I read often that people try to avoid, use ingredients to prevent, or otherwise do something to avoid beers being “cloyingly sweet”. Can someone describe what this is for me because I think it may have happened in my most recent porter. What does is come from, where could I have gone wrong? Personally, I think it was because my beer did not attenuate enough, could this be a reason?
I always think of it as a thick, sweet taste that coats and lingers on the tongue. Attenuation and too many non-fermentable sugars would be things to look at.
Cloying means over-the-top, disgusting, taste-bud-overloading sweetness. Like soft drink syrup before it’s mixed with soda.
Under-attenuation could be a factor, although to my way of thinking, for it to really be “cloying” there would have to be a recipe or process flaw. Even pre-boil wort I wouldn’t describe as cloyingly sweet.
think about maple syrup. its good on pancakes, and makes the whole breakfast better. now think about chugging a bottle of maple syrup. not so nice.
thats pretty much all cloying means, something that was nice is now in excess enough to make it repulsive.
in beer, it pretty much means too rich or sweet.
Unless you’re like the guys in Super Troopers. 
I’d say its cloyingly sweet when the taste actually reminds you of sugar.
Kai
Ok, then I would not describe my most recent porter as any of the things cited above. I’m thinking the beer just has a good deal of body. My father-in-law described the beer as being “thick” but with really good flavor. I detect a bit of sweetness, but nothing that I would describe as over the top of maple syrup like.
basically if either the thickness or the sweetness which you describe here is in any way too much, that would be described as cloying.
Main Entry: cloy·ing
Pronunciation: \ˈklȯi-iŋ, ˈklȯiŋ
Function: adjective
Date: 1594
: disgusting or distasteful by reason of excess ; also : excessively sweet or sentimental
— cloy·ing·ly adverb
I think cloying is as much of a mouthfeel as it is an excessively sugary flavor. The maple syrup analogy is a good one. Honey is another example.
When your beer tastes sweet and its not supposed to taste sweet or its the wrong kind of sweetness. I have a stout that is cloyingly sweet imo… I was expecting some chocolate flavor to blend with it but the chocolate flavor was stripped out by the yeast I guess and the sweet is still there… even worse is that its roasty and sweet. jmo…
Doppel Bock
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Underattenuated. Overly sweet. The opposite extreme of mouth puckering bitterness.
Basically beer that usually is pretty bad.
+1 I like a10t2’s pre-mix soda anology. 
If you really want to know I have a bottle of god-awful barleywine around here somewhere…