Good Yeast for IPA/Problems with Sweetness

So I am having some issue with my all grain beers coming out a little sweet to the taste as IPA's go. I have been experiencing this sweetness in the beers for about 5 batches now and I have been trying to narrow down the possibilities of what could be causing it.
The constants in the equation are:

• The mash tun ( small, about 19 quarts, so tight mashes)
• The yeast (WPL002, or a "base" yeast)
• Ferm Temps (around 67 ish )
• Boild temp
• Mash Temp (I had messed up the calcs because i didn't warm the mash tun first but my goal was around 155)

So I bought a 12 gallon cooler for a mash ton. YAY!!!
I will correct the temp issues to make sure i hit what i need
I will practice batch sparging this time by using 199 water for sparge and stir instead of my previous times have all been fly sparge.

So my next change to fix this would be to change yeast to a less sweetening type

Can anyone tell me what would be a good yeast and/or what i may be missing that would be giving me this sweet-ish type body?

Thank you in advance

 

I use cheap dry yeast Safale American US-05 in my IPA's

 

Too much crystal malt, and too high ABV are a couple of common causes of overly sweet beer. And of course under-hopping could do it as well. Can you tell us about the recipes?

 

^^^ recipe info would be helpful!!! I have really found that an excess of crystal malt has been my issue. However, water chemistry and carbonation level can have pretty profound effect on perceived sweetness/bitterness

Good luck

 

WLP007 is a better attenuator than WLP002 with similar traits. But I usually go with WLP001 or WLP090. They're beasts.

Too much specialty malts could be the issue. You'll have to post a recipe for us to see the overall picture.

Mash temp of 155 is a little high for an IPA, unless you know what you're doing like the Lagunitas brewers. I would shoot for 148-ish.

Replace some of your malt with sugar to further dry things up.

67 F ambient air temp will ferment at more like 72 F. Ferm temp is about 4-8 F hotter than air temp.

 

I think a 155 mash temp will leave it a bit sweet as well. If you are looking to dry it out a bit more and take out some of the sweetness, I would drop that down a couple of degrees. I have been playing with a really dried out IPA recipe and have been mashing as low as 148.

(LOL... beat me to it Bob)

 

I have found that if I mash at 148 and pitch the appropriate amount of WLP001 you WILL get a dry beer. 1.060 to 1.006-1.008 is not at all out of the realm of possibilities. With US-05/WLP001/1056 and an IPA between 1.060-1.070 I like to mash at 152-153 to get that final gravity to hit 1.010-1.012 which to me, is the sweet spot for American IPA.

 

Based on the limited info in the post, it looks like you are mashing on the high side for an IPA. Also WLP002 is a low attenuator and highly flocculant. If you previously used that yeast on extract batches and liked the results, then it is probably just the mash. If the yeast is new to you, it is an english style and is always going to be sweeter than an american style IPA.

 

same or notty

 

This was one of the recipes:
Ninkasi Total Domination Clone (kinda)


All-Grain - Interceptor IPA
________________________________________
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 1968 London ESB
Yeast Starter: Nope.
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: Nope.
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.064
Final Gravity: 1.019
IBU: 65
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 7.3
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 Days
Additional Fermentation: Nope
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): Nope
Tasting Notes: Certainly a Northwest IPA. Good bitterness and a solid hop flavor is presented.

10 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 80.77 %
1 lbs Carahell (9.0 SRM) Grain 7.69 %
1 lbs Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 7.69 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.85 %

1.00 oz Magnum [10.40 %] (60 min) Hops 33.8 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [7.50 %] (20 min) Hops 14.8 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [8.70 %] (20 min) Hops 17.1 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [8.70 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [7.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 oz Centennial [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [7.50 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -

(All hops used were pellet hops)

1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale

Mashed at about 154 Degrees for an hour.

 

I believe my last try was a bit lower in temp I think i tried for 152 and ended up a bit lower because I forgot to heat up my mash tun first. UGH!!

 

I would bet that American Ale yeast fermented in the low 60s, with a mash temp of 150 or lower, some sugar in the recipe, and a week or two more time to condition would have put you at about 1.012 FG or lower.

 

So its possible to get rid of it by more controlled temp ( around 150-ish) then batch sparge with high temp water, use a different yeast and not too much Crystal. I will be making one later today with these thoughts in mind.
How does this one look? I may up the gallons but ill just let the software calculate percentages for that.

7 gallon Batch

11.44 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain
5.43 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain
0.96 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
60 min 1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %]
20 min 1 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %]
Mash at 150
Batch with 190
Use maybe a London Ale WLP013
or
WPL001

 

I'm not sure you have enough bittering there for a 7g. batch. I'd back the victory down some too. More 2-row, maybe 2lbs. of victory and the pound of dextrine is fine, then play with the bittering (60m) addition until you get nice high IBU's. Edit: I get about 52 IBU's with this hop schedule. That's probably fine. I would dry-hop with a half ounce 3-5 days before kegging/bottling too.

Make a starter or use US-05 dry and rehydrate it in 90* water (about 2cups should be fine) for an hour covered with sanitized foil. It should take off like a rocket.

 

With this you get 52IBU's

My software is way off then. I'm reading at 78 IBU's!! How did I go wrong here?
I attached my software pic of recipe below.

 

I assume you are finishing at 5 gallons vs 7 gallons? 52 vs 78 is about 5 vs 7.

The recipe seems fine. Just keep the mash temp lower if you want dry it out. Most importantly though, if you want an american style IPA, use a clean, american ale yeast.

 

I am actually trying to finish with 7 gallons in Ferm.
what does this mean?"52 vs 78 is about 5 vs 7"?

Thanks

 

5 vs 7 is about the ratio of most full boils. If 2 calculators disagree by that same ratio, it could easily just be that someone typed in the starting volume instead of the finishing volume in the one of the boxes. In your case, that isn't it. Your screenshot shows an OG of 1.012. I don't use that calculator, but it doesn't look like you are putting in your mash correctly and it is treating everything just as a steeping grain with no conversion.