Overly Sweet Beer

[Hedgehog]

G'day all.

I have just started brewing again after a break of about 8 years.

I was always a K&K man in the past and still am at this stage. The only difference is now I am kegging instead of bottling.

Since starting up again I have attempted a number of different brews but seem to be getting the same overly sweet result every time.

I have been using dextrose/light dry malt mixes for most brews with a variety of hops.

I have never used anything but dextrose in the past.

My kegging set up runs at about 90kpa and sits at about 2-4 deg C

Can anybody maybe explain why I am getting this too sweet result in my brew.

Cheers J

 

[manticle]

What are your finishing gravities?

 

[dylan.temple]

Are you bulk priming when putting the beer into the keg?

 

[kymba]

are your kegs carbed to the correct level? undercarbed beer will taste sweet

 

[Hedgehog]

To Manticle-

I have not been using a hydrometer so I cant give final gravity, but maintaining temperature and watching airlock activity I am reasonably sure the wort has finished fermentation ( or am I jumping to conclusions) by the time I keg. ie watch airlock work until activity more or less stops, and let brew sit for another 2-3 days. Whole cycle is between 8 to 14 days.

Does the LDM need more time to ferment with the yeast than just dextrose?

To Mr Magoo-

No , I don't bulk prime at time of kegging, I add an extra 200 dextrose when I put the wort down.

Thanks for the quick responses guys

 

[Hedgehog]

Hi Kymba.

I think the brew is carbonated correctly. I have tried carbing @ 400kpa for 24 hours @ 4 Deg C. The last couple I have carbed at 300kpa for 1 min shaking the keg ala the Ross method.

One that I cracked this afternoon has been carbed up for 2 weeks (kept at 4 deg) poured beautifully, held a great head and had nice bubble action, but was still way too sweet.

 

[manticle]

To Manticle-

I have not been using a hydrometer so I cant give final gravity, but maintaining temperature and watching airlock activity I am reasonably sure the wort has finished fermentation ( or am I jumping to conclusions) by the time I keg. ie watch airlock work until activity more or less stops, and let brew sit for another 2-3 days. Whole cycle is between 8 to 14 days.

Does the LDM need more time to ferment with the yeast than just dextrose?

To Mr Magoo-

No , I don't bulk prime at time of kegging, I add an extra 200 dextrose when I put the wort down.

Thanks for the quick responses guys

Please buy a hydrometer and use it.

Please forget airlock activity as a reliable sign of fermentation.

It is possible that fermentation has not finished entirely at the time you are racking in which case your brew will be sweeter (and have a host of other potential issues).


Can you explain what this means

I don't bulk prime at time of kegging, I add an extra 200 dextrose when I put the wort down

 

[Hedgehog]

I do have a hydrometer so I shall use it in future.

When I put the brew down I use 1.2 kg of sugar/DLM combination.

I was lead to believe that when kegging an additional 200 grams of sugar is to be added when putting the brew down to compensate for not adding priming sugar to the bottles. Is this not correct?

 

[manticle]

I don't keg so I don't know. What temp is the brew at in the keg directly after adding the sugar?

 

[ekul]

when i bottle i noticw my beers always taste slightly drier. I always figured it was because bottled beers get .5% extra alcohol from the priming sugar. Maybe this is waht you're tasting?

 

[kymba]

can you post you recipe and take a current gravity reading

 

[jyo]

I don't keg so I don't know. What temp is the brew at in the keg directly after adding the sugar?

Manticle, I think what hedgehog means is that he is adding the extra 200 gms dextrose when making the brew to compensate for the 0.5% abv decrease when not bottling.

 

[Rizzla]

Hi hedgehog, Sorry no suggestions but if it's any consolation I am having a similar issue, I keg after primary (3 weeks) and and have tried secondary with plenty of time from start to drinking, SG of whats left at transfer to secondary is only a couple of points from spreadsheet anticipated (don't do a SG at the start, paranoid about infections) I leave it in the secondary for about 2 weeks before cold crashing for another 2 weeks and it's still too sweet. I have been using dry and liquid malt combinations with about 150 g corn syrup.
I am considering 1) playing around with the hops/malt balance but I dont think thats the problem ??
2) substituting some dextrose for malt
3) not including the corn syrup powder, though I don't think the little bit I use for head retention would add any sweetness
4) adding an enzyme to make the ferment drier. But I think this is a last resort as we seem to be the only ones with this problem.

So if anyone can help us both it would be much appreciated

 

[enuun]

actually substituting malt for dex will not make it any better since dex is more fermentable than malt. My guess is the fermentation is not completed and the dex for carbing which you added later on increased the sugar present. I wont be surprised if u took a hydro reading now and your beer is reading high like 1025 or something. after u de-gas it of course.

 

[Hedgehog]

Thanks guys.

I have a brew I am racking out ATM so I shall grab a hydro reading off it this arvo and will let you know.

Some recopies I have done include:

Cooper Draft / 1kg dextrose - not too sweet

Morgans Blue Mountain Larger / Coopers brew mix no.2+200grams dextrose - too sweet (in a bad way) 20-24 deg C 10 days

Coopers European Larger / C. B. M. No2 - not too sweet 24 deg C 10 days

Morgans Canadian Light / 700g dex. 500 DLM super alpha hops - too sweet 24 deg c 14 days

Mangrove jacks Classic Gold Lager / 1200 dex - too sweet 26deg C 10 days

All brews have been done with original yeast supplied with kit

Some brews were kegged, cooled and carbed straight away ie 24 hr cool/24hr carb

Some brews have been aged in keg for a couple of weeks then cooled and carbed

Latest brews have been cooled / carbed and kept @ 4 Deg C for 2 weeks (perfect beer to look at/great mouth feel/ good carb level ) This one is the Canadian Light. Too sweet. The other is a Coopers Pilsner / 700g dex 500 gram DLM ( I am too scared to try this one !!)

 

[Hedgehog]

Good news- Pilsner is OK.

Question: now beer has been cooled and carbed , what can be done to offset sweetness? Anything? I heard about Isohops. Can this work in this situation?

Or is it a case of pour

it

down

the


drain?

Also, I think I read somewhere that Lagers like to be carbed up to 120 kpa and poured at same pressure. Is this correct?[/size]

 

[yum beer]

Amazing what a little info can do hedgehog;



quite simply you are brewing at too high a temperature....its got nothing to do with your ingredients or how long it brewed for..or how much its carbed

get your brew temp down to 16-18....will make a huge difference. Lower, 12-13 for lager yeast.
The sweetness you are getting is flavours created from high temps. they will never come good.

also i would not be putting 1kg or more of dex into a single brew, get more LDM in the mix.Coopers BE1 or BE2 with a little extra LDM ...yum

 

[Hedgehog]

Thanks everybody for the feed back.

Seems like I have a few issues to work on.

Can anybody recommend a brew that works well on the north coast of NSW.

The temperature around here is starting to climb into the mid to high 20's this time of year.

 

[.DJ.]

if you dont have a dedicated fermenting fridge like me, what I do is fill my laundry tub up with cold water, drop a few ice bricks in it (or 2L soft drink bottles frozen) and change them every day or so...

the large thermal mass of the water restricts wild temperature variations...

 

[Hedgehog]

Thanks DJ , I will try that......If I can convince the trouble and strife that I need the laundry tub for a couple of weeks.