Hi, I'm a new member and would like to ask some advice. I've seen a lot of posts and information regarding under attenuated beer or beer that is too sweet. However, I'm on the opposite end of this. I feel my beer is finishing too dry and I would like to maintain a little malty/sweetness in the background for certain styles. For example, commercially I've noticed certain IPA's seems to have a maltiness to them that other IPA's don't. Any general recommendations? Thank you.
Residual malt/sweetness
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CusterBrews
Active Member
I'm assuming you are using extracts instead of all grain, but to get a good sweet beer you need to steep some specialty grains when you boil... Caramel malts work well for this and the higher the number, the sweeter and darker the beer will be.
I stopped using the kilo's of brewing sugar,& started adding plain DME's in their place. That'll help. Also,don't use a yeast that attenuates more than 70% or so. That'll help keep too much malt from being converted to alcohol. Not to mention,malts that have more unfermentables for color & mouth feel.
Germelli1
Well-Known Member
Try adding half a pound of "Carapils" to every batch you brew. It provides you with unformentable sugars that help retain body and mouthfeel.
Plain DME's have the same effect,since many of them contain carapils,among others. They have the same effects,plus you get a bit more flavor to a lot,even different flavors,depending on how much is used,& what it's combined with. I love doing that.
Germelli1
Well-Known Member
Yeah,more info would help...
Yes more information always helps. Ok, here is my last IPA that I was expecting to be a little on the sweet side and it turned out fairly dry. The one thing that stands out after reading the replies is the 1/2 lbs of corn sugar. Could that be the culprit? I was shooting for a 7~8% IPA. IBU's around 60. Was this not balanced out enough with the malts? My OG was 1.076 and FG was 1.017 (7.72% ABV).
6.00 lb LME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Extract 49.79 %
3.30 lb LME Sparkling Amber Liquid (Briess) (10.5 SRM) Extract 27.39 %
0.75 lb Caramel Malt - 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain 6.22 %
0.75 lb Caramunich I (Weyermann) (34.0 SRM) Grain 6.22 %
0.50 lb Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM) Grain 4.15 %
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 13.6 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (30 min) Hops 10.5 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] (20 min) Hops 6.1 IBU
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (20 min) Hops 16.5 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
0.50 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6.22 %
2 Pkgs Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) Yeast-Ale
6.00 lb LME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Extract 49.79 %
3.30 lb LME Sparkling Amber Liquid (Briess) (10.5 SRM) Extract 27.39 %
0.75 lb Caramel Malt - 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain 6.22 %
0.75 lb Caramunich I (Weyermann) (34.0 SRM) Grain 6.22 %
0.50 lb Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM) Grain 4.15 %
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 13.6 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (30 min) Hops 10.5 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] (20 min) Hops 6.1 IBU
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (20 min) Hops 16.5 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
0.50 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6.22 %
2 Pkgs Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) Yeast-Ale
Well,with 9.3lbs of LME,combined with the specialty malts,you'd likely have been fine. It does seem with the .5lb of dextrose,& all those hops,it would be a little dry. Cut the dex,& maybe lower some of the 1oz hop additions.
It's not the flavor drying it,but the little bit of bitterness obtained from each hop in the flavor/aroma end of the boil as well. That can help perception of dryness.
Is this something not being completely translated through the Beersmith software? In other words... late hop additions not necessarily adding to the IBU numbers but still adding a form of bitterness?
I've found this from experience. Don't have any of them fancy software programs yet.lolz. Seriously,though,even flavoring additions do add some small bitterness. But with all those hop additions,it will be significant,when added to the dryness from the attenuation level. They seem to go hand in hand.
HomebrewMTB
Well-Known Member
Just a side note, Safale S-04 is the same strain as wy1099. A single 11g pack of dry yeast contains the same amount of yeast as two smack packs of liquid. So instead of spending $15, you could have spent <$4. You can put the extra cash toward some more hops.
You should check out Biermuncher's Outer Limits IPA in which he seems to have hit the high end of the specs for the American IPA category but still keeping everything in balance.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/biermunchers-outer-limits-ipa-87310/
Ahhh interesting note on the yeast. I used my last smack packs on my last brew and if you were to see all my future recipes for the next few months you would see they all contain dry yeast instead! I'll check out the Outer Limits IPA...
Did that beer really finish at 1.017? The reason I ask is that I would find 1.017 pretty sweet in the finish, and I try to get my IPAs to finish at 1.008-1.010. The seems to be very very sweet for an IPA, actually.
There are a couple of things I'd change right away. First, you have way too much crystal/caramel malts! You have 2 pounds of caramel/crystal malt, plus amber malt extract which also contains crystal malt (but no one really knows how much). so, you may very well have 20% crystal malt or more. That's way too much in an IPA!
I wonder if you've got too few bittering hops (which balance the malt sweetness)? 60 IBUs should be enough, but you've got most of them as later additions. I'd try a simpler schedule, like this:
9.00 lb LME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Caramunich I (Weyermann) (34.0 SRM)
Bittering:
1 ounce warrior (60 minutes) or enough IBUs to get you to 40 IBUs.
Flavor/aroma hops:
1 ounce cascade (15 minutes)
1 ounce cascade or centennial or amarillo (10 minutes)
1 ounce cascade or centennial or amarillo (5 minutes)
1 ounce Cascade (flame out)
Dryhop with one of those varieties (1 ounce).
The thing is, I'd expect that much crystal malt to make the beer too sweet, and not too dry, so I'm guessing that you might want to try cleaning up the malt bill (even though you like it sweet) to have the hops come through. I'm not sure how else to adjust this for your taste.
If a FG of 1.017 and 20% crystal malt isn't giving you enough sweetness, maybe you don't really like IPAs? Maybe a similar malt bill and less hops and make it more of an American amber?
There are a couple of things I'd change right away. First, you have way too much crystal/caramel malts! You have 2 pounds of caramel/crystal malt, plus amber malt extract which also contains crystal malt (but no one really knows how much). so, you may very well have 20% crystal malt or more. That's way too much in an IPA!
I wonder if you've got too few bittering hops (which balance the malt sweetness)? 60 IBUs should be enough, but you've got most of them as later additions. I'd try a simpler schedule, like this:
9.00 lb LME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Caramunich I (Weyermann) (34.0 SRM)
Bittering:
1 ounce warrior (60 minutes) or enough IBUs to get you to 40 IBUs.
Flavor/aroma hops:
1 ounce cascade (15 minutes)
1 ounce cascade or centennial or amarillo (10 minutes)
1 ounce cascade or centennial or amarillo (5 minutes)
1 ounce Cascade (flame out)
Dryhop with one of those varieties (1 ounce).
The thing is, I'd expect that much crystal malt to make the beer too sweet, and not too dry, so I'm guessing that you might want to try cleaning up the malt bill (even though you like it sweet) to have the hops come through. I'm not sure how else to adjust this for your taste.
If a FG of 1.017 and 20% crystal malt isn't giving you enough sweetness, maybe you don't really like IPAs? Maybe a similar malt bill and less hops and make it more of an American amber?
I double-checked and it did finish at 1.017. Last night I had another pint (been a week since my last as I try to let it sit and age). The longer it sits (been 8 weeks) the more I am starting to taste the beginnings of a sweet background. Based on the comments about the crystal malts and hops I have to agree it may be the hops masking the sweetness, and there is too much crystal malt as well. The bitterness I am experiencing is not what I am used to in commercial IPA's. And I do love IPA's! I am still new to this so I am trying to find out what malts and hops make my taste buds say WOW. Biermuncher's Outer Limits IPA looks very interesting. My next round with this will be with less crystal and a simpler hop schedule.
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