Dark Ale - Too Plain/dry

Update!

I transferred this to a keg last night, and did a finally gravity reading, tasting the beer in the process; I was immediately excited as the beer had picked up a little more sweetness and lost quite a bit of the dryness that it had a few days ago.
I kegged it and force carbed it, pulled a sample and just about lost it I was so excited. I've always made my beers with extract until now, and I've never minded the beers I made, but I've never really loved a beer I made. I LOVE this beer, it's so much better than what I expected for as simple a recipe as it is! This has absolutely reinvigorated my love for brewing, and I can't wait to tweak this recipe ever so slightly to get a little more caramel flavor and really get this pinned down before the local brewing competition!

Thank you guys for the support and advice (Patience is a virtue!).



Looking to get a little advice on this brew to see if maybe I should add a little lactose to up the sweetness, or if I should just leave it be.

Here's the recipe, pretty basic, didn't want to get too fancy with one of my first AG brews:

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 4.75 gal
Boil Size: 5.69 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
End of Boil Vol: 4.94 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 3.75 gal
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage


Date: 03 Jan 2014
Brewer: Zach
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: Zach's Brewing Equipment
Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Taste Rating: 30.0

Water Prep

3.30 g Chalk (Treated for 5 gallons only, didn't double up, strike and sparge water)
1.80 g Baking Soda (Strike and Sparge Water)
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 Min)
0.60 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Strike and Sparge Water)
0.50 Items Campden Tablet (Strike and Sparge Water)

Mash Ingredients

9 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6 87.8 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 7 12.2 %

Mash Steps

Saccharification Add 12.81 qt of water at 168.5 F to get 156.0 F for 40 min
◯ Batch sparge with 3.97 gal water at 168.0 F


Boil Ingredients

1.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.90 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 23.9 IBUs
0.95 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining
0.25 oz Mt. Hood [6.90 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 2.4 IBUs


Fermentation Ingredients

1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]


This is my 3rd All Grain recipe, but the only one that was to the point of transferring to a secondary. The other two are lagers, so they won't be ready for quite some time. I tasted it after taking the gravity reading when transferring to the secondary last night, and I'm so used to the extract recipes being almost cloyingly sweet when going to a secondary that I was a bit thrown off when I tried this and it was almost dry with a complete lack of any sweetness.

I added water salts based on looking up info on water profiles (I'm in Seattle) and wanting to make a nice dark ale, I figured I would try to mimic the water qualities from Munich, and the guy at my LHBS said it would be worth a try. So in that regards, I'm not sure how I did or if maybe that is what is having an impact on my beer.

Not sure if maybe once it goes two weeks in a keg after it's done in the secondary if it will end up fine, or if this is a sign that it's going to be extremely lacking in the end.

Sorry for the book!

Edit: Changed safale 2 packages to 1. I made a starter out of the safale because it had been in my fridge for quite some time, and it made a pretty nice starter that had some great activity, basically pitched around 1/2 - 1 cup of slurry (I think).

I know this may not be what you're looking for for this batch, but I would let it ride on this one and then evaluate it after it's conditioned. Especially if this is an original recipe that you developed. I have found that it takes a few times of brewing the same recipe, and tweaking it a little each time, to get it where I like it. I think some of us get overwhelmed with the number of recipes and excited about brewing a different recipe every time we brew and we never take enough time to develop a decent recipe, over a few brew sessions, into a great beer. Even with kits and recipes that have been brewed with success by others, it still can take a couple of times of brewing it to make it great on our equipment because there are differences in everybody's processes, fermentation capabilities, efficiencies, etc. I'd say if this doesn't turn out to be exactly what you wanted change a variable or two, different yeast or adding crystal or adding lactose etc., next time and go from there. You may end up with something very special in the end. Good luck with her.

Copbrew133 said:

I know this may not be what you're looking for for this batch, but I would let it ride on this one and then evaluate it after it's conditioned. Especially if this is an original recipe that you developed. I have found that it takes a few times of brewing the same recipe, and tweaking it a little each time, to get it where I like it. I think some of us get overwhelmed with the number of recipes and excited about brewing a different recipe every time we brew and we never take enough time to develop a decent recipe, over a few brew sessions, into a great beer. Even with kits and recipes that have been brewed with success by others, it still can take a couple of times of brewing it to make it great on our equipment because there are differences in everybody's processes, fermentation capabilities, efficiencies, etc. I'd say if this doesn't turn out to be exactly what you wanted change a variable or two, different yeast or adding crystal or adding lactose etc., next time and go from there. You may end up with something very special in the end. Good luck with her.

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Very true, thank you

I agree to let it ride and condition. Carbonation and time changes things.

I think you might have done a disservice to the beer with your mineral additions. Minerals can really monkey with your perception of flavors. 5.2 is most likely not helping you at all. There are lots of threads about it if you care to read them. I'd really suggest eliminating it. Mimicking a city's water profiles is iffy at best. You don't know what the brewers do to the water before they brew with it. I've read that some German brewers treat their water to reduce the alkalinity. You look like you are trying to raise it.

You might try the recipe with just your base water (and campden to get rid of chlorine) and see if its different.

If I brewed that recipe starting with reverse osmosis water, I'd simply add about 1g (maybe a little less) of Calcium Chloride per gallon of water. That would result in a pretty malty beer (especially with that much crystal malt). If you want something with more perceived bitterness/dryness, then maybe cut back on the CaCl and add a little gypsum (like .5g/gallon of each).

I'd recommend reading the water primer in the science forum if you want to monkey with water. It has served me well as a starting point.

mjohnson said:

I agree to let it ride and condition. Carbonation and time changes things.

I think you might have done a disservice to the beer with your mineral additions. Minerals can really monkey with your perception of flavors. 5.2 is most likely not helping you at all. There are lots of threads about it if you care to read them. I'd really suggest eliminating it. Mimicking a city's water profiles is iffy at best. You don't know what the brewers do to the water before they brew with it. I've read that some German brewers treat their water to reduce the alkalinity. You look like you are trying to raise it.

You might try the recipe with just your base water (and campden to get rid of chlorine) and see if its different.

If I brewed that recipe starting with reverse osmosis water, I'd simply add about 1g (maybe a little less) of Calcium Chloride per gallon of water. That would result in a pretty malty beer (especially with that much crystal malt). If you want something with more perceived bitterness/dryness, then maybe cut back on the CaCl and add a little gypsum (like .5g/gallon of each).

I'd recommend reading the water primer in the science forum if you want to monkey with water. It has served me well as a starting point.

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Thank you for the info. I'll start reading up on 5.2

I'll start reading up on 5.2

Click to expand...

Nothing to read. Snake Oil.
Get yourself a Ward Labs water report, a decent PH Meter, download Brunwater spreadsheet and adjust your water accordingly.
As stated earlier, you may not match water styles perfectly as you are only aware of what they start with, not what treatments they do.
Choose a profile in Brunwater and adjust accordingly. This and fermentation temperature control will be the best things you can do for your beer.

Updated the thread at the top to thank everyone for their help!