I have a question about sweet taste to some of my beers. In four of my last batches I have had a fairly up front sweet taste, each being a different style, but are probably more alike they I realize. I would almost say it is the same kind of flavor, very "light" and sweet like honey (and no I didn't use any honey). I can post all of the recipes if people want but my last one was this: -4.5lb 2-row US (50%) -3.3lb Golden light LME (36%) -.33lb Caramel 60L (4%) -.33lb Pale Chocolate (4%) -.375lb Brown Malt (4%) -.25lb Chocolate (3%) -Willamette (60min) -Fuggle (20min) -Wyeast 1469 According to Brewcipher: SRM: 21 IBUs: 29 (a little high but I will live) OG: 1.052 FG: 1.013 OG/FG were very close to what Brewcipher had ( I think my actual FG was 1.014). One was an extract kit, but the others were partial mashes. Most were close on OG/FG numbers. It also started when I started to use Starsan (not sure if that is a factor) and liquid yeast. Seems odd to me, not that it is undrinkable, but it has been commented on by others and kind of makes me wonder what is happening.
One thought when troubleshooting would be how fresh were the hops? If older, AAs could have degraded and your actual IBUs could be much lower than your calculated IBUs
If you are using a hydrometer, check it in some water to make sure your scale hasn't moved on you. Make sure it's at 1.0
Honey-like can be a descriptor for oxidation, and LME is very hard to keep fresh. Are all of these recipes using LME? If so, try DME for your extract/partial mash batches and see if it disappears.
Yes they did all have at least some LME in them. Makes me wonder how long my LHBS has had it if that is the case, these have all been over a course of 5 months or so. Will try the DME next time and see if I get the same result.
Don't substitute the DME for the LME at equal weights. The conversion factor is .82 times the LME weight to get to the DME weight. (I think that's the factor, but it's easy to look up, or someone else can confirm it.)
I think many people confuse the descriptors for "sweet" and "malty". The former would probably be incomplete fermentation and the latter, while subjective - could be something about your recipe or something about your process (mash temp is an example).
Any elaboration on this? I do typically over shoot my intended mash temp, but would add some cold water to try and bring it down below 160. Typically I get the water to 160~165 degrees and put my grains in an cool it below 160 (shooting for 155 typically). As well I I can tell with my thermometer, I am usually warmer(upper 150s) than cooler.
There are really a lot of factors that could influence a "sweet" complaint. But generally, a higher mash temp will produce a fuller, less fermentable wort. I think if you were doing a multi-step mash, you'd want to go the other way. Start at something like 140 for 30 minutes and raise to 155. Since I use a cooler, I only do single step. Consider other parts of your mashing process. For example, I believe that getting my mash pH down was probably the single biggest improvement to my process. Additionally, I can't say with any confidence what the effect of having too much water in your starch conversion would have. But I try to stay very close to 1.3 quarts/lb for strike water.
Well I am still new to partial mashing so have been just doing one temp as well. I might be a tad too high. I only have a candy thermometer that is in 5 degree increments. I guess I thought that being warmer to start, it would cool down and I wouldn't have to fear going too far under 150 degrees. I did a cheap-o-depot water test thinking it would lead me in an ok water test results for my well. Only think I could really gather from it was my water PH is 6 to 6.5 from the tap. I ended up asking for a "home brewers water test" from some often linked website for a x-mas gift. Looks like I have some stuff to test. Nothing like good old experiments to figure out what is going on.
A few ideas would be to try to add some IBUs to balance the sweetness or to add at touch of carbonation for a perceive dryness. These are a little more finesse.
