Stout ended up sweet

[Ungoliant]

Ok so I brewed a chocolate coffee oatmeal stout using extract with specialty grain. I used 2 oz of hops (warrior and nugget), locally roasted coffee (cold brewed with pre boiled water), and I steeped the cocoa nibs in vodka for a week.

It's been in bottles for 4 weeks now, and I cracked one open and it's way sweeter than I intended. Not cloying, but I expected it to come out more dry.

My OG was 1.094, and FG was 1.022 (see photo). As far as I can tell fermentation was complete and its carbonating well so I don't think it's a yeast problem.

My suspicions are:
1. Sweetness came from the sheer amount of extract I had to use to hit this %
2. Not enough bitterness was imparted by the hops/coffee/nibs to balance out the flavor.

Any input?

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1427395162.175490.jpg

 

[nettekdl]

A little more info on your recipe, process and fermentation would make it much easier to answer your question

 

[falkaveli]

The human tongue perceives alcohol as sweet in many cases. I have always found that to be true with high ABV beers. It's definitely fully attenuated...depends on the strain, but 76% is solid. IBUs?

 

[McKnuckle]

It certainly fermented as much as it could have been expected to ferment. You had a high OG, so you have a high-ish FG as well. It's more like an Imperial Stout, which definitely demands adequate bittering to balance the rest of the profile.

As was mentioned, the hop schedule would be useful to see.

 

[Ungoliant]

Hop schedule was 1 oz Warrior (plug) and 1 oz Nugget (whole leaf) @ 60. I used 8 lbs of Maris Otter LME, 4 LBS of Light DME, 10 oz ea. of chocolate malt and crystal 120, 8 oz flaked oats, 6 oz roasted barley. Recipe calculators say I should have about 70 IBUs.

I do 90 minute boils, starting with 7 gallons, ending at 5.25 gallons. I had to do a step-up yeast starter for this one. I use a chest freezer w/controller as my ferm cabinet.

Fermentation lasted about a week or so, after which I added cocoa nibs for a week, took them out, and let it sit and condition for about a month before bottling. I was away traveling for a month, and I didn't want the nibs in there the whole time.

 

[falkaveli]

Actually sounds pretty damn yummy. Your bitterness ratio is right on point for an Imperial Stout. My guess is, that alcohol sweetness combined with the caramel notes from the 120 just doesn't agree with your taste buds.

 

[Ungoliant]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I like it. I just wanted it to be a bit more dry/bitter. I'm mostly just happy i churned out a beer I want to share. It only took me 5 years to get to this point lol

 

[Beernik]

I'm going to agree with falkavel, I think it's the 10oz of caramel 120L. Caramel malts leave a residual sweet flavor.

For comparison, I use 12oz of Special B (Caramel 140L) in my sweet stout.

 

[Ungoliant]

Hmm ok. Would swapping the crystal out for some Vienna or Munich malt be a good way to reduce the sweetness, and keep a good malty profile for next time?

 

[Beernik]

You could cut the crystal in half. An ounce per gallon isn't going to add much flavor or residual sweetness to a beer.

You could use munich or vienna. You could also try biscuit or victory. All four of those need to be mashed instead of steeped. Biscuit and victory are not self converting, so they would need a base malt addition too. 2 row, MO, vienna, or light munich would all work well for that.

The main (process) difference between steeping and mashing is temperature and time. You want to use about 1.5 quarts water per pound of grain and let it mash around 150F - 152F for about an hour. You can use the same kind of bag you are steeping grains in.

 

[grassfeeder]

maybe pull out some of the LME and add dextrose to dry it out a touch while keeping the ABV# intact?

 

[Beernik]

You can try it. It might help.

Without drinking the beer, I can't be sure. But I think the issue isn't so much sweetness from high FG as it is the taste of sweetness of the caramel malt. I think you may just be tasting the C120. If that's the case, you can only lessen it by using less C120. The LME and the DME also both probably have some caramel malt as part of their formulation.

If it was me, My next attempt would be to cut the C120 in half and see what it does.