Residual sweetness when bottling priming with Corn Sugar

[rtstrider]

Hey all! I've had an issue here recently when bottle priming with corn sugar. It ferments out and leaves a residual sweetness in all of my bottles. That sweetness is not there prior to the priming solution. I use the Northern Brewer beer priming calculator. Here's my method

Bring 2 cups ro water and pre measured (in grams) corn sugar to a boil for 10 minutes
Add that to the bottling bucket and stir VERY gently

The carbonation is spot on across all of the bottles but there's just a sweetness there. At first I thought maybe it was the yeast I was using so I swapped that and same deal! I'm currently on the 5th (slurry) repitch of wlp001 and all my fg numbers are lining up. I do not taste any funkiness there. The only variable that has changed is I've moved from table sugar to corn sugar per a BJCP judge recommendation. I never had this problem with table sugar. As a matter of fact my experiences with table sugar are that it fermented extremely quick and didn't leave a residual flavor in the brews. Now I will say it seems the flavor diminishes after 2 months in the bottles but is still detectable. Has anyone else run into this?

I'm not using crazy amounts I'm just using it to bottle prime and that's it. Usually I'm brewing blondes, apa's, ipa's, and shoot for around 2.5 volumes of co2 in around 4.25-4.5 gallons after fermentation. Has anyone else run into this?

Edit: Forgot to mention my bottles get put in temperature controlled storage for 3-4 weeks minimum

 

[JimRausch]

Hmmm. It shouldn't as dextrose is completely fermentable. I would question why the judge wanted you to switch from sucrose to dextrose as they are both 100% fermentable and should not leave any flavor. If it were me, I'd switch back to what gives me the flavor I want. Good luck!

 

[rtstrider]

Hmmm. It shouldn't as dextrose is completely fermentable. I would question why the judge wanted you to switch from sucrose to dextrose as they are both 100% fermentable and should not leave any flavor. If it were me, I'd switch back to what gives me the flavor I want. Good luck!

The main reason is they tried my brews and stated they had an extremely faint cider flavor after bottle priming. I've brought brews to them after wards, prior to adding priming solution, and they didn't taste the cider flavor. I'd bring it back after carbing with table sugar and they stated the flavor showed up. Then again this judge has a VERY sensitive pallate lol

 

[bucketnative]

So, I will state that I also have a very sensitive palate to that cidery flavor. I went on the warpath with brewing methods to try to eliminate it, because it was there in every brew I made. For me, I detected it whether I used corn sugar or table sugar for priming.

My first change was to move from extract to all-grain brewing. This improved the overall quality of my beer. There was still a little cider-ish flavor after bottling (and I agree that after several months, it would disappear).

The second change that I made was to go with DME for priming all brews (unless I was priming a wit, then I use honey for aromatic reasons). There was still something a bit off.

Finally, after reading a post by one of the water gurus here, I started treating the tap water that I used for priming with campden tablets to eliminate chlorine. This was the final key to unlocking a bottled beer that was pleasing to my palate.

All of these changes were slight improvements that, in the end, gave me a beer that was idealized for my palate. I had other people taste the ones that I found cidery, and none of them could detect anything unexpected. So, it really could be down to personal preference/sensitivity. If you're brewing beer for you, do what works best for your palate. Just because some BJCP-certified judge tells you something, doesn't mean they're right 100 % of the time.

 

[rtstrider]

So, I will state that I also have a very sensitive palate to that cidery flavor. I went on the warpath with brewing methods to try to eliminate it, because it was there in every brew I made. For me, I detected it whether I used corn sugar or table sugar for priming.

My first change was to move from extract to all-grain brewing. This improved the overall quality of my beer. There was still a little cider-ish flavor after bottling (and I agree that after several months, it would disappear).

The second change that I made was to go with DME for priming all brews (unless I was priming a wit, then I use honey for aromatic reasons). There was still something a bit off.

Finally, after reading a post by one of the water gurus here, I started treating the tap water that I used for priming with campden tablets to eliminate chlorine. This was the final key to unlocking a bottled beer that was pleasing to my palate.

All of these changes were slight improvements that, in the end, gave me a beer that was idealized for my palate. I had other people taste the ones that I found cidery, and none of them could detect anything unexpected. So, it really could be down to personal preference/sensitivity. If you're brewing beer for you, do what works best for your palate. Just because some BJCP-certified judge tells you something, doesn't mean they're right 100 % of the time.

I've been all grain for over 2 years now and only use RO water. I build the profile from scratch. Our tap waters loaded with chlorine/chloramines and is only pallatable via a fridge charcoal filter. I may just swap back to table sugar the next few brews and see how it goes. On a lighter note I currently biab and have been for the past 2 years. Mash temp control has not been the best and the end products have ended up cloudy and somewhat dry. They were good enough that a local brewery picked up my recipe for a small batch limited run! Anywho I got a deal on a 3 tier all grain vessel. This will be easier/better for temp control and HOPEFULLY keep the wort cloudiness down. Anywho the only other variable is wlp001 which I've been fermenting at 64F with a 2F differential. I used us-05 previously but it dried out the brews a tad too much.