Beers are coming out "thin".

The last few batches I have made have come out a bit thin with regard to mouthfeel etc. the one exception was Edwort's Robust Porter. I do not plan to add flaked barley to everything and while the beers have Been a bit thin, they have had good flavor. I keg in a keezer and am patient (rarely less than 2 weeks on the gas.
I have checked and rechecked thermometer, against two others and do not think this is a the case. I use Campden tablets to pull chloramine a o out of my Chicago water. The beers are all grain simcoe Amarillo with an OG of about 1.07 and a caramel ber ale(king BrianI) rerecipe. Thanks!

I have

What's your mash temp, and do you mash out?

I'd try a higher mash temp around 155F that should give you a less fermentable wort resulting in more body/mouthfeel.

I would say most of the time i mash about 153-154 for 60 min. Batch sparge with about 170 degree water, then begin heating first runnings while sparging. So the mashout felt unnecessary, perhaps I was mistaken.

Have you checked temperature towards the end of the mash? If you're losing enough heat, you could end up with much more fermentable wort. That coupled with no mashout could be the issue.

About a 1 degree loss is all I've seen. I have the standard 10 gallon Home Depot Rubbermaid mash tun.

My beers usually have thin mouthfeel until theyve been in the keg for a few weeks. Maybe you just need to give them more time. Or your hydrometer is broke and you are attenuating too low.

I have had several batches come out tasting thin and fixed these in the keg by adding some malo-dextrine. I boilled 2 cups of water and dissolved 2-4 oz of malto-dextrine. Add this to the chilled keg and taste the next day to see if you added enough. This has worked everytime for me.

You didn't mention which yeasts you were using. Maybe try some yeasts that leave more sugars unfermented, Wyeast 1968 or 1187, for example.

Yeasts are Nottingham, a SF-05, and an SF-05 slurry (washed).

KarlHungus76 said:

Yeasts are Nottingham, a SF-05, and an SF-05 slurry (washed).

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I'm assuming you mean Fermentis US-05.

These yeasts are super attenuators, leaving dry beers.

As I said, if you want some more mouthfeel, some more body, some residual malt sugars left, try a different yeast. Wyeast 1968, 1187, 1318 or their White Labs equivalents. There are a lot of them that don't super attenuate. If you still want an "American" character to the beer, try Wyeast 1272, which also isn't so crazy at attenuation as 1056/US-05 but isn't as malty as those others either. 1272 is the Anchor yeast. 1187 is the JubelAle yeast for Deschutes. 1968 is Fullers. 1318 is Boddingtons.

If you wanna stick to dry yeast, S-04 is maltier than US-05, but I don't really care for it, personally, so can't recommend it.

Second on the recommendation for the S-04.

MattHollingsworth said:

1187 is the JubelAle yeast for Deschutes.

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Be careful if you go with Ringwood. You'll really have to watch out for diacetyl with this strain.

Mongrel said:

Second on the recommendation for the S-04.


Be careful if you go with Ringwood. You'll really have to watch out for diacetyl with this strain.

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I've used it a bunch of times with no problem. Just warm it up a few degrees at the end of primary.

As for S-04, are you seconding me NOT recommending it, or are you recommending it? ;-)

I was having a similar issue; my pale ales were extremely thin even though I was mashing at 152-154. Changed thermometers and BAM; instant body. Side by side the 2 were about 4-5 degrees apart. Might want to check that too.

Karl, I'm not sure we're diagnosing the right problem. Are your FGs low? What are they?

Don't have the specific data in front of me (im out of town) but I believe my last brew went from 1.07 to about 1.010Maybe a combination of things. Highly fermentable wort+high attenuation. I did have Malto-dextrin and flaked barley in a porter that really turned out wonderfully. Maybe that offset my too high attenuation and excessively fermentable wort.
This is what is great about this place. Thanks for taking the time everyone. I'll just change one variable at a time and see what happens.

Have you tried adding some oats? I almost always put some in for head retention and especially body(mouth feel)

itsbeeryo said:

i was having a similar issue; my pale ales were extremely thin even though i was mashing at 152-154. Changed thermometers and bam; instant body. Side by side the 2 were about 4-5 degrees apart. Might want to check that too.

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