Smooth & Creamy Mouth feel??

How do you get the smooth & creamy mouthfeel effect in a homebrew? Is it the type of malts? The type of yeast? Or some other ingredient? Or a combination of them? I had an abbey ale, the name of it eludes me right now that was very smooth and creamy and enjoyable. How does one achieve this effect?

Flaked oats - (Adds body, smoothness, and creamy head)

Flaked Barley - (Helps head retention, creamy smoothness)

Carapils, Carafoam - (Mouthfeel, Head retention)

Crystal or Caramel malt - (Sweet caramel flavor,mouthfeel,amber color,Helps head retention)

Candi Sugar or rock candi - (smooth taste, good head retention, sweet aroma and high gravity without being apparent)



I only added what I could think of as far as Mouthfeel, Body goes...Others will probably chime in as well. At least this gives you an idea. It all depends on what beer your making and what characteristics you want it to have...Your not going to put certain malts in beer if your brewing to style. Play with it.

Wyeast 1450 (Denny's Favorite) lends a very smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the IPA's I've used in.

Two other things:

-Any wheat product will add some extra protein to the beer, leading to thicker mouthfeel
-Mashing higher (in the 155-160* range) will leave more unfermentable sugars in the beer, leading to some extra mouthfeel.

I've never done it, but some people add lactose sugar. And of course you can always carb with nitro if you are fortunate enough to have that ability.

Adding Lactose will mainly sweeten the beer as it is an non-fermentable sugar. While it can also add to mouth feel and texture, it should be used primarily as a sweetener.

I struggle with this too. I feel like all of my beers have had a thinness that I just equate with home brew. I've read about adding oats elsewhere, but won't that mess with your abv?

johnnybob said:

Wyeast 1450 (Denny's Favorite) lends a very smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the IPA's I've used in.

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I strongly agree. Try it, it's what you're looking for.

maltodextrin?

Not ONE comment about hand lotion and 2 minutes alone! I should be ashamed that is the first thing I thought......

You can also try lower levels of carbonation.

Gavagai said:

You can also try lower levels of carbonation.

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I noticed this. I noticed my beer had a nice "creamy" mouthfeel to it and came to realize after a few drinks that the carbonation seemed to be attributing to this effect.

Totally agree on checking your carbonation levels. To me, there is no better way to draw a quick association with thin, watery BMC beer than to overdo the carbonation.

I grew up thinking that "flat" beer was "bad" beer, mostly through university when I'd drink a lot of crappy draft BMC at the local pub. In that case, there was truth to flat = bad, because it probably meant the keg was old and stale.

When I first got into homebrewing I had a tendency to overcarb, due to my ingrained flat=bad programming. I quickly realized that with craft and homebrew ales, nuance is embraced, and the "more is better" idea does not apply to carbonation. Now I dial it way back on a lot of beers and the mouthfeel has been much better.

10% or so flaked wheat has worked for me on some beers, but be aware that wheat can impact your clarity (assuming you care about such things).

It's easier to get pleasing mouthfeel at higher ABV.

I'd strongly urge you not to use lactose in anything about a stout... yuck.

Adding wheat malt can help with a creamy mouth feel.
Bottle conditioning (no kegs)
As said above wyeast 1450 is a great yeast to achieve this.
Hard water also helps (almost as hard as you can go for the style you're brewing)
More dry hopping instead of adding a lot of hops to the mash
And last but not least. No fining. Hazy beers (if hazy for the right reasons and not because of infection) tend to have a smoother mouth feel because either wheat was used, or because there's still yeast in suspension think German Hefeweizen (literally means "with yeast") Hell some witbier brewers add flour to the beer after the boil to create some haze.