Balancing Yeast and Sugar content = strong/not too sweet beer???

[Timo21]

Ok, im sure alot of you might be annoyed by this question since it has probably been asked many times before, however I am new here and have just recently started brewing my own beer using malt extracts however I hope to move on to all grains someday hopefully soon. Anyways my question is, Since we use Yeast to eat the sugar in order to produce CO2 and Alcohol how can we find the right balance in a beer so that the right amount of yeast is used to eat ALL the sugar so that the end process is a beer that is less sweet.... see what I am trying to do is make a very strong beer, lets say around 8-9% that is not very sweet. If i just wanted to make my regular recipe that i use that usually produces a beer of 5% into a stronger beer why cant i just throw in a little more sugar and alot more yeast? and if the sugar is all ate up and there is just a little yeast left over to settle to the bottom wouldnt the beer be strong and NOT that sweet? to me this would make sense but for some reason its just not something that is talked about much in the books/articles/mags/etc. that I have been reading... so what is the "balance" we should be following when it comes to this rule?

ps: i dont want to hear the answer "you should be drinking for the taste not the abv, better to drink a tasty beer all night than to get lit off two beers" yeah i get that, however i would rather sip and get buzzed off two beers than to drink a twelve pack all night.

thanks!

 

[Double_D]

Wether or not a beer ferments out dry (not sweet) is dependent on the malts used in the grain bill and the temperature it was mashed at. That said, the yeast will only attenuate to a certain percentage. So I'd suggest looking for a yeast with a high attenuation and then get a simple malt extract that doesn't have to much in the way of character malts. It also depends on the bitterness to gravity ratio.

All of which I'm sure are topics of conversation on here.

 

[permo]

I have found that by varying the mash temps, mash length/duration, fermentation temps and other variables (simple sugar additions, etc...) you can make a yeast attenuate much further than "normal". So if you are aking here, to make a long story short, how to make a dry beer that is quite attenuated?

1. Limit the use of crystal and specialty malts
2. Mash at a lower temp
3. Mash longer
4. ferment at the upper end of the yeasts temperature range
5. Oxygenate
6. Pitch an adequate amount of healthy yeast
7. Use a yeast strain that is known for attenuation
8. Add simple sugars