Recently I brewed a pale ale that looked like this: 9 LBS Vienna 8 OZ Caravienne 8 OZ flaked oats 2 LBS MO .25 OZ Columbus at 60 1 OZ Mosaic at 15 1 OZ Mosaic at 5 .25 OZ Columbus at 5 .75 OZ Columbus 2 OZ mosaic in at flameout, half hour hopstand at about 160 degrees. WLP515 OG: 1.061, FG 1.009 Unbeknownst to me my thermometer was improperly calibrated and I ended up mashing at 144 instead of 150. Also, this was before I owned a refractometer so I didn't know until taking a gravity reading that I'd overshot my OG by five points. I was aiming for 1.056. Despite all this, my beer tastes pretty damn good, yet is a bit too sweet for my tastes (which is somewhat surprising considering where it finished). How do I revise my recipe to cut down on the sweetness? Aside from the Maris Otter, this is the first time I've used vienna and caravienne so I'm not sure which is the culprit. The first obvious thing to me would be to cut down on the caravienne, even though there wasn't a ton in there in the first place. Or do I cut the 9 pounds of vienna in half and replace with two row? Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.
A bit too sweet for what? What style were you trying to brew? But in general... Looking at your grain bill, if I wanted to reduce sweetness, I'd eliminate the Caravienne. It's a caramel malt whose purpose is to add sweetness. Also, the Vienne and MO will finish a little higher than a plain 2-row malt. Last, for a single infusion mash, there's data to suggest that the highest attenuation (driest result) will be had from mashing at 151F. This goes against conventional wisdom, which says the lower the mash temp, the higher the attenuation. I don't know much about WLP515, but you might also look at your yeast strain.
Too sweet seems a bit odd given the low mash temp. I've done all Vienna malt and too sweet was not an issue. You could probably ditch the caravienne tho without much issue. If you liked it other than the sweetness, perhaps try that. Replacing some of the Vienna with 2-row probably won't hurt anything, but probably will somewhat change the recipe (not necessarily for the worst tho). If it was close, drop the caravienne. 5 points off on gravity, no biggie. The waaaambulance is far too busy coming to my house every day (because I still don't have any beer fermenting ) to waste any precious time worrying over your gravity.
You might want check out Kai Troesters attenuation trials (on his website). Or if you're an AHA member, check out Greg Doss' presentation from the 2012 NHC. Both got results that contradict the 'lower is dryer' rule of thumb.
I find the fruitiness of Mosaic hops contributes to perceived sweetness. Also, I think I read somewhere that heavy late hopping can provide a sweet quality. Don't know how much late hops would be needed for that.
