What sugar or sweetness remains in beer?

[papa87]

Hey guys, relatively new here, only about 5 batches deep but successfully in the realm of AG now. I searched around on the internet only to find vague and contradictory answers to my questions. My brother (completely oblivious to beers, a BMC guy), asked me the other day after sampling a homebrew, "Hey this is sweet, did you add sugar to this?". At first I wanted to scoff of course, but then it dawned on me that I couldn't have thoroughly explained the sweetness he was tasting. I wondered how the tastable sugar/sweetness makes it's way into the final product. I'm aware of hop concentrations, etc. and the effect they have. I'm not really going in that direction with my question..... So is sweetness in a beer lended to unfermentable sugars, that make their way through fermentation unaffected by yeast? Or does the yeast simply not use all the fermentable sugar? The latter of the two questions makes me wonder why fermentation would stop, if fermentable sugar remained.

 

[Yooper]

I'm not sure I understand your question.

If a beer is "too sweet", there are several possiblilites- the most reasonable being the beer is underhopped. Hops provide bitterness to counter the sweet malt, so underhopping is probably the primary reason a beer would taste sweet.

As far as fermentable sugars, well, if they are fermentable sugars the yeast should ferment them. If they are not fermented, and remain in the beer, that means the yeast were overcome by the amount of fermentables (a too-high OG).

 

[papa87]

I appreciate the reply Yooper. This thread is basically what I was getting at, my questions weren't very clear. I've got the info I was after. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/unfermentable-vs-fermentable-sugar-theory-362957/

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Let me give it a try;

Some sugars are more fermentable than others. AG wort can be made more fermentable by mashing low (145) or less fermentable by mashing high (155) Sugars can be added that are highly fermentable (corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar,) or less fermentable ( lactose, molassas) If you add highly fermentable sugars you get little to no residual sweetness. If you add low fermentable sugars, you get more residual sweetness. If you believe your batch is too sweet, perhaps you could post your recipie here (including hops) and we can help pinpoint which ingredients are contributing your sweetness.