Hi guys, I’m new (please be nice!
I tried my making my 1st brew that wasn’t from a complete kit and have a quick question about its sweetness.
Due to a very slight leak on my barrel I decided to pour off half a pint to release some pressure. It had been in there for exactly a week. Obviously I didn’t want to throw the half pint away so I tasted it!
There beer tasted good but was a little too sweet. I’m wondering if this is normal for a week in the barrel (it had 2 weeks in the fermenting bucket) or have I barrelled it too early?
There was good carbonation and a good head on the glass I poured.
Some details…
I made 20 litres
1.5kg Amber liquid malt extract 1kg spray dried light malt extract 500g pale malt 500g Vienna malt Mountains premium gold yeast packet Wort was well aireated Fermented at 20 deg C
I didn’t take an OG (forgot!) But final gravity was 1.013
Primed with normal cane sugar
Will the sweetness go with time?
A week seems early to bottle. Depending on the yeast used, most of the yeast will consume the sugars in the wort in 4 to 7 seven days, but then the wort should be left alone for an additional 1 to 2 weeks while it conditions and clears. This insures that the yeast are dormant and ready for phase two; bottle priming and conditioning.
Without an OG reading it is near imposable to determine if a FG of 1.013 means anything. Do you have the calculated OG? With that value you can infer a FG.
In any event, it is what it is. If the sugars weren’t fully consumed during the fermentation stage, you’ll know soon enough as the tops will be flying off your bottles.
FWIW, I’ve bottled wort that I perceived as sweet tasting (even after 3 weeks of fermentation) that turned out great. If your tops don’t blow, you probably have good beer. My advice would be to let the beer bottle condition for 4 weeks…but it will probably taste better after 6 or more weeks.
I have just used the brewersfriend recipe calculator, using the ingredients detailed above and it returned…
Original Gravity 1.051 Final Gravity: 1.013 ABV: 5.05%
Looking at that final gravity it looks as though I more or less hit my spot?
