Not alot of body in my IPA's

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BIZ002

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Hello all, I am new to brewing 5 gallon extracts. With loving IPA's thats what i started with. The first was a kit from morebeer.com (Coloumbus IPA) and i followed the instructions to a T, but the beer came out smelling perfect looked perfect when I poured it from the tap and the taste was great when it first hit my mouth and had a great hoppy aftertaste. But it was missing body i guess? There was no taste in the middle. It went from great yeast flavor to basically water to great hop aroma.

1.071 OG
fermented it for 2 weeks in a minibrew conical
yeast wlp550
abv 5.25%
full boil

Kegged and carbonation came out perfect.

The lid did blow off my conical and about 8 inches of foam came out the top but i did the correct measures to insure it didnt get infected. House smelled like a Belgian bread factory......YUM!


Is there something i can do to add more body or flavor to the beer. I lkie the belgian influence on the IPAs. Thats why i went with the yeast i did. Stone makes one that is wonderfull. Cali-Belige
 
Using a highly attenuating yeast as you did would certainly give you a thinner body in the final beer.

You could try steeping some crystal malt next time, and or using a lower attenuating yeast... although the later would be giving you different yeast character in the beer of course
 
With an OG of 1.071, I'd expect of FG of 1.010 or so (maybe lower with that yeast strain!), leaving you with a ABV of around 8%. Your stats say 5.2%. That's a huge difference, so I'm wondering where that number came from.

The key to an IPA is partly from the high ABV, as the malt balances the hops. Well, not exactly "balanced", I guess but maybe a better description is that it has malt backbone.

Anyway, there are a couple of things that can give you more body. They are simply recipe related- some grains like carapils, flaked wheat, etc, provide body and a full mouthfeel without adding color or flavor. Using a less attenuative yeast strain so that some residual sugars are left will help also.

But an IPA should be quaffable, and my preference would be a lighter bodied IPA with great hops flavor anyway- so it sounds like you did it perfectly!
 
So what yeast would you recommend for this? What would you recommend for raising the ABV? Seems a little low. I used the og-fg X 131 to get my abv. Thanks for the help!
 
I was just musing that if the op is used to regular malty Belgians & English ales that maybe an IPA would def tast different in terms of lower malt flavor & more hop bite. Like a rotty & the seat of your pants.
 
Biz I just did an ipa and used some corn sugar to up the ABV. It had an OG of 10.71 and so far is at 10.15 from the calc I used is at about 7.5% ABV. I used two packets of US-05 no re-hydration and no starter for that yeast. I must say I learned a lot from this IPA. I used a butt load or crystal ,LME, and corn sugar. Hope you get the results your looking for.
 
My next batch is in the fermenter, is there anything i can do to up the ABV while its in there? Or is it too late? It was a Dog Fish Head 60min IPA Clone. Plan on leaving it in there conical for 2.5 weeks. Airlock started bubbeling 4 hrs after pitch.

Grain Bill
8.6 lbs LME
6 oz Crystal 10 L (anything darker will put your SRM too high)


Hop Schedule - 60 IBU
3/4 oz. - Warrior - 60 to 35 min. continuous*
1/3 oz. - Simcoe - 35 to 25 min. continuous*
3/4 oz. - Palisade - 25 to 0 min. continuous*
1/2 oz. - Amarillo - dry hop
1/2 oz. - Simcoe - dry hop
1/2 oz. - Glacier - dry hop


Yeast
Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale Yeast - starter


Notes
*Continuous Hopping - Dogfish Head uses a device to slowly add a measured amount of hops over time into the boil rather than adding the whole addition at once.
 
So what yeast would you recommend for this? What would you recommend for raising the ABV? Seems a little low. I used the og-fg X 131 to get my abv. Thanks for the help!

Yes, that's the correct way to do it. But if your OG was 1.071, in order to get 5.2% the beer would have had to stop at 1.032! That's just not right (I hope!) so something is wrong.
 
My next batch is in the fermenter, is there anything i can do to up the ABV while its in there? Or is it too late? It was a Dog Fish Head 60min IPA Clone. Plan on leaving it in there conical for 2.5 weeks. Airlock started bubbeling 4 hrs after pitch.

Grain Bill
8.6 lbs LME
6 oz Crystal 10 L (anything darker will put your SRM too high)


Hop Schedule - 60 IBU
3/4 oz. - Warrior - 60 to 35 min. continuous*
1/3 oz. - Simcoe - 35 to 25 min. continuous*
3/4 oz. - Palisade - 25 to 0 min. continuous*
1/2 oz. - Amarillo - dry hop
1/2 oz. - Simcoe - dry hop
1/2 oz. - Glacier - dry hop


Yeast
Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale Yeast - starter


Notes
*Continuous Hopping - Dogfish Head uses a device to slowly add a measured amount of hops over time into the boil rather than adding the whole addition at once.

I don't love the recipe, but it's not bad (mine is better! :D) But your ABV should be right around 6.6% or so- perfect for an IPA.
 
I've also seen a youtube video where Sam had all the hop pellets for the continuous part mixed together,& measure out into bathroom size dixi cups. Adding one dixi cup per minute.
 
Well, sometimes i loose a gallon of wort when i boil and sometimes i loose half a gallon due to the boil. Why is that? The times are the same.
 
Well, sometimes i loose a gallon of wort when i boil and sometimes i loose half a gallon due to the boil. Why is that? The times are the same.

Probably a couple of things. For me, humidity changes drastically seasonally. In the summer, I barely boil off a gallon in an hour but in the winter I can easily boil off 2 gallons an hour with the same strength of the boil. And it really depends on the strength of the boil- a hard rocking boil will boil off more than a gentle boil.

(I'm assuming you're using the same pot).
 
Yea same pot 8 gallon cap. I guess I am being to picky as I am a Quality Control manager and we deal with the FAA. Thinking my beer would have tasted like Stone IPA....lol

Probably me reading the hydrometer wrong! In a world where we have Coordinate Measuring Machines and Tenths indicators and laser measuring maching and we are using a piece of glass with paper and lead in it to measure our beer. ;) WTF Beer deserves better....lol
 
What was your mash temp?

I tend to get more watery-finishing beers when I mash cooler (say 146-148F, single infusion), and fuller flavors and mouthfeel with warmer mashes (152-154F, single infusion).

I know the warmer temps yield less fermentable sugars, so lower ABV, though...

patrick (graybeard)
 

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