True enough. I agree that the unfermented sugars will still be there. But there was a mention from Fire Rooster of possibly adding enough sugar to raise the ABV by 1%. That’s almost a 33% increase from the current level. I think that could change the flavor and body enough that the perceived sweetness could be lower. Maybe not though, just a guess on my part. The rest of the recipe would definitely come into play.
Sweet or not, I perceive alcohol in many beers as lending a sweetening quality. And yet in other beers, on occasion, I get a dry, cidery perception of the ethanol. I guess it depends on the beer and the fermentable composition of the wort from which the alcohol is derived?
Perhaps I should have elaborated more. I’m basically in the same camp as Dave. I’ve never perceived alcohol as sweet. A specific example would be clear spirits. Something like vodka very much doesn’t come off as sweet to me. That said, I definitely admit that things will taste different to different people.
On the topic of a hypothetical sugar solution fermented to dryness (let’s say 0.992 which was mentioned in a reply), I wouldn’t expect the resulting liquid to have a sweet taste. I could be wrong because I’ve never done that specifically. But I’ve had honey ferment as low as 0.990. This again would be a matter of taste perception, but I can’t imagine anyone who would have described that mead as having a sweet flavor.
It’s true that dry beer can still have a sweet flavor. But I would tend to attribute that aspect of the flavor to other parts of the beer, not the alcohol. Not sure though. I could be wrong.
One of the missions of the BJCP is to maintain a common lexicon so misunderstandings would be fewer and further between.
Though there’s certainly no requirement to use their definition, I offer it as common ground for term usage. In this case, Dry is defined as – “same usage as with wine, meaning lacking perceived sweetness. Well-attenuated. Obviously does not mean “opposite of wet” in this context.”
