IPA finishing too sweet

MAG11C

HI,
I am fairly new to home brewing, i have been using the Youngs IPA kit, on my 3rd batch and been tweaking it as i go but my finished results do seem very sweet, i use the brewing sugar provided which i believe is Dextrose, is there something i can do to improve the taste, e.g put less brewing sugar in, or replace with something else like Demerara sugar etc.

Thanks in advance.
Andrew

HBO_Staff

Hi Andrew, you can tweak beer kits like you have been, some alter the amount of hops to adjust the flavour to their own preference etc. If a brew tastes particularly sweet then it can be due to a couple of things - it can be a sign that all the sugars have not fully fermented out, this can be checked by just making sure the brew fermented as far as it would go and any guideline final gravity reading in the instructions was reached. If it has not, then there are unfermented sugars in the brew still and this can make a brew taste sweet. Often a brew that has not fully fermented will not fully clear in the bottles/barrel.

Some people adjust the sugars in a brew to alter the flavour/alcohol strength. Adding less sugar will reduce the alcohol strength, adding more will increase it - however, if you add too much sugar the yeast may reach it's alcohol strength limit and die off, if it dies off before finishing the fermentation you will end up with unfermented sugars and again it will taste sweet - it just depends on how high the yeast can actually ferment.

Dextrose is commonly used as it ferments more cleanly than ordinary white granulated sugar, ordinary sugar can leave flavours, but dextrose tends to ferment out better.

You can also use other ingredients in place of white sugar - different darker sugars can impart different flavours, and things that contain sugar will ferment, for example treacle has been used in stout etc.

The other thing to bear in mind is how long it has been bottled/barrelled, it may take a while to carbonate and condition, so any initial flavours may change and develop after at least a few weeks