Why is my Irish Red Ale from Northern Brewer So sweet?

[Dabbed_Out_Brewing]

i received a Northern Brewer Irish Red Ale kit for christmas and JUST got around to brewing it about a month and a half ago. This attempt has sparked a ton of interest and I have been researching and getting new recipes like crazy. I'm already learning so much and cannot wait to try my latest batch (a double IPA) Anyways, i bottled the irish red 2 weeks ago and gave it my first taste. It was really sweet. Not overbearing, but annoyingly sweet to the point i didn't really want another one. It was my first batch but i followed the directions perfectly and thought it tasted fine when i tasted it on bottling day. No sweetness, just a slight boozy bite on that day. Now that is gone and now its just a little too sweet some how. Will this go away? Could i have infected during bottling? Was the kit too old? Is this just priming sugar that has not been converted yet? I am going to wait another week and try a second bottle, but i want to avoid this with my current batch.

 

[monkeyman1000]

Did you measure your original gravity and your final gravity? Did you use the original yeast from the kit and if so was it stored in the fridge all this time? The sweetness could be that the sugar wasn't all converted during fermentation. If you didn't store the yeast properly then a lot of it might not have been viable. I'm guessing it was dry yeast?

 

[GuldTuborg]

How is the carbonation level? If you didn't taste this at bottling, the priming sugar would be my first guess. Give it another week or two before thinking about this as a problem.

 

[Dabbed_Out_Brewing]

I did not measure because it was literally my first try and didnt expect to be so captivated by the hobby and now im in love. I have a hydrometer now. The yeast was dry yes and was safale-us05 but the entire kit was kept in my room and basement prob an average of 70 degrees.

 

[Dabbed_Out_Brewing]

carbonation is way up, I'd say it's perfect for the style i was surprised. I tried one after a week in bottle and it was damn sweet, and the second attempt was last night (2 week mark) i feel the sweetness came down a TINY bit. There was no sweetness to it on bottling day.

 

[castillo556]

You gotta take gravity readings

 

[Dabbed_Out_Brewing]

i plan on it moving forward but didn't have knowledge or tools at the time.

 

[bacgabe]

You gotta take gravity readings

Although I agree and do religiously take gravity readings myself, it is a bit much to expect a first-time brewer to do so, especially when a lot of bargain starter kits do not come with a hydrometer.

I tend to agree with those who have mentioned priming sugar. Do you recall how much you added? Even if carbonation levels seem appropriate, you may have added more than was needed, and you are still tasting unfermented sugars.

 

[agrazela]

Was this an extract kit? If so, and you followed the instructions well, you should have gotten really close to the kit's prescribed original gravity.

I dunno how much can be told by taking a final gravity now, after two weeks in the bottle, and after adding priming sugar...but I think it would be interesting just to see whether you're CRAZY high on unfermented sugars...

My concern for you is the possibility that you bottled before fermentation was done, leaving too much sugars at bottling, which could lead to massive overcarb or even bottle bombs. You do say it didn't seem overly sweet at bottling, which is a good sign. But just in case, store those bottles in a plastic tote, or in a milk crate with an old blanket over top (or something like that) to contain shards--just in case!

BTW, how long was it between pitching the yeast and bottling day?

 

[Dabbed_Out_Brewing]

It was in a primary for 5 days then racked to secondary for 2 weeks. Im done with secondary in the future, but i was taking every bit of advice i was given at the time. i used exactly what the kit prescribed for the priming sugar addition. I was excited and impressed by the flavor on bottling day

 

[Dabbed_Out_Brewing]

Was this an extract kit? If so, and you followed the instructions well, you should have gotten really close to the kit's prescribed original gravity.


it was an extract kit yep

 

[BierGut]

Make sure to pitch enough yeast for that double IPA. I'd hate to see you have another sweet batch and get discouraged. When I first started I wished that I'd known how important temperature and pitching enough viable yeast were. You're also going to want a blow-off tube for that DIPA!

 

[bacgabe]

With US-05 at 70 degrees for nearly 3 weeks, I don't think you have underattenuation problems unless you got a dud pack of yeast.

I know you followed the kit's direction regarding adding priming yeast, but my personal experience with those is that they include way more priming sugar than is necessary. Was it 5 oz. of corn sugar do you recall?

 

[Calypso]

The NB Irish Ale instructions are to use 2/3 of a cup of corn sugar. That's going to result in around 2.6 volumes of CO2 for a 5 gallon batch. The things I wonder:

1) Did you actually end up with 5 gallons of beer?
2) Did you use corn sugar? 2/3 of a cup of table sugar is going to result in ~2.8 volumes of CO2.

The good news is that if the problem is that you added too much priming sugar for your volume, as long as it wasn't WAY too much (enough to result in bottle bombs), you should be fine. Give the beers time out of the fridge, and then when you serve them you'll just have to be patient, with a somewhat vigorous pour to force more CO2 out of solution.

Also, measuring priming sugar additions by volume is a mistake. Measure them by weight from now on.

 

[Rkb1983]

Have you tried a similar style beer from a commercial brewer before? You may just be tasting the sweetness that it inherent in the style. It might have been masked at bottling by the alcohol burn, and as that faded, the sweetness came out.

 

[Owly055]

Sweetness (perceived) can be an issue of inadequate bittering for the OG...... A beer will seem sweet if it isn't bitter enough............ All the replies here addressed only sweetness and attenuation.... bittering is equally important.

H.W.

 

[guitarguy6]

Looking at the instructions for that kit did you bring your wort to a boil, add 1oz Willamette, boil for 30min, add US Goldings, boil 30 more minutes. Is that what you did? Did it look like your yeast had an active fermentation? Without gravity readings it's tough to say why it tastes sweet unless you didn't boil for the full 60 minutes with the proper hop additions.

 

[Dabbed_Out_Brewing]

Although I agree and do religiously take gravity readings myself, it is a bit much to expect a first-time brewer to do so, especially when a lot of bargain starter kits do not come with a hydrometer.

I tend to agree with those who have mentioned priming sugar. Do you recall how much you added? Even if carbonation levels seem appropriate, you may have added more than was needed, and you are still tasting unfermented sugars.

UPDATE: tried another one at the 2 weeks and 2 days mark, sweetness is magically gone ALMOST completely. Flavor is balancing out, and its completely drinkable. For my first brew ever i am really happy. Gonna try another in one week, i think it'll be well conditioned by then.

 

[Rkb1983]

Granted I've only had 3 of my batches in bottles, but every single one of them tasted "eh" before 3 weeks. I think I'm just not even going to waste one trying it until 3 weeks from now on.

 

[bacgabe]

UPDATE: tried another one at the 2 weeks and 2 days mark, sweetness is magically gone ALMOST completely. Flavor is balancing out, and its completely drinkable. For my first brew ever i am really happy. Gonna try another in one week, i think it'll be well conditioned by then.

Congrats on a successful brew! They will improve over the next few weeks. It is also possible that the priming solution was mixed a bit unevenly, which would mean that some may be finished while the yeast is still trying to consume all the sugar in another bottle. But by the end of this week, so long as you don't refrigerate the bottles or anything, you should be fine.