Export stout clone too sweet???

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Bilbo24

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I just tasted my Captain’s Ration Export Stout extract kit brew. It has been bottle conditioning for 3weeks. The Kit instructions said the OG was to be 1.073 and mine was 1.072. I kept it on the primary for 1 month. My FG was 1.024 which came out to be 6.419 ABV based on my hydrometer readings. Their estimated ABV was 7.1 percent. The kit
called for 5/8 cup of table sugar dissolved in 16 oz of water. When I used the Northern Brewers priming calculator, it comes up with a lot less sugar, .45 cup!!! Per the calculator,
Imperial Stout 2.2, temp at bottling 68, and 5 gallons equals .45 cup instead of 5/8 cup. I figured Imperial Stout was as close as the table comes to an export stout.
When I tasted it, I immediately get notes of coffee, chocolate with a good bitterness. However, immediately after that is a kind of sickly sweet taste kind of corn syrup sweet). My wife doesn’t real mine the sweet tastes and she gets the slight banana taste as several folks noted with export stouts on Beer Advocate!!!
My question is… could the additional table sugar make it taste too sweet or is the difference between .45 cup and 5/8 cup not enough to affect 5 gallons? AND could that sweet taste mellow with more time??
 
A bit extra table sugar wouldn't do it.

What you're probably tasting is the remaining complex sugars and dextrins that make up the final gravity. Yes, it can mellow. Strong beers, dark beers, and strong & dark beers tend to get better with a bit of age. Put them aside. Try another one in two weeks, then another at another two weeks. You'll be amazed what time can do.

Or, it may be stale/oxidized extract. More likely with liquid than dry.
 
Difference on the priming sugar amount is probably just the difference in how many vols the kits recipe developer wanted versus how many vols you told the calculator you wanted. Whether that was by picking the beer style or specifying the vols.

Some peoples kits seem to always have the same amount of priming sugar recommendation no matter what style the beer is.

I'd look to the sweetness being partly from the little bit higher FG you got than what theirs must have been since you say they figured a higher ABV than you got.

And this is fully carbonated and conditioned isn't it?
 
Difference on the priming sugar amount is probably just the difference in how many vols the kits recipe developer wanted versus how many vols you told the calculator you wanted. Whether that was by picking the beer style or specifying the vols.

Some peoples kits seem to always have the same amount of priming sugar recommendation no matter what style the beer is.

I'd look to the sweetness being partly from the little bit higher FG you got than what theirs must have been since you say they figured a higher ABV than you got.

And this is fully carbonated and conditioned isn't it?Put priming sugar in on bottling day and it has been in bottles for slightly over three weeks!
Difference on the priming sugar amount is probably just the difference in how many vols the kits recipe developer wanted versus how many vols you told the calculator you wanted. Whether that was by picking the beer style or specifying the vols.

Some peoples kits seem to always have the same amount of priming sugar recommendation no matter what style the beer is.

I'd look to the sweetness being partly from the little bit higher FG you got than what theirs must have been since you say they figured a higher ABV than you got.

And this is fully carbonated and conditioned isn't it?
it has bottled conditioned for a little over three weeks (that is what the kit called for) and popped like a normal beer when opened. Probably needs more time. Hope!!!!
 
So I'm reading the description on the NB website, and it seems like this brew is supposed to be somewhat sweet. Plus, yours is a bit underattenuated which would make it a little sweeter still.

Most folks would probably say that 2.7+ volumes (which you'd get from 2/3 cup of table sugar) is overcarbed for an Imperial Stout, but the extra carbonic acid bite might have somewhat offset the residual sweetness.
 
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