Getting extra ABV without extra sweetness

That would do it. Though a 'couple' of pounds would be a lot to add to a 5.8% beer. Each pound of table sugar would add about .0092 to the OG of a 5 gallon batch, and about 1.2% ABV.

 

what was your final gravity? sweetness comes from whatever wasnt fermented. my first thought would be that you didnt hit your fg, or you just brefer a lower fg than youre getting. that would most likely be a yeast issue since youre doing extract. so, what yeast did you use? did you make a starter? what was your sg?
if you want more abv and less sweetness, then you just need a higher sg/lower fg or both. this is going to be a yeast issue for you. if you arent already making starters then nows the time to start. thats where i would begin.

 

on a high OG beer like that you need to do a starter, low cell counts will give you an underattenuated beer like you have. In addition 1 week primary? far to short on a 1075 beer, you should have let it sit at least 2wks, the longer the better, and there really isnt a need to rack. It would have been better if you had roused the yeast and left it in the primary

I would try adding some rehydrated notty or us05 to drop the FG a bit if you can, it should drop by at least another 5pts if not 10,

 

1.030 is far too high if the OG was 1.075--you definitely have an attenuation problem. Your problem here is probably that your yeast stopped fermenting, either because of temperature, yeast viability, count, etc. I don't know if you used a Wyeast smack pack or white labs vial, but for a beer that big, I think 2 units of yeast or a starter would be much better.

 

Of course its sweet. It's high gravity beer with nearly 40% of the sugar left in it; it is going to be sweet. Seems strange that they should tell you that 1.030 is a correct FG for this beer. What was the yeast strain?

 

racking off a yeast cake thats still fermenting can cause it to stall. Just add some dry yeast and see what that gets you, worst case you add a lb of sugar

 

And how long was it at the shop? Regardless, a single vial/pack of yeast teleported straight from WL/Wyeast into your fermenter would still be underpitching for a 1.075 wort.

 

Hmm that wasnt really apparent

About the only thing you can do now is drink them, or possibly mix them with a bone dry beer in the glass

 

If 60% attenuation is normal for this LME, I'd say that's a seriously useless (or nearly so) extract.

 

i agree, something still doesnt seem right.
if i was making this beer the first change i would make would be to leave it in the primary longer. id skip the secondary all together actually. my second change would be to make a starter, i know you havent seen the benefit in the past but this mit have been an opportunity for you to see that benefit.
if you make those changes and still have issues, only then would i start looking towards the lme. come to think of it, if thats the problem theres got to be talk about it throughout the internet.

 

Low attenuating yeast. So, maybe you are just at the low very end.

 

Especially from Williams

 

To raise the ABV without adding any flavours to the brew is somewhat pointless.ABV is generally related to the quantity of ingredients put into the mash tun and it's these ingredients which give the taste.Homebrewing got a bad name in the early days when adding a bag of sugar was routine ; it gave strength without flavour.It can work, that's what Duvel do but it does make it very bland for the gravity.

 

Refined sugars of all sorts are perfectly legitimate ingredients. To say they "give strength without flavor" is not telling the whole story. They help produce a dryer beer with more alcohol and can also help subdue the malt profile in favor of the hop or yeast profile if that's what you're looking to do. In addition, alcohol adds something to beer and the byproducts the yeast product when fermenting refined sugars add something different to the beer as well. If you fermented a beverage that was just water, sucrose, yeast nutrient, and yeast, it would not be flavorless.

So no, you're not just boosting the abv and reducing the flavor, you're making a beer with a different character.