Thin beer...?

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Adam's Apples

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I bottled my first brew 6 days ago (a bitter) and am waiting for carbonation to complete. I haven't been able to resist a couple of tasters along the way though and have noticed that, although I really like the taste of my brew, it does seem a bit thin. This is the only way I can think of to describe it's consistency...it seems to be the main difference I notice between my homebrew and bought beers.

Is there anyway of making a heavier/thicker (this is getting confusing now as it's hard to describe what I mean!)... a beer with more body? My final gravity reading as 1.000 on the dot as I read the hydrometer, which means it's final gravity is about the same as water, right? Does this mean that all beers that finish with a low gravity will have less body and beer more thin?

My brew was in primary for a week, secondary for 2 weeks and has been bottled 6 days. I used malt extract (not sure of the specific type as I followed a kit for my first brew) and glucose. Any advice on this would be appreciated.

On a side note, my beer seems to be only very lightly carbonated after 6 days in the bottle and has no real head yet. The first two days the bottles were stored in cool temperatures, before advice on this board made me move them near the radiator in my computer room, which is a steady 75 degrees. I struck me also that I siphoned directly on top of the sugar I had boiled up after only 10 mins or so before I bottled, so the solution would have still been pretty hot. This may be the only part of the process I really got completely wrong and I'm wondering if the hot water may have killed some of the yeast - at least in the first couple of gallons I siphoned onto it before it cooled down. What do you guys think the chances of me achieving good carbonation are? Oh, I used 2.5oz sugar for the 5 gal batch - as per the instructions.

Cheers for any and all suggestions
 
Couple things:

1. You can't judge body until the beer is carbed, so don't worry for another couple weeks.

2. I highly doubt your hydrometer read 1.000 - most brews finish at at least 1.010, often higher than that (depends on recipe, yeast, fermentation conditions, all kinds of factors). Readings above 1.000 indicate that there are some residual, unfermentable sugars in the beer - which all beers made from malt have.

3. If you DO have problems with the beer's body (again, it is too early to tell), there are things to do. Malto-dextrine, for example, is an unfermentabe (and tasteless) sugar that people often use to add some body. AG brewers will sometimes use various grains for similar effects.

4. The "lightly carbed after six days" bit - OF COURSE, it's only been SIX DAYS! ;) It's amazing the difference that can occur, especially between weeks two and three. Put the beers aside, start planning the next brew (it takes your mind off the one that's conditioning), and crack another one open in 15 days. Guarantee it will be fine.
 
Beers are very rarely fully carbonated after 6 days, so no problem there. Keep in mind that it not only takes time for some CO2 to be built up in the bottle, but it alos takes time for the CO2 to get absorbed into the liquid. (This is why barely carboinated beers have some head but seem pretty flat after that--all the CO2 is escaping too soon.)

I'm puzzled about the 1.000 FG--are you sure your hydrometer is accurate? Abouth the lowest FG I've ever gotten was more like 1.008 or 1.009. Basic Bitters do tend to finish fairly dry, since the OG is fairly low to start with.

How much sugar was in your recipe? Since glucose or sucrose are virtually 100% fermentable (whereas malt is maybe more like 75% fermentable), the more sugar you use in your wort, the drier your beer will be.

Extract brewers have the following options for raising their FGs: Use less (or no) sugar in the wort, use a lower attenuating yeast strain (I bet you used dry yeast, right?), and/or use maltodextrin (an unfermentable sugar).
 
Thanks Bird.

It is wonderfully reassuring when a relative expert (everybody here will be in comparison to me right now!) stops me from worrying!

I am constantly pondering the carbonation 'problem' I thought I was having, but by the sounds of it I just have to be more patient. You don't think the siphoning onto the hot sugar solution would have done too much harm then? Just I know how important getting the wort temperature down before pitching the yeast in the initial stage is and figured I may have done some damage.

Honestly, my hydrometer read 1.000 or 1.005 at most. I do think they are very tough to read accurately though, the gap between 1.010 and 1.000 on mine is about 5 mm! Although it was donated by a friend, it reads water at 1.000 - so I figure it works...

Hopefully when carbonation is complete the body will develop then, although it's not a disaster if not as I am very happy with the taste of my first brew.

Thanks for the clear advice
 
cweston, can't remember the exact measure of glucose, but I will dig out the recipe if I can. Something is telling me 2.5lb, but not sure.

The yeast I used, which came with the pack, was a mutons branded yeast, maybe an ale yeast I think. It was dry and I rehydrated it before adding it too the wort.


It would be handy if I could find a clearer hydrometer, however I assume the one I had was standard and they would all be the same size?

Cheers
 
Adam's Apples said:
cweston, can't remember the exact measure of glucose, but I will dig out the recipe if I can. Something is telling me 2.5lb, but not sure.


Bingo. That's a very large amount of sugar for a five gallon batch. This made your wort very highly fermentable. Was this a kit? (I'm guessing it was). Try a Brewers Best kit, or better yet one from a high-volume retailer like morebeer./com, austinhomebrew.com, or NorthernBrewer.com. These will be 100% malt, except for certain specialized styles like higher-gravity Belgains, which use sugars to keep the FG from being too high.



It would be handy if I could find a clearer hydrometer, however I assume the one I had was standard and they would all be the same size?

You can get finer-scaled hydrometers specifically designed for FG readings: they'll have a scale of something like 1.000 to 1.020. To be honest, most homebrewers don't find it necessary to get extremely detailed gravity readings.

Using less (or no) sugar will definitely solve your "thin beer" problem.
 
Quality :rockin:

Well, once again my questions have been answered swiftly and I am a little wiser. Thanks a lot for the advice bird and cweston, all malt sounds worth a shot next time.

Cheers
 
Yup, I take back some of what I said - this beer WILL be thin, very thin. Try one of the kits cweston mentions - you will be AMAZED how much better a beer you make.
 
Yeah, I'm sure the hydrometer reading is correct, because we went over this a few weeks ago, when the reading had already dropped below 1.010, and that's when the issue of all the sugar came up.
 
the_bird said:
If it was Mutton's, you would have made a lamb-ic.



Yes, I know, that was HORRIBLE... :D


{Groan} Slighty witty, though. Good one.

I agree with all the others- this beer will remain thin but drinkable. The only question I have is the amount of priming sugar you used- I use 4-5 ounces for 5 gallons. 2.5 ounces seems about 1/2 of what should normally be used. It'll carb some, but don't expect a big head or huge amounts of carbonation. It might be undercarbed, depending on the style you have. Some beers are purposely undercarbed, to be true to style.

Lorena
 
Actually, with all of that glucose, it is quite possible for the gravity to be 1.000 A cider, with 100% fermentable sugars, typically ends up at 0.995-0.990, so with the relatively small amount of residual malt, your batch could balance out to 1. As others have pointed out, starting with a low percentage of malt means a thin beer.
 
As I sit here drinking a buddies HB I will also throw in there that I find beers made with just extract to come out thin tasting. I steep grains with my brews and they seem to come out with more body or mouthfeel whereas my friends beer seems kind of hoppy but with little else. It was suggested to me for my first brew that I steep and I have been doing it ever since with outstanding results...so I will suggest that you buy a kit and use some grains to steep. I personally use Austin Homebrews kits and find them to be excellent.


Dan
 
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