BIAB Sweetness

[chrisb]

Hi,
Ive been doing BIAB for a while now and keg my beer and all of my beers seem to have a residual sweetness? Any ideas why? Mash temp 66deg, 90 minute rest, then boil for 60 mins?
Any feedback would be great

 

[antiphile]

It could be your thermometer is reading a little low. It could be your recipes (too much of specialty grains). It could be underpitching of yeast. It could be ... (insert many other reasons). Perhaps more info may help?

 

[michaeld16]

What sort of grain bills? Fg readings?

 

[contrarian]

If it actually tastes sweet my guess would be either the balance between grain and hop bitterness is out or that your ferment is not finished/under attenuated.

Mashing high will give beer a thicker mouth feel without being sweeter if that makes sense.

 

[manticle]

Could be a billion things.
Too much crystal, unfinished, palate /expectations, high alcohol (sometimes perceived as sweet).

Give us an example of a couple recipes including fermentation schedule, starting and finishing gravities, carbonation method, etc.

Did you use other methods previously that resulted in less sweet beer?

 

[Topher]

Ive got two thermometers, if one reads 66, the other reads 69. I split the diff and aim for the middle. This way at least I get repeatable results. So check your temp.

If im trying for a dry lager or ale i will mash anywhere from 62 - 64.

Agree with the others re yeast and grainbill too. Try a fast ferment test. Ditch the crystal. See if any of those things work.

 

[Brewman_]

Hi,
Ive been doing BIAB for a while now and keg my beer and all of my beers seem to have a residual sweetness? Any ideas why? Mash temp 66deg, 90 minute rest, then boil for 60 mins?
Any feedback would be great

Hi chrisb,,
As mentioned could be a lot of possible issues. While you have been doing BIAB for a while, sounds like it hasn't been right yet.

Check your thermometer(s), if you don't have a good quality one, get one immediately, before you brew again.

My suggestion is to go back to absolute basics. Make a really simple Pale Ale, use a good base malt and nothing else, mash at 65 Deg.C. for 60 mins. Go with a single hop addition at say 60 mins, to around 20 to 25 IBU, use something clean like Magnum, and there are others.

Use a good quality yeast. Keep it simple. Taste the resulting beer and get a really simple beer balanced, clean and tasting right. That way you know your process is right, and your equipment is working. Then move onto something more tasty. You may be surprised how drinkable a really basic pale ale SMASH can be.

 

[chrisb]

Could it be that im crushing my grain too fine? My last brew was as follows
2.5kg briess pale
2.25 export pilsner
90mins x 68deg
10 min sparge
Og 1040
Fg 1010
Wyeast 2565 kolsch ale yeast
Ferment at 14 deg 12 days
Cold crash
Then drink.

 

[earle]

Could be some diacetyl your picking up as sweetness (think butterscotch)? I've used that yeast a few times but bring it up to 20C for a while before cold crashing.

 

[Diesel80]

Does it taste like Honey? My last beer had that. Currently it is in the shed at shed temp, with a little fresh malt and a pack of fresh yeast attacking it.

Hopefully that saves its bacon. F*cking diacetyl. But at least I know why it happened. Mine was a massive underpitch.
I believe it was masked by Hop debris in hydro samples, so when kegged and cleared it was the first I picked up on it.

Cheers,
D80

 

[Diesel80]

How many IBUs in your beers?

 

[Barge]

What was the final gravity? If it's too high, the sweetness could be from that. Otherwise it could be some residual fruitiness from the yeast. I haven't used that strain in particular but it might throw some pear or apple cider flavours that you are perceiving as sweetness.

 

[chrisb]

Fg was 1010. Its not honey or butterscotch just a real sweet after taste. IBU between 25-30

 

[Brewman_]

The temperature of your ferment is low for that yeast. Try a start at around 16 and finish 19 to 20.

Got a local brew club you can get along to and take a beer for the others to taste? It's a great way to learn.

 

[antiphile]

Hi Brewman

That was my initial thought too, but the resulting attenuation of 75% is smack bang in the middle of Wyeast's range of 73-77%. I noticed Chris' follow-up post has raised the mash temp to 68C from the OP of 66C. That's why I'm still tending more toward a thermometer that reads a little low.

Personally, I'd like to see if his results are "less sweet" if the mash is changed to, say, 45 mins at 62C plus 45 mins at 69C (or similar) after checking thermometer calibration (which I think you may have already mentioned).

Cheers

 

[chrisb]

Thanks for the feedback, im thinking i may need a new thermometer!!

 

[contrarian]

This part of Palmer's How to Brew explains the different character added by mash temp and crystal malt. If the taste is actually sweet it is more likely to be crystal malt than mash temp

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter20-1.html.

 

[slcmorro]

This part of Palmer's How to Brew explains the different character added by mash temp and crystal malt. If the taste is actually sweet it is more likely to be crystal malt than mash temp

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter20-1.html.

That'd be great, expect the OP posted his recipe up and there is no crystal in it at all.

 

[antiphile]

You're probably right, Contrarian. But I'm not sure we'll ever get Chris a useful answer until we can see full, unambiguous recipes that he's used. For example this is the only info of the last recipe:

2.5kg briess pale Likely to be grain
2.25 export pilsner No idea if grain or malt extract
90mins x 68deg No mention of crystal or specialties, but does that mean none were used?
10 min sparge No mention of any hops, but does that mean none were used?
Og 1040
Fg 1010
Wyeast 2565 kolsch ale yeast
Ferment at 14 deg 12 days
Cold crash
Then drink.

For fear of being thought of as thick, I'm still pretty much in the dark.

Edit added: sicmorro beat me to it!