Hop To Malt Ratios

[bvanlathum]

I have been struggling with some of my recent kit brews. I have used a 1.7kg can of blue mountain lager + 1kg of extra pale liquid malt. I added 20 grams of saaz pellets, steeped in boiling water for 5mins and added to fermentor. This was fermented at 10-12 degrees in ferm fridge with Euro lager yeast 12gms(brew cellar, morgans?). Problem is the finished product, even 12 weeks or more in bottle, had a sweet taste almost like a whiskey flavour!! Tried same recipe but with POR hops and same results. Any ideas on how to balance the malt and hops in kits.

 

[kabooby]

Make sure the beer has fermented out properly. Sounds like you may still have some residual sugar.

Kabooby

 

[Hefty]

Is the sweetness a honey or butterscoth type flavour? Could be diacetyl. After fermentation is finished, try 2 days at about 19 or 20 degrees for the yeast to consume the diacetyl, then cold condition and this should help the flavour.

But then, if it's a different sweetness, I have no idea - sorry.

Jono.

 

[RobboMC]

Any ideas on how to balance the malt and hops in kits.

To balance malt you need to boil hops for at least 30 minutes to get the bittering out of them.
POR would be fine, or most other hops you choose as well.
Most kits will only take about 1/2 kg of added malt before they start to get to malty,
unless like Coopers Sparkling Ale, the maker lists it in the instructions.

 

[milpod]

Mate I just think there is to many unfermentables in your recipe,no matter what yeast you use,they wont chew thru that.

The beer will always be on the sweet side.Try some dextrose,as opposed to all the goo.It will make your beer "drier",less sweet.

Or hop differently,to balance the sweetness.

 

[RedDwarf]

Was it the yeast from the kit? I have a Morgan's BL lager going at the moment using the kit yeast. It said ferment at 15-30 degrees, so I guess its not a true lager yeast. (30 degrees... pffft, as if :lol: )

If the ferment didn't finish properly and you bottled, be careful you haven't got bottle bombs. But after 12 weeks...

 

[goomboogo]

The diacetyl aspect mentioned by Hefty is definitely one possibility to consider.

Another is the finishing gravity and bitterness level. What was your finishing gravity? The Blue Mountain kit has 25 ibu so this will be your final bittering level - as steeping additional hops will not add bitterness. It is my understanding that most malt extract is produced through a relatively high mashing temperature - hence, a product that isn't on the high end in terms of fermentability. This is likely to leave you some residual sweetness. The answer may lay in the finishing gravity. If you have a relatively high fg resulting from the nature of the ingredients and how well the fermentation went, the 25 ibu may not be enough to balance the malt aspect.