Sweet Ale?

[hamstringsally]

4.25kg of 2 row ale,
.25 of crystal 60l and
.300 of wheat.

hops

horizon at 60min
amerillo at 10 and 0 min.

ibu.s round 20

Its been in the bottles now for only 5 days and opened one just to see how it was going and the taste. carbination was coming along but not where it should be but thats fine cos i know i should wait for at least 2 weeks and keep it at around room temp 18deg say but what was concerning was the sweetness.

would this be from the priming sugar still working its magic and needs more like 4 weeks and some cold conditioning or could it be something else?

hammo

 

[MarkBastard]

250 grams of Crystal in a 20 IBU beer is going to come out sweet. What temp did you mash at?

 

[hamstringsally]

250 grams of Crystal in a 20 IBU beer is going to come out sweet. What temp did you mash at?

mashed at 66.

 

[Lecterfan]

I decided not to post last night on this assuming that many more people with more experience than I would resolve the issue. For my tastes, the lowest brew I've put together was aimed at 25IBU and that was one hell of a sweet and malty brew IMHO.

However, if it is bottle conditioning then it might take more than 5 days to round out a bit...between primary and secondary mine are often 4 weeks old before they get bottled, and even then I don't think a tasting less than 2 weeks in the bottle gives much more than an indication (unless it is infected or overcarbed) of what the brew will be like after a month or two in the bottle.

Although it is low IBUs I wouldn't stress just yet. Have you done other brews at 20IBU? If so, how did they come out?

 

[hamstringsally]

I decided not to post last night on this assuming that many more people with more experience than I would resolve the issue. For my tastes, the lowest brew I've put together was aimed at 25IBU and that was one hell of a sweet and malty brew IMHO.

However, if it is bottle conditioning then it might take more than 5 days to round out a bit...between primary and secondary mine are often 4 weeks old before they get bottled, and even then I don't think a tasting less than 2 weeks in the bottle gives much more than an indication (unless it is infected or overcarbed) of what the brew will be like after a month or two in the bottle.

Although it is low IBUs I wouldn't stress just yet. Have you done other brews at 20IBU? If so, how did they come out?

acutally the more i think of it all of the brews i have made around the 20 ibu side of things they were all sweet or had a different flavor. it actually makes more sense now. Personally i like more of the ibu beers up around 40 but tried to make a easy drinking beer for my carlton draft mates. ive made about 7 batches with the same grain type mix and yeah. all came out bit sweet. at first i thought it was fermentation temp which was around 18 so i ran it at 16deg for a week and still sweet. I think stuff my mates and go back to my highly hopped goodness.
all my brewing mates love the high hops but to the ones that dont brew really are not a big fan.
do you think the grain mixture i have above is good for a ale with a ibu of around 40?

do you think the highly hopped beers are becoming more popular with more and more micro breweries opening up?

 

[hamstringsally]

acutally the more i think of it all of the brews i have made around the 20 ibu side of things they were all sweet or had a different flavor. it actually makes more sense now. Personally i like more of the ibu beers up around 40 but tried to make a easy drinking beer for my carlton draft mates. ive made about 7 batches with the same grain type mix and yeah. all came out bit sweet. at first i thought it was fermentation temp which was around 18 so i ran it at 16deg for a week and still sweet. I think stuff my mates and go back to my highly hopped goodness.
all my brewing mates love the high hops but to the ones that dont brew really are not a big fan.
do you think the grain mixture i have above is good for a ale with a ibu of around 40?

do you think the highly hopped beers are becoming more popular with more and more micro breweries opening up?

If i used just pure galaxy (my favorite) hops and made the ibu's up around 40 what would be a good grain mix to go with it?

I normally use what is on the about post which is

4.25kg ale malt
.25 crystal
.3 wheat

is there any better suggestions?

 

[Lecterfan]

I'm certainly no expert and there are plenty here who will take delight in shooting me down, but yes, my recipes that have that type of ingredient list are usually much closer to 40IBUs...using beersmith with that sort of recipe I end up wioth about 38 IBUs for around 20 L which suits my taste.

Trying to make a beer that megaswill friends can skull down isn't dependant on IBUs...keep the IBUs medium but keep the body light...that'll have them necking it and praising you (for right or for wrong).

Good luck!

 

[manticle]

If i used just pure galaxy (my favorite) hops and made the ibu's up around 40 what would be a good grain mix to go with it?

I normally use what is on the about post which is

4.25kg ale malt
.25 crystal
.3 wheat

is there any better suggestions?

If you're trying to make a beer for your non- brewing mates, keep the IBU reasonably low but drop the crystal altogether. Consider mashing a bit lower and consider a small addition of cane sugar or dextrose to the boil.

if you want to stick with higher hopped beers there's no reason why the general grist you have shouldn't make a reasonable drop. Hunt up various BU:GU balance options and have a play around with the IBU versus gravity. A bit mathematical and not the way I do things but definitely worth playing with if you are having trouble with balance.

 

[schooey]

When you say the carbonation is 'coming along' I'm assuming that it has a little fizz, but not where it should be. 5 days is not a lot of time for a bottled beer to carbonate and I think you will find in 4-6 weeks that the carbonation will bring the hop characterisics forward, as well as the carbonic bite on your tongue masking the sweetness and promoting a drier feeling to your palate. In short, I reckon you'll think it's a different beer in a couple of weeks.

I don't think there is a lot wrong with your recipe, my personal taste would have the IBU range somewhere between 28-35 IBU, but it shouldn't end up cloyingly sweet with 6% wheat and only 5% crystal.