I think it'll be too sweet

What went wrong? Was this supposed to happen? Should I throw it out? What do I do now?

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skipjim
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Location: Rockford, MI

I think it'll be too sweet

Post by skipjim »

Ok,

Well, I brewed some beer this weekend and upon further review of what I did it sure seems that I didn't use enough bittering hops (it calculates out to have a bitterness of around 20).

I'm not what you would call highly experienced at this (my second batch) but I'm curious if this is going to be too sweet to drink, and then if so is there a way to increase the bitterness now that it's fermenting?
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jawbox
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Post by jawbox »

what beer style did you brew?

recipe - ingredients?
OG - ?
Expected FG - ?

Lots of beer style only require aroud 20 IBU.
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skipjim
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Post by skipjim »

Ok, it's a holiday style spiced ale.

OG 1057 (estimated)
FG 1014

8lbs of light LME
1/2lb of crystal
1/4lb of chocolate malt
1/8lb of flaked barley
1oz of cluster hops at 60 minutes
3/4oz at 5min before the end.

cinnamon & cloves being the spices.

Mostly this is "new parent jitters". It's the first batch I've tried to brew on my own.
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Suthrncomfrt1884
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

You should be fine. Most holiday spiced beers that I've tried had around 20-30 IBU's. Your focus in this beer is more on the spices. If you're worried it's going to be too subtle, you might be able to dry hop it when you rack to secondary. I don't know how well that would work with the style you're aiming for though.
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jawbox
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Post by jawbox »

dry hopping isn't going to add much in the way of bitterness, if anything it will take away from the spices.
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skipjim
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Location: Rockford, MI

Post by skipjim »

Well,

I sampled some yesterday when checking the gravity.

There is really no detectable spicy flavor to it, although both my wife and I agreed it was fairly tasty.

My issue now is that the fermentation (which started out fairly weak) only got about 1/2 done before stopping. I stopped at my local store and they suggested adding some more yeast as we ruled out any other problems while I was there.

We'll see tomorrow how it works out.
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jawbox
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Post by jawbox »

did you use liquid or dry yeast??
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skipjim
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Post by skipjim »

I started out w/ a liquid
skipjim
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Post by skipjim »

And after an extra couple of days with more (dry) yeast in the fermenter we hit the FG (1.014) we were looking for.

Oddly enough there's not a trace of the spices we put in there. Still quite tasty though.

Probably bottling it today.
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