Too much priming sugar?

[LadyFermentation]

I am at week two of the beer being in the bottle and it is well carbonated but is rather sweet. Can this be from using too much priming sugar? Is there anything I can do to cut the sweetness ( I found lacing the the glass with some bourbon or brandy helps a bit)?

 

[Smokeater233]

It could be, or it could be your beer wasn't done fermenting when you bottled it. How long was your beer in primary for? What were the gravities? How much priming sugar did you use? And I've never heard of your lacing idea before - but combining my favorite alcohols in that capacity sounds great to me just on the fun/flavor factor alone!

 

[KMKsuburbannoise]

I wouldn't think that the priming sugar caused it to be really sweet unless you used a whole lot.

 

[smokewater]

My first brew was the Autumn Amber Ale from Midwest supply.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/autumn-amber-ale.html

Its fermenting now. When I go to bottle should I use all the sugar that came with the kit? I read somewhere that some of these kits give you too much.

I pretty much kept to the recipe except I boiled 4 gallons of water instead of 3 when I added the LME. Unfortunately I forgot to take a gravity reading initially. Rookie mistake and once it was racked I didn't want to mess with it.

 

[Smokeater233]

What's your final volume in the fermenter? Four or five gallons? I've made that Autumn Amber before and - if I recall - my final volume was around 4.5 gallons - it was my first batch and I didn't top up completely. Midwest either adds 4.5 or 5oz of priming sugar, so provided your volume isn't ridiculously low, you are good to go to use it all.

 

[mixedbrewer]

Out of curiosity I have tasted a beer after it was primed and before it was bottled. I couldnt even taste any sugar. (And I use 5 oz religously.)

 

[hudsonj6]

Out of curiosity I have tasted a beer after it was primed and before it was bottled.

I've done that too. I've tasted some beers at two weeks in the bottles and they've still been a bit sweet since I'm assuming all the priming sugar hasn't been consumed by the yeast yet. In all my beers the sweetness has disappeared by 3 weeks once they're fully carbonated. It never hurts to let the beer age a while anyways.

 

[smokewater]

What's your final volume in the fermenter? Four or five gallons? I've made that Autumn Amber before and - if I recall - my final volume was around 4.5 gallons - it was my first batch and I didn't top up completely. Midwest either adds 4.5 or 5oz of priming sugar, so provided your volume isn't ridiculously low, you are good to go to use it all.

I topped it off to 5 gallons. Added one gallon of bottled spring water and that didn't quite get to the mark so I added a little more from the brita water pitcher to get to 5 gallons. Next time I will probably boil 5.5-6 gallons. I probably added 1.5 gallons of water.

 

[Smokeater233]

Yeah - use all of the priming sugar they gave you in the kit...

 

[LadyFermentation]

Thanks for all the advice. I did an all grain brew buying the components separately I used an aerator stone prior to fermentation, then it fermented 2 weeks, racked it for another half week and bottled when the air lock had all but stopped bobbling (like once every 90-120 sec.). The initial gravity was 1.072 and the 2nd was 1.014. I'm not sure if it carries over but tasting the beer prior to bottling it was not sweet (I'm brewing a smoked porter). I did use a LITTLE more bottling sugar then normal because of problems getting good carbonation in the past.

As for lacing the glasses the local craft brew bar by me dose tastings and did that with two of the beers one night ...wow like the cherry on top the ice cream Sunday. They also did it on a cask ale that was a bit to spicy, yes spicy and it helped.