Sweetness

[runkelia]

Back to brewing after another baby, feels good to brew again.
Set up new kegerator over labor day, kegged homebrew first time, its good to be back.
Question I have is talking with wife, all my beers are sweet, undesirable.
I have been brewing for a few years and all have that characteristic.
Need to get my beers to the next level and dry them out, if thats what you call it. Have used several different ale yeasts, all the same result.
Typically mash at 152 or so.
The root cause could be that I pretty consistently get a FG of 1.018, again with every strain I use, need to get lower?
Any suggestions? Thanks for reading.

 

[Biscuits]

All grain or extract?

 

[brandonnys]

First thoughts:

1. FG is a little high. Depending on the style, it could go further. Could be a yeast issue. Do you create a starter?

2. The mash temp is a little high (but not overly so), could be resulting in unfermentables. You could try to mash at 148 and see if the sweetness goes away, but it will be more dry.

Without knowing a bunch more info, that's my first stab in the dark at it.

 

[Morrey]

148F mash may help a bit, but I doubt the end all answer you are looking for.

Yeast strains? Low attenuating yeasts? Grain bill and beginning OG? Fermentation temps and length of fermentation time? These questions will give some food for thought, along with Biscuits...AG or extract?

 

[catdaddy66]

Fron the thread title I thought this was a discussion about Walter Peyton.

 

[dmtaylor]

(Oops, ignore, see my comments down below.)

 

[runkelia]

Always All Grain.
Going through my notes my mash temps were 152 - 158 yikes!
Used a lot of WYeast 1056 American Ale always a starter.
Used Nottingham once - I liked that may go back to that, done with the 1056.
So...lower mash temp to 148?
I make a lot of IPAs so given what I'm doing recommendations for yeast?
Ferment in basement, maybe 66 - 68 degrees.

 

[ryanryates]

Recipie is just as important. Can you provide us your grain bill? Common mistake is using way to much crystal malt. The unfermentables will keep your final gravity high and finish sweet. You might try brewing a SMASH brew (single malt single hop) and mash around 148-150 and see what happens.

 

[dmtaylor]

US-05 is more attenuative than 1056. So is Notty. Try those, plus the mashing at 148 F thing. Also calibrate your mash thermometer AND your means of measuring specific gravity to ensure everything is reading accurately.

 

[pdxal]

As mentioned, we need a recipe to help you, all the details start to finish, ingredients/grist, water, mash temp, yeast, fermentation temp, fermentation time.

 

[GPP33]

Calibrate you thermometer. I had a batch that came out with a pretty high FG and a sweet finish. Found out the thermometer I was using was off by about 10 degrees.

 

[Sadu]

I have the opposite problem, everything finishing too dry. Us-05 is a beast, give that a try. For IPAs you can also safely add a bit of sugar to the recipe to dry them out, I have been adding about 5% to mine.