beer too sweet, need to balance it out

just finished checking up on my New Castle clone. I'ts been in primary for 5 days now . It took a while to get the FG down from 1.078 to its current 1.016. Still don't know how i had such a high OG, but who cares my beer packs a punch. Anyway, it's still a little too sweet. I was reading a thread about making some hop tea and adding it to the brew to bitter it up, but i can't find it or remember how to do it. How much water and bittering hops should i use, and do I add it to primary or secondary. i was thinking 1/2 gallon using .25 oz and adding to secondary. Also should I boil for an entire hour?

That was a high OG... But the almost final FG sounds right on the money for the style. if you dilute it, it might get a little thin for the style. After all, it is trying to be an english ale, not a water thin american lite. Sounds like You have more than enough alcohol in it. You may want to gamble...and take out a half a gallon, and boil some hops into it. if you want deep down bittering, yeah go the hour..just hop flavor, 10 minutes. Or, You might find a supplier that has liquid hop extract...And if you must...their is always the amalayce enzyme. But your SG is already pretty low. And some other folks might say...patience...it's only been 5 days.. give it time to work, get it in the secondary...and wait.

Yeah, let it go through secondary. I've heard of guys using hop tea as late as bottling time. I think he said he used four cups of water but never needed more than three.

Cheyco said:

Yeah, let it go through secondary. I've heard of guys using hop tea as late as bottling time. I think he said he used four cups of water but never needed more than three.

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That was me.

I just boiled up 1/2 oz Cascade (@ 3.4%) with 1/2 gal water for 1 hour and strained.

I added the tea at 1 cup an hour (to let it mix in well with the brew). Then tast tested it. Added another cup, same way. It took 3 cups of tea to take the sweet edge off. I just dumped the rest of it.

Have you tried liquid Hop Extract? Same principle, just concentrated.

Let us know how it goes.

A quart of water is plenty, boil the hops for 60 minutes.

What was your original bittering hop addition? Personally, I'd go the patience route. I have found heavily malted beers really round out and mellow with age, allowing the bittering hops to come out--especially once carbonated. Give that beer a few weeks in the secondary and a month in the bottle and I bet it rounds out.

I used 4/5 oz. northern brewer @ 7.6% AA. If I go the hop extract rout i'm asuming i still have to boil it in water or can I add it directly to the secondary?

It's been over two weeks and I'm ready to bottle. The FG is at 1.030 it dropped from SG1.048, it hasn't moved in three days. It should be at 1.010 -1.012. It's a Big River Brown Ale kit from Midwest supplies. Will it come out to sweet? Can I increase the attenuation before I bottle? Should I wait another week? I used a dry yeast and I only used a single fermentator since I'm new at this.
thanks-rerein

rerein said:

It's been over two weeks and I'm ready to bottle. The FG is at 1.030 it dropped from SG1.048, it hasn't moved in three days. It should be at 1.010 -1.012. It's a Big River Brown Ale kit from Midwest supplies. Will it come out to sweet? Can I increase the attenuation before I bottle? Should I wait another week? I used a dry yeast and I only used a single fermentator since I'm new at this.
thanks-rerein

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It will be too sweet, and I'd also worry about bottle bombs because there are so many fermentables left.

You can try swirling your pail or gently stirring. Or pitching more yeast. 1.030 is too high.

Definitely don't bottle it yet, that sounds like a recipe for disaster. I'll second the gentle swirling, not enough to splash so you don't introduce oxygen into your beer, just enough to get some of the yeast off the bottom. Tossing another pack of dry yeast in there also wouldn't hurt for the price. Its possible that the dry yeast you used was a little less than stellar and it just needs a bump. Assuming its an extract kit you might only get it down to 1.020, but that's definitely workable.

If the dry yeast was still good (which normally they are), you should have had more than enough in the packet to ferment properly, so that shouldn't be a problem. How did you aerate your beer before pitching? It sounds like you might not have gotten enough oxygen into your wort for the yeast to grow up. Not that there's a lot you can do now, but something to remember for next time.