Imperial IPA tastes malty? Also possibly overcarbonating

[EndOfBeans]

Heres my latest brew. A Nugget/Citra ale that came out way over ABV for some reason(again). Also tastes a little malty on the back end...After 48 hours carbing using drops its very carbed as u can see. Im slightly scared it might be over carbing!

Need some insight..

2.25 gallon batch that produced 17 bottles 12oz ones.

Recipe
Citrus Nugget

Recipe specifics:

Style: American Pale Ale
Batch size: 2.2 gal
Boil volume: 2.5 gal
OG: 1.093
FG: 1.023
Bitterness (IBU): 101.7
Color (SRM): 7.9
ABV: 9.2%

Grain/Sugars:

4.00 lb Two-row (US), 61.5%
1.50 lb Honey, 23.1%
0.50 lb Munich (US), 7.7%
0.25 lb Carafoam, 3.8%
0.25 lb Crystal 20L, 3.8%

Hops:

1.00 oz Nugget (AA 13.9%, Pellet) 60 min, 81.9 IBU
0.50 oz Citra (AA 12.0%, Pellet) 10 min, 12.8 IBU
0.50 oz Citra (AA 12.0%, Pellet) 5 min, 7.0 IBU
1.00 oz Citra (AA 12.0%, Pellet) dry hop
1.00 oz Citra (AA 12.0%, Pellet) dry hop

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[EndOfBeans]

Heres some pics

 

[douglasbarbin]

Of course it's malty for an IPA. Your SG:IBU ratio is almost 1:1. What did you expect?

EDIT: Just noticed that a significant amount of the gravity comes from honey. Seems like it should have finished drier than it did.

Also, carb looks fine to me.

 

[EndOfBeans]

Mashed at an extremly low temp 147. Hit the above gravities almost exact.

Primary one week then dry hopped IN same primary carboy another 9 days

 

[EndOfBeans]

Im very new to this and dont quite understand your post can u elaborate?

 

[douglasbarbin]

I'm saying that your FG seems higher than it should be, considering the low mash temp (which makes for a more fermentable wort) and the fact that honey is basically 100% fermentable. You might be perceiving some of that residual sweetness as maltiness.

 

[EndOfBeans]

Of course it's malty for an IPA. Your SG:IBU ratio is almost 1:1. What did you expect?

EDIT: Just noticed that a significant amount of the gravity comes from honey. Seems like it should have finished drier than it did.

Also, carb looks fine to me.

This was bottled friday night, i didnt think it would carb this fast! Also what did you mean by SG:IBU ratio???

 

[EndOfBeans]

I'm saying that your FG seems higher than it should be, considering the low mash temp (which makes for a more fermentable wort) and the fact that honey is basically 100% fermentable. You might be perceiving some of that residual sweetness as maltiness.

Oh ok. I used US-05 if that helps any. My effecincy so far has been really poor thats why i added the honey 😕 i meant this to be aroynd %6 lol

 

[Magnus314]

It sounds like it wasn't finished fermenting.

Often the last bit of fermenting takes as long or longer than the first 80-90%, especially when it gets to 9+% abv territory.

As the alcohol level goes up, the yeast has to work a lot harder to keep fermenting. Yeast also much prefers to eat simple sugars instead of complex malt sugars, which would explain the "residual maltiness" you're tasting - it's actually un-fermented malt sugar.

Some people add sugar adjuncts like honey later in the ferment for just that reason.

If it wasn't 100% done, it will almost definitely turn into bottle bombs. You might want to pour them back into the fermenter and wait until they're clear for a week or so, then bottle again. If it's still fermenting it will cover itself with CO2 and should be fine.

 

[douglasbarbin]

This was bottled friday night, i didnt think it would carb this fast! Also what did you mean by SG:IBU ratio???

It usually doesn't carb that fast. Did you take hydrometer readings to make sure that your gravity was stable before you bottled? I have a sneaking suspicion that you didn't, and you bottled while the beer was still actively fermenting. That would explain the high FG and how quickly it carbonated. You should also refrigerate those bottled immediately if this is the case. Bottle bombs can be very dangerous.

SG:IBU ratio (also called IBU:SG ratio or IBU:OG ratio, etc.) is exactly what it sounds like: the gravity of your beer in points compared to the number of IBUs in the beer. In your case, it would be 101.7 / 93, which is roughly 1.09. As you can see from this chart, Imperial IPA ranges anywhere from 0.7 to 1.7 roughly, so you are slightly on the malty side of the range. Honestly, it isn't too bad, though. I think your problem is residual sweetness, not maltiness.

 

[douglasbarbin]

Oh ok. I used US-05 if that helps any. My effecincy so far has been really poor thats why i added the honey 😕 i meant this to be aroynd %6 lol

You overshot the mark, big time, with the honey.

 

[EndOfBeans]

I just degassed the bottles and recapped them. Ill check them again tomorrow night. They didn't his but for a slight second and didnt foam, just slightly saw bubbles going up the bottles.

The one i did open took about 5-7 secs to fill with foam to the opening of the bottle..

I took readings two days apart. First was 1.014 then 1.004. This was my mistake. I did not wait for a same final gravity ��

 

[EndOfBeans]

Couple days after i degassed the bottles. And a perfect beer! Flavors are evening out and carbonation is perfect! Thanks for all the advice guys! I really mean it ☺