Need help with overly sweet beers

I've brewed a few beers lately that have been overly sweet. One was an english IPA that was undrinkable when I took it to homebrew club. Then a week later i tasted it and it was superb. The hops came through with a perfect dry finish. This led me to believe it just needed some age. Then I brewed an all Maris Otter IPA that I tried tried hop bursting all in the last 10 minutes of the boil. Same thing, way too sweet. I've been letting it sit in the keg a couple weeks now and it's not getting any better. Take a look at the recipe and tell me if you see anything that would explain it.

Maris Otter IPA (American IPA)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.078 (°P): 18.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011 (°P): 2.8
Alcohol (ABV): 8.79 %
Colour (SRM): 7.7 (EBC): 15.2
Bitterness (IBU): 89.6 (Tinseth)

100% Maris Otter Malt

0.5 oz/Gal Chinook (11.4% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 oz/Gal Horizon (10.5% Alpha) @ 8 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 oz/Gal Chinook (11.4% Alpha) @ 6 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 oz/Gal Horizon (10.5% Alpha) @ 4 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 oz/Gal Chinook (11.4% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 155°F for 60 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 63°F with Safale US-05

Notes: 45ml phosporic
1 campden tab
3 teaspoons gypsum

Hard boil 90 min produced less yield than expected
40quarts starting water

20quarts strike temp at 169= 155 mash temp
20quarts sparge temp at 190= 167 sparge temp



I've been doing 90 min boils and this was on a particularly frigid day so I ended up boiling off way too much and only got 4 gallons in the fermenter. Another issue I thought of was that I've been using hop bags or a hop spider. Could this be causing under utilization of the hops? FWIW the BU:GU ratio is 1.15 and balance value is 3.34 which from what I understand should produce a nice, bitter IPA. Thanks for any advice.

 

I suggest reducing your mash temp down to 150-152. Also you are brewing fairly high alcohol brews, and my experience (your mileage may vary) is that alcohol gives a perception of sweetness. Age is supposed to tone things down, and about to experiment with artificial aging of beer.............But that's another story, and everybody tells me it won't work...... I think it will at least to some extent.


H.W.

 

It seems to me like you need to check your hop additions. If you add 2.5 ounces in the last 10 minutes, I would think that would be way too few. With a quick look at Brewing Classic Styles, both the English and the American IPAs have at least 4 ounces of hops, and both of them also get a significant IBU contribution from the 60 minute addition, which is at least an ounce. You might want to look around and compare your recipe to others to see where you might want to adjust yours to give you what you are looking for.

Also, boiling off that much and only having 4 gallons left will give you a higher starting gravity and probably a higher finishing gravity, which will also make the beer seem sweeter.

Good luck.

 

To me, too sweet suggests that your thermometer is off by a few degrees and you mashed too high or that your yeast went dormant before they finished. I'd be checking the thermometer first as that is quick and easy and could solve the problem on its own.

If the thermometer checks out, then you look at the fermentation. US05 should have done the job but you might have more attenuation if you let your beer warm up to the low 70's on about the 4th day and keep it there until your hydrometer shows that the beer is done.

With a beer with that much alcohol you need to give it some time to mature. Try leaving the keg out at room temp for a couple weeks before you chill it for the next sample.

 

I agree with the mash temp being too high, 150-152 will bring down that sweetness.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will definitely start mashing lower. And sorry about the hops measurements. I didnt realize my brewing software translated that way. Each of those additions are two ounces so there are 10oz total.

 

OG 1.078 FG 1.011. The yeast did a great job with 86% attenuation. Maybe what you tasting is the result of the hard boil also. When I make my barley wine I tend to boil longer and harder. Even with over 100 IBU it taste malty, sweet not not something I would drink one after another.

 

Hmm.. thats interesting. I've never heard of a hard boil effecting sweetness. I understand that it could be because of so much boiloff that I'm getting more sugar per ounce or whatever but is there another reason a hard boil would bring out sweetness?

 

I would (and do) mash my IPAs at 149-150
No bittering hop addition? I would think the bitterness from such addition would offset the sweetness(balance).

 

Were those your actual measured numbers or predicted? If so I agree it doesn't look like an attenuation problem. You can get mailliard reactions from long hard boils with concentrated wort, which might give some toffee/caramel flavors, but I usually think of that being associated with concentrated extract boils. I have two thoughts - I'm still in the experimental stages of this myself but it seems to me that hop bursted only beers seem to have less bittering, or at least less apparent bittering, than what the calculators suggest. Second is regarding hop bags - I use a hop spider and don't seem to notice any utilization problems, but it's a big bag and the hops are really loose. If the hops are too tightly packed maybe that could be contributing.

 

I am not into the technical terms and styles so don't quote me on this. I make simple beers I like. However I recall something about hard boil can create sweet, caramel, candy like flavors almost like the candy syrup.

 

My take on it is, lower your mash temp (I like 148) and mash longer ~75mins. That should help dry it out. I also might drop the grain bill a bit as a lower temp mash will produce more fermentable sugars and you should be able to hit your ABV target. I've had US-05 crank down to 1.008 on bigger beers after a lower mash...just make sure you pitch enough.

 

chickypad, those are measured numbers. I think I may go back to throwing hops into the boil raw. My hop bag might be a little tight. And I agree that hop bursting might not give the bitterness it claims. A bittering addition would probably have made this a great beer.