watery beer?

hey folks,

we're in the process of making a scotch ale, our second beer.

the approx recipe is:
8 lb extract
22 oz. various malts
fuggles hops
wyeast scottish ale

primary fermentation is down to bubbles every 2 minutes after 5 days. we took a hydrometer reading today and it's at 1.020. It seems a lot more watery than our last beer (IPA) did at this point, which scares me a little. we don't have a big brew pot yet so unfortunately we weren't able to make a large volume of wort. (i just got my mom's giant turkey frying pot, though too late...)

is the watery taste going to get better with age or did we screw up the whole batch? if we did screw it up, is there any way to save during the bottling process or something? thanks!

IMHO, beer always tastes much more watery out of the fermenter than it does after carbonating, especially when it's still young. It may be more significant in some styles than in others. A scotch (very malty) and IPA (very hoppy) are very different beers, so it's not surprising that they would "behave" differently in terms of flavor development.

I would say RDWHAHB because I'm sure it'll come out perfectly fine.

You can add malto dextrin to increase mouth feel.
As for taste, it will change dramatically with age.

I don't see how anything that has 8# of extract in it will be watery in the end (in a five gallon batch). The body may be lacking a bit, due to using extract, but you ought to be fine. As Funkenjaeger mentioned, flat beer often tastes watery.


TL

as stated, a lack of carbonation really screws with the perception of mouthfeel and body.

flat beer just ain't right!

thank you, i feel better now