Fix for sweetness

[bluemoose]

Brewing a high gravity (9%) pale ale. Not sure why, but it is way too sweet. I was considering boiling some buttering hops for a hour and adding the tea to the keg. Any thought on if this will work?

 

[Golddiggie]

OG, FG, IBUs, recipe??

If its just been brewed, wait. If its hit FG and its too high, there are other ways to help it out.

 

[bluemoose]

OG, FG, IBUs, recipe??

If its just been brewed, wait. If its hit FG and its too high, there are other ways to help it out.

It has been kegged for about 3 weeks. Typically my beers get better after a couple of weeks on co2. I use sugar to naturally carb before putting them on. I don't have the recipe in front of me. Will try to post later.

 

[Golddiggie]

I would skip carbonating a keg with sugar. I wouldn't want the additional sediment/trub in the bottom of the keg that will cause. Besides, depending on the recipe, yeast, etc. you could have sugar left that the yeast was just too worn out to eat. IF you used a scale to measure the priming sugar, I hope you used the amount for keg, not bottles.

Did you taste a sample of the brew (when you took the FG) before kegging it?? How long was it in fermenter before you moved it to keg?

BTW, what are buttering hops?

 

[tennesseean_87]

I'd try to blend it with a beer with lots of diacetyl before using buttering hops.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

I think your grain bill and FG should tell you a lot.

 

[bluemoose]

Buttering hop = iPad autocorrect. Meant bittering.

 

[Golddiggie]

Buttering hop = iPad autocorrect. Meant bittering.

Another victim of apple's auto-correct (or auto-bugger )...

 

[bluemoose]

I would skip carbonating a keg with sugar. I wouldn't want the additional sediment/trub in the bottom of the keg that will cause. Besides, depending on the recipe, yeast, etc. you could have sugar left that the yeast was just too worn out to eat. IF you used a scale to measure the priming sugar, I hope you used the amount for keg, not bottles.

Did you taste a sample of the brew (when you took the FG) before kegging it?? How long was it in fermenter before you moved it to keg?

BTW, what are buttering hops?

I did use a scale and put in 2.2 oz priming sugar. It carbed up nice. My fg was right around 1.016. US-05. Tasted it at kegging, it was a bit sweet, but did not concern me.
I'm really looking to see if there is something to make this more drinkable. It tastes great with half of this and half DFH60. I prefer not to mix my beers though.

 

[Golddiggie]

How long was it from boil to keg? At 9%, it could just need time to get better.

 

[bluemoose]

Primary for 28 days. Been on tap for 3 weeks. Carbed naturally for about 2 weeks.

 

[seabass07]

We really need more info on the recipe.

 

[Golddiggie]

IMO, that's a short time in primary for something that's 9%. Did you confirm it had actually hit FG (two SG readings at least 3-4 days apart)?? What was your expected FG on the batch? I've never used US-05 yeast (or any dry beer yeast) so not sure what it can do there.

I agree with seabass07 in that we need to know what (exactly) you brewed here. Otherwise it's all just wild guessing.

 

[seabass07]

28 days in primary is more than enough. I'm guessing it's recipe/process related. Not enough bittering hops/hops utilization or too much crystal malt. But that's just a guess based on the fact that 1.016 is a very reasonable FG for a 9% abv beer.