping
6.2%
OG 1.067
FG 1.0.16

Ingredients:

6 lbs of Malt Extract (not specified if it was pale, medium, or dark)
1 1/2 lbs 2-row
1/2 lb [illegible, all the grains were given to me, mixed after being milled together]
1/4 lb flakes

1 oz Centennial hops
1 oz Cascade Hops

1 pkg of Nottingham Yeast

3/4 cup of Dextrose

Process

Steep grains for 45 mins at 155f

60 min - 1/2 oz centennial
30 min - 1/2 oz centennial
30 min - clearing agent
15 min - 1/2 oz Cascade
5 min - 1/2 oz Cascade

I did _not_ activate the yeast, it was pitched dry (as per my instructions)

The beer spent 7 days in the primary, and 15 days in the secondary

It was primed with the dextrose and it has been in bottles for almost 5 weeks. I ended up with about 35 bottles.
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IPA's need to be dry hopped at some point don't they?

Not very experienced myself (why i havnt posted anywhere yet except the beginners forum ) but id say leave it in the bottle and forget about it for another few weeks, and get your next brew going!
Alot of the older heads here will tell you that the best bottle is the last one from a batch IE: The one thats been left the longest. One of my batches has been ready for the last 3 days and i am not going to open any till at least Halloween night

Someone with more experience will be along shortly to tell you exactly what (if anything) went wrong.

Happy brewing!

Need more info. Did you use top-off water? How long did you boil?

Better aeration probably would have dropped the FG down another few points. You don't need a particularly vigorous boil, especially when using malt extract. As long as the surface is agitated, you're good.

Finally, steeping 2-row doesn't really do any good - it needs to be mashed, otherwise you end up with a bunch of unfermentable material in your beer.

ThreeRatBastards: Not necessarily.

Was this supposed to be a 5 gallon batch? I usually get 48-53 bottles per batch. 35 bottles is only a bit over 3 gallons (assuming 12 oz bottles)
Did you top it up to 5 gallons after ading the 3 gallon boiled wort to the fermenter?

I should mention that I did not measure the OG or FG, those were just listed in the recipe.

not getting a good boil suggest that it possible the hop utilization was not great. This could result in a beer thats more sweet than desired...

ArcaneXor said:

Finally, steeping 2-row doesn't really do any good - it needs to be mashed, otherwise you end up with a bunch of unfermentable material in your beer.

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He did kind-of mash it with the 45-min steep @ 155F so it's likely he got a good amount of conversion

gingerdawg said:

Was this supposed to be a 5 gallon batch? I usually get 48-53 bottles per batch. 35 bottles is only a bit over 3 gallons (assuming 12 oz bottles)
Did you top it up to 5 gallons after ading the 3 gallon boiled wort to the fermenter?

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Given his gravity readings, I'd say the 3-gallons sound about right if it is supposed to be a bigger beer. If it was supposed to be a 5 gallon watch then his readings would more like:
OG: 1.040
FG: 1.009

Was this supposed to be a 5 gallon kit? (most are)

I think the real issue here is that you used 3/4 cup of dextrose for 3.25 gallons. That is the supposed amount to put in 5 gallons. Really you should go by weight and not volume for something like sugar anyway. You might want to keep a close eye on those bottles, they could go BOOM on you if you've over primed.

bendit said:

I should mention that I did not mentioned the OG or FG, those were just listed in the recipe.

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Oh good call...

gingerdawg said:

Was this supposed to be a 5 gallon batch? I usually get 48-53 bottles per batch. 35 bottles is only a bit over 3 gallons (assuming 12 oz bottles)
Did you top it up to 5 gallons after ading the 3 gallon boiled wort to the fermenter?

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Yes, it was supposed to be a 5 gallon batch.

It's possible I screwed up on measuring my water, but I think it's more likely that it boiled away.

But did you top up to five gallons? If you didn't, that would account for the sweetness. If you boiled off too much, then topped off it would be less sweet, not more.

shecky said:

Need more info. Did you use top-off water? How long did you boil?

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I boiled 3 gallons and added 2 to the fermenter.

It took me about an hour to bring to what I thought was a needed level of agitation, and kept it at that level for 60 minutes (for hopping).

shecky said:

But did you top up to five gallons? If you didn't, that would account for the sweetness. If you boiled off too much, then topped off it would be less sweet, not more.

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True, but I measured what I topped off with, I didn't just top off until a certain mark in the fermenter - but that would have been a good idea!

bendit said:

I boiled 3 gallons and added 2 to the fermenter.

It took me about an hour to bring to what I thought was a needed level of agitation, and kept it at that level for 60 minutes (for hopping).

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Now it's getting clearer. If you started your boil with 3 gallons, you probably ended up with 2-2.5 after the boil. Add two gallons to that and you're short of five gallons, thus the sweetness.

It's beginning to sound like I may have goofed up on measuring my gallons. I think I was converting from liters and using a measuring cup to move between my faucet and fermenter.

Is it common practice to instead mark 5 gallons in the fermenter and just top off to the mark?

bendit said:

It's beginning to sound like I may have goofed up on measuring my gallons. I think I was converting from liters and using a measuring cup to move between my faucet and fermenter.

Is it common practice to instead mark 5 gallons in the fermenter and just top off to the mark?

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Yeah, calibration is a very good idea. Chalk it up to a learning experience.

Conversion in a steep would be affected by the quantity of water. If he put 1.5 pounds of 2 row into 3 gallons of water it is likely that he got virtually 0 conversion because the enzymes would be far too diluted to find their targets. Plus the pH would likely be way off for successful conversion.

The clue to the answer here is in his statement that he got 35 bottles from the batch. By my reckoning this means that he had less than 4 gallons in the batch and that the this was just a super concentrated extract batch.

Given extract's tendency to attenuate on the low side of averages this could make for a beer with a very high fg and a cloying sweetness.

Did you ever take an FG reading?

(EDIT: How long did it take me to write this post?!? There were like thirteen posts while I was writing it!)

What do you guys think about aeration? Could that have been the problem?

bendit said:

What do you guys think about aeration? Could that have been the problem?

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It might have been a small factor. Not enough aeration means not enough O2 for the yeast to be really happy. Extract tends to have higher finishing gravities so the yeast needs all the help it can get. However, it's more likely because of your measurements being off.

dontman said:

Did you ever take an FG reading?

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I did not. I'll try measuring some tonight and let you guys know.

bendit said:

I did not. I'll try measuring some tonight and let you guys know.

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Be sure to get rid of the carbonation first!

Trencher said:

Be sure to get rid of the carbonation first!

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Right, FG is supposed to be taken before priming/bottling, right?

Is it worth even trying now?

bendit said:

Right, FG is supposed to be taken before priming/bottling, right?

Is it worth even trying now?

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Why not? Just leave an open bottle out for a bit to let the CO2 escape. It's at least worth a shot.

shecky said:

Why not? Just leave an open bottle out for a bit to let the CO2 escape. It's at least worth a shot.

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Do I need to stir it or shake it up too?

bendit said:

Do I need to stir it or shake it up too?

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Nah. Hell, leave it uncapped overnight. Reading might not be exact but it's worth a try if you really want to do it. If not, get started on another batch and remember to take readings.

sure it is. There is not much you can do to change it at this point but it would be good for you to know the figure anyway.

It will also tell you how sweet this particular FG tastes. A handy piece of knowledge for future reference.

(Durnit. you guys did it to me again!)

I've been going longer primaries when using extract or partial extract. the extra time of the big cake in the primary seems to help me with residual sweetness. I really don't use secondaries too much anymore. Always account for boil off too. it seems you probably lost some volume in the boil if you started with 3 and topped off with two. I do full boils in a pot that fits two gas burners on the stove and usually figure one gallon boil off average, ie starting with 6 for final volume of five

this may sound really stupid, but has anyone ever tried watering down a sweet beer with water (after being poured of course) or a mix of water and carbonated water?

I would not recommend that but people often mix two complementary beers. Such as a too sweet and a too dry beer to produce a perfect medium.

I left a bottle open overnights and took a measurement with a hydrometer:

1.016 @ 60f

It's exactly what my recipe called for. ???

I'm going to call it poor hop utilization due to a weak boil.

Bobby_M said:

I'm going to call it poor hop utilization due to a weak boil.

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Given that your gravity is on, I'm going to second Bobby, who knows far more than I.