Finished beer too sweet/malty

[inspiron23]

First time poster here.
A little background, have been brewing about 2 years, started out with electric BIAB setup which I still use, have done about 20 or so batches. I've been trying to really work on consistency, water profiles/PH, and so on.
A common problem I've had with most of my beers is heavy mouthfeel, sweet, too malty and so on.
Just did a kit from Midwest brewing, Red Hood ESB.
https://www.midwestsupplies.com/red-hood-esb-kit-red-hook-extract-beer-kit

I did not adjust my water too much, added 5grams gypsum. I am using RO water, PH was 7.0
Brew day was pretty good, except ended up with a higher OG then I was supposed to have, ended up being 1.060. I added too much water initially, I'm used to AG, figured I lose some volume. So I boiled a little longer then usual to get rid of some volume.
I steeped my grains at 153 deg, for 1/2 hour like the recipe called, then heated to boil, added my extract.
Boiled for 1.25 hours, cooled to 75deg and pitched 1L starter Safeale US-05
Fermented out to FG 1.010.
Brew date 06.05.17
Kegged on 06.13.17
The taste I got from a sample, too sweet, too malty, lots of caramel.

What can I do to fix this, I would prefer a lighter, more crisp mouthfeel, dry? I have an AG IPA planned for this weekend and I need to work on this. Any suggestions. Sorry if I'm not providing enough details, any questions just ask.


View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1497461620.294002.jpg

 

[eyebrau]

Don't think you need to mess with the water profile when you're brewing an extract beer. Only necessary for a mash, as I understand it.

With that said, when you brew AG, what temperature do you tend to mash at? Lower mash temperatures will provide a drier beer. Shoot for around 148F.

 

[inspiron23]

Don't think you need to mess with the water profile when you're brewing an extract beer. Only necessary for a mash, as I understand it.

With that said, when you brew AG, what temperature do you tend to mash at? Lower mash temperatures will provide a drier beer. Shoot for around 148F.

I guess I didn't know that.
I have always mashed at 153-154deg, because that's what most of the recipes called for.

 

[bleme]

Cutting back on the crystal/caramel malts will reduce sweetness/malt flavor. Also, a longer boil increased your maillard reactions, which lend sweetness. Gypsum gives beer a soft, creamy mouthfeel and definitely isn't needed in an extract batch.

On a side note, you don't need a starter with dry yeast. That is just opening a hole for more problems.

 

[flars]

Given the amount of LME and DME 1.059 to 1.060 would be the expected OG. Brew this one again and give it more time in the primary to see if the FG remains the same. It is possible you may have kegged before the fermentation was complete. I will usually have FGs around 1.007 to 1.008 with US-05.

You can dry out a beer by adding sugar.

Try the beer again after a week in the keg to see if it tastes the same with carbonation.

 

[inspiron23]

Cutting back on the crystal/caramel malts will reduce sweetness/malt flavor. Also, a longer boil increased your maillard reactions, which lend sweetness. Gypsum gives beer a soft, creamy mouthfeel and definitely isn't needed in an extract batch.

On a side note, you don't need a starter with dry yeast. That is just opening a hole for more problems.

The last AG I did had 9lb 2 row malt/1lb 80L, is that too much? Should I cut it into half?
Maybe I'm boiling too hard? Even if I make a lighter extract beer, my finished beer is usually pretty dark, along the lines of a brown ale color.

I only made a yeast starter because I was doing a couple batches that weekend, so I made a starter and split it, because I'm cheap. 🤔
Im sure my yeast is good, I am picky about cleaning and boiling/sterilizing everything, also used a stir plate to make my starter.

 

[bleme]

People who don't want residual sweetness in their beer usually aim for 5% or less of the crystal malts so cutting the 80L in half is a good place to start.

 

[inspiron23]

People who don't want residual sweetness in their beer usually aim for 5% or less of the crystal malts so cutting the 80L in half is a good place to start.

Ok, thanks for the tips, will try to adjust my grain bill to something with less crystal malts.

 

[beernutz]

I would just give it more time next time as eight days from brew day to kegging is on the short side. If the keg is chilled you might even bring it back up to fermentation temp for a while to see if the sweetness diminishes.

You say you pitched at 75 degrees but at what temperature did you keep the primary?

 

[brewbama]

You could mix it with a 100 IBU IIIPA to balance it out

 

[inspiron23]

I would just give it more time next time as eight days from brew day to kegging is on the short side. If the keg is chilled you might even bring it back up to fermentation temp for a while to see if the sweetness diminishes.

You say you pitched at 75 degrees but at what temperature did you keep the primary?

I fermented at 67 degrees.
I know it was a little short, but airlock activity had long stopped when I kegged it. But it could have just been really slow on those last couple points.

On the other hand, I have a pale ale fermenting now where I added less 80L and replaced with 10% sugar.
I'm interested how it's going to turn out, the wort tasted really good, malty and light, so I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

 

[Yooper]

Usually, a beer that is too sweet isn't really "too sweet" from the malt, it's simply underbittered.

I'm not sure if you did a partial boil or something like that, but it sounds to me like there were not enough bittering hops in the beer. A beer that ended at 1.010 wouldn't be sweet otherwise.

If you want to put your AG recipe up for us to critique, we could better judge if the beer will turn out too sweet or not by the recipe. In an extract batch, sometimes a brewer will do a partial boil (boiling less than all of the wort). That's ok in many cases, but the bittering hops should be increased because of that.

 

[inspiron23]

Usually, a beer that is too sweet isn't really "too sweet" from the malt, it's simply underbittered.



I'm not sure if you did a partial boil or something like that, but it sounds to me like there were not enough bittering hops in the beer. A beer that ended at 1.010 wouldn't be sweet otherwise.



If you want to put your AG recipe up for us to critique, we could better judge if the beer will turn out too sweet or not by the recipe. In an extract batch, sometimes a brewer will do a partial boil (boiling less than all of the wort). That's ok in many cases, but the bittering hops should be increased because of that.

Now that you mention it, most of the beers I've done that I had an issue with, were pale ales, with only 1oz boil addition of hops.
That being said, this could very well be my problem.

A recipe I've done several times through the past year would be a
5gal batch
11lbs 2 row
1lb 80
1 hour 153 degrees mash
1 hour boil
Usually 1 oz bittering hops whatever I had on hand, Columbus or chinook
1oz flame out hops for aroma.
Have been mostly happy with those beers, but lately leaning towards dryer and hoppier beers.

Did another 5 gal yesterday.
10lbs 2 row
4oz 80L
Dropped my mash ph to 5.4 with phosphoric acid.
1 hour mash 152 degrees
1lb 12oz sugar
1 hour boil full volume 6.8gal
1oz chinook
1oz Columbus
1oz chinook (late boil)
Irish moss
Flameout
2oz cascade 15min rest at 180 degrees
OG 1.060
Safeale us-05

Will probably do a dry hop, depending how it is after a few weeks. Overall this was a decent brew for me, but I have a lot to learn. [emoji51]

 

[NSMikeD]

English style beers are malty compared to their US counter parts. Your latest recipe is more in line with US style pale ales.

Not only should you have more bitter from the additional hops, with the late additions you'll get more citrus and spice - with dry hopping you'll get more aroma.