Sweetening Bitter?

[patwestlake]

Ok, so I've done a dozen or so kits in the last year, everything from single tins, double tins, Ditches stout and even knocked out some very drinkable TC. Haven't had a bad one yet, so I must be doing something right - but when I compare my brews to my favourite commercial offerings (Purity UBU, St Peters Golden, Oldham Citra etc), they all have a slight sweetness in comparison to mine. I like really hoppy ales, and have dry hopped, hop tea'd etc but I'd like to be able to up the background sweetness slightly to improve mouthfeel. I know that adding more sugar, or stopping the brew early isn't the answer, so would adding non-fermentibles (lactose?) be the answer, or is there something more fundamantal in the brewing technique I should change? I normally use 2wks +2wks +2wks, 18-23degC, bottling with 1/2 tsp sugar for carbonation.

Any offers welcome!

Pat

[Wonkydonkey]

Well, if you were mashing, I'd say mash a bit higher.

You say you are thinking of lactose as an addition, well that is used to make a milk stout sweet, as it is unfermetable.
That is one way of doing what you want, but I'm not sure of the outcome, ie. Mouth feel etc. it could work for some but maybe not all of your brews

Also You could steep some crystal or a mini mash with some other grain, and mash a bit high so as to make unfermetable sugars. But this will lead to other issues with colour.

So it depends on really if you want all the faff or not to much faff
There could be other ways, but I can't really think of anything at the mo, and I have to go out now.
So maybe someone else will pop by and give another view

[patwestlake]

Cheers Wd.

When you say mash higher, I assume you at a higher temp? I've done a bit of tweaking in the recent past steeping crystal and then using the wort to boil up some hops - result was really good (hoppy copper upgrade) - maybe I'll try this again as being my first steep/ boil, I wasn't sure what to attribute the better taste to.

Cheers, Pat

[Wonkydonkey]

Yeh mash higher temp 69c

Crystal malt gives some fermentable and some unfermetable sugars, so mashing higher will make more unfermetable

[Geezah]

I agree that mashing 300-400g of crystal malt or Gambrinus honey malt for 30-45 minutes at 67c will add the sweetness your looking for.
It's something I do with all my extract / kit pale ales.

[Steveicky]

Yeast will also play a part in the level of residual sweetness. I have brewed the same beer with S04 and WLP002. The liquid yeast has a lower attenuation, which leaves the beer a bit sweeter and improves the mouth feel. The S04 version was dryer and thinner.