Ales are too light for my taste

My first two batches of homebrew (both partial-mash) were a west-coast amber and a raspberry brown ale. They tasted decent, and most people liked them, but for me they were too "light", by which I mean they didn't have real body or a weight in the mouth. If I wanted to adjust that to give it some more oomph, what components of the recipe would I alter to help that along.

Thanks

More grains/extract. You want a higher OG. Carbonation plays a big role in mouthfeel, along with proteins. If you were all grain, I'd suggest a protein rest.

Add more extract/speciality grains. Malto-dextrin also adds body. You may want to up the hops too then if you are adding to the body of an existing recipe.

Mash a few degrees higher to produce more unfermentable sugars, which makes a thicker beer.

klyph said:

More grains/extract. You want a higher OG. Carbonation plays a big role in mouthfeel, along with proteins. If you were all grain, I'd suggest a protein rest.

Click to expand...

Protein rests break down proteins giving you less mouthfeel. In fact, with most malts today, a protein rest is not recommended because it can destroy proteins responsible for good head formation and mouthfeel.

Give us a little more detail on your recipe and process, it's kinda hard to recommend something when we don't know what you did.

What temp are you mashing at ? And is the thermo calibrated if you are mashing on the low side the beer will have less mouthfeel and body. There are malts that can add mouth feel like Melanoidin dextrine and others

without getting specific you should add more of everything.

more specialty grains like crystal to add sweatness and malt flavor
more extract to produce more alcohol

just make it biger and bolder.

post a recipe and you'll get more specifics

springer said:

What temp are you mashing at ? And is the thermo calibrated if you are mashing on the low side the beer will have less mouthfeel and body.

Click to expand...

+1 to this....my first AG batches were a bit thin and I found that my thermometer was off and I was mashing too low of a temp.

This is partial mash, so the mashing/protein rest advice might be of less importance. (Depends on extract vs. grains split.)

couple pounds of malto-dextrin and add 2 lb of oatmeal to your mash.... probably would work best in a stout That'll give you a crap-ton of mouthfeel. Also don't use any recipe that has sugar in it (Unless it is a high alcohol belgian beer)

Sounds like you need to add some malto dextrine.
My next batch (porter) is going to have 8 ounces. I haven't used it yet but that's what they say to use for more body. Probably only need a couple ounces for a lighter beer.

I used malto dextrine on my last batch, a belgian golden ale, and I do feel the body, but now my normally clear HERMS brewed batches are cloudy... Is there a way to have malto dextrine and not have it all cloudy? Irish moss maybe?

I may be out of line assuming this but seenig the op's post count I am going to think they are relativly new to brewing.

I also am relativly new but am doing all grain for a few batches now.

One thing I noticed is that "green" beers have what I would call a "watery" taste/feel. It is possible the body will develop with a bit more time.
The other thought I have is if you are use to drinking lagers instead of ales you may feel because of a sweeter less crisp taste it does not have as much body. If that is the case I would say add some more hops especially if you are brewing with kits that have hops of unknown quality/age/storage.

+2 to increasing mash temps... then if you still feel that you need more body you can always alter the recipe.

My understanding is by adding a 1/2 lb of carapils to the grain bill, you'll get more mouth feel and head retention without altering color of flavor. Is this right?

Malto dextrine is your best bet if all you want to change is the body, and you like the kit and don't want to adjust the flavor.

mashing higher will make the beer sweeter as well as add some body, plus you will need to adjust the hops for the increased sweetness. Increasing the ABV will actually reduce the body of the beer.

mparmer said:

My understanding is by adding a 1/2 lb of carapils to the grain bill, you'll get more mouth feel and head retention without altering color of flavor. Is this right?

Click to expand...

Yes but Malto will give more mouth feel and doesn't add to the OG.