Sweet brews

[Jymbo]

My last couple of brews have turned out quite sweet and I'm wondering why. I have a few ideas on why it might be that I'd like some opinions on.

1. I've been using Safale-04 - I know this is reputed to leave a sweet taste, but I've used it before without this level of sweetness.
2. I noticed my thermometer has a little bit of the red fluid stuck up above the 100C marker - it's only about 1 degree worth so when I thought I was mashing at 67 degrees it may have been a bit more, but I wouldn't have thought 1 degree would have made a great difference.
3. Fermentation temperature was around 20-21 degrees, in both cases and I pitched about 24 degrees.

Both brews hit the target FG go it wasn't a stuck fermentation problem.

BTW the brews were Wheelers Old Growler and St Peters Extra from Norms Almanac.

All comments gratefully recieved, as ever.

Jymbo

[Stonechat]

Hi Jymbo,
I don't know about the St. Peter's, but I did the Wheeler's Old Growler recently for a CBA meeting to do a taste comparison with the commercially bottled beer. I found the GW version to be quite sweet and thought it was due to the 500g of Crystal Malt. I also think that Fuggles seems to enhance a sweet malt flavour. The yeast used was a live Worthington "B" strain from a local brewery.

[Jymbo]

Thanks, guys. The St Peter's has a large quantity of Crystal as well so that could be the common factor. Also I got a new thermometer and will definitely be mashing lower for my next brew.

[mysterio]

Could also be under-hopping.

[Jymbo]

Good point - I went with the hop quantities in the recipe without doing any calculations.