excessive sweetness across several batches/styles

[mcwilcr]

I had an opportunity last weekend to sample some homebrews that a homebrewer friend/co-worker of a good friend of mine gave him to sample. Since I have a feeling I might be asked for my opinion, and because I'm kinda curious as to why all of these beers are so sweet, I was hoping to get some insight from some of you folks as to potential causes of cloyingly sweet beer through multiple batches/styles.

the three different beers I samples were an IPA, a triple, and a pumpkin ale. The IPA was pretty descent except that it was such a sweet malty beer that the intended high hop bitterness ended up being almost perfectly balanced. The triple was almost a black tripel (if that even exists) and was so sweet, its only saving grace was the nice warm alcohol feel, the spicy nose and taste. If this beer wasn't so sweet it would have been quite nice. the pumpkin ale, which I think he was going for a pumpkin porter, however tasted almost like he just bottled and chilled fresh wort and I couldn't drink more than a couple sips. Both the tripel and pumpkin were under carbonated and had no head retention at all.

To my knowledge this person is brewing extract + steeping grain recipes that he is developing himself. I do not have the exact recipes so I know an exact diagnoses is out of the question but I'm looking for generalities or maybe common mistakes that could be causing this.

any thoughts among the masses?

 

[unionrdr]

Sounds like they may not have gotten down to a stable FG before processing. That would account for there being sweet.

 

[SledgeH]

+1
Ask him/her if they are using a hyrometer to get a consistent FG prior to bottling.

 

[mcwilcr]

Good point, however some of the beers were fairly old so I woule have expcted them to ferment out in the bottle unless he is refrigerating them too early. I've talked with this person before about homebrewing and the impression I got is that he seemed reasonably knowledable about basic practices so I would think he would check fg but we all know what happens when you assume.

 

[H-ost]

Maybe he just goes too heavy on the crystal malts, steeping for color but not accounting for the unfermentables he is putting in there?

 

[homebrewdad]

Maybe he just goes too heavy on the crystal malts, steeping for color but not accounting for the unfermentables he is putting in there?

I'm thinking this is a great place to start.

 

[mcwilcr]

I too am leaning toward a recipe ingredients cause. I have made many beers wih a fairly large portion ot crystal malts and have never gotten this sweet. Given a simple blonde ale recipe for example, how much crystal malt would you need to add before the beer is undrinkable with adjusting nothing else in the recipe?

 

[SSLocal]

Yeast pitching rates. Probably not fully attenuating. I had/have the same problem. I started pitching new wort onto recently vacated yeast cakes, which have a lot of yeast built up, and the beers are much better. A combination of caramel malts and not fully attenuating your beer will leave you with a lot of sugar in solution.

 

[Phunhog]

I think it could be any of the above problems but most likely a combination of all or some of those issues. Really hard to say other than that he has attenuation problems.

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

is it possible that for some reason he likes sweet beer?

 

[mcwilcr]

Attenuation issues seem to be a likely cause for at least part of the sweetness.

is it possible that for some reason he likes sweet beer?

That is absolutely a possibility and considering he dished them out as samples I would even say a probability. I know I would never hand out a homebrew that I didn't like myself without at least a disclaimer and even then only to my true beer buddies/clinical trial subjects. That being said though, the beer still seems too sweet to be completely intentional.

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

there remains the possibility that he is a blithering idiot, mishandles his yeast, believes yeast knows what day it is and what his preferred schedule is, is incapable of self-criticism . . . .

 

[erockomania]

Maybe he thinks crystal is a base malt. Haha

 

[mcwilcr]

there remains the possibility that he is a blithering idiot, mishandles his yeast, believes yeast knows what day it is and what his preferred schedule is, is incapable of self-criticism . . . .

Maybe he thinks crystal is a base malt. Haha

Always a possibility but I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Is he doing partial boils? Might not be boiling enough liquid to get proper hop utilization for the recipe or kit.

 

[step]

I would really lean towards attenuation. Some extracts are more or less fermentable than others. Couple this with low pitch rates and poor oxygenation and you can easily have a cloyingly sweet underattenuated beer.

 

[crazyworld]

I would definitely be pressed to think its the yeast. My guess is he used the same type of a small pack of yeast in all three beers (I'm looking at you Munton's Gold!). Have him try a new yeast (if dry, look for at least 11 gram packets), check the freshness, ensure it's not being rehydrated or pitched too warm or too cold, and ensure hes oxygenating. Get some hydrometer readings. If it seems like it's not done attenuating when it really slows down, try rousing the yeast and/or repitching and watch airlock/hydrometer activity.

 

[Mishraile]

Perhaps fermented too hot? mine that did that ended up being very alcaholy sweet. Not too pleasant.