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Dry Bavarian Weiss - tricks to sweetening it?
So I brewed a Bavarian Weiss about two weeks ago and just transferred it to secondary. This was my first time doing a decoction mash and everything went according to plan. This included a glucen rest at 100, protein rest at 122 (infusion to temp), and a saccrification rest at 155 (decoction). Hit the temps fairly well and fermentation was at 66. My attenuation ended up being a staggering 85% (well staggering for me) and so the gravity is much lower than expected at around 1.007 (SG was 1.051). Nevertheless, the beer tastes a bit on the dry side for what I was aiming for on a bavarian Weiss (having had many a Weiss while in Bavaria, they all tended to be sweeter).
Are there any tricks you would try to sweeten it up at or prior to bottling? The recipe, taken from the Radical Brewing book, calls for a high amount of priming sugar (at or over 5 oz) to create the head fitting the style. I was hoping that would add some sweetness (though I worry the carbonic acid may accentuate the dryness). However, I've also looked into non-fermentable sugars, though I have no experience with using them in this fashion.
Should I do anything to tweak the recipe or would you just let the beer be the beer it wants to be?
There was a period of time that I was dealing with problematic thermometers and was ending with beers that were over attenuated. I've added malto-dextrine powder to the finished beer to remedy the situation. If I recall correctly, 1 pound of MD will add ~8 gravity points to a 5 gallon batch. Now, most brewing books, websites etc will tell you that MD is unfermentable but through credible sources I've learned its actually 7-11% fermentable.
I was originally adding the MD with my priming sugar prior to bottling but now I boil it with a little water and add it to secondary and rack the beer on top of it. If there's any sugar for the yeast to consume they'll do it in secondary rather than leaving me with over carbed bottles. But if I'm kegging I just add the water/MD solution straight to the keg and rack on top of it.
Thanks! I added 8 oz of Malto-Dextrine w/ 1 cup boiling water to secondary (after cooling, it was a thick syrup). We'll check again on bottling and see how it fared. 
Yeah +1 on MD being about 12% fermentable.
ID
I don't like the use of the word "sweet" in this context.
I understand the desire to boost the FG, or add a little more body back to the beer, but sweet is not a good term here.
Maltodextrin isn't sweet. So you can't sweeten a beer with MD. The description of what to do with MD here has been excellent and will certainly help the beers residual gravity.
I just want to point out that what we ofter refer to as sweet isn't necessarily sugary sweeteness in this respect.
The more appropriate way to look at the MD effort is to add back some residual body. Doing so will support the beers natural malt flavor profile.
I figured with your OG of 1.051 and an FG of 1.007 at 68F the Residual CO2 is 0.083 volumes, adding 5 ounces of cane sugar will bring the CO2 level to 2.83 volumes. The ABV comes in at 5.9% with 169 calories and 14 carbs.
Since the recipe is for a Dry Bavarian Weiss it tastes dryer than other wheat beers. Maybe the addition of orange rind, removing all of the white part, or some lemon zest to the fermenter may offset the dryness.
Screwy Brewer
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