Carapils, DME, Mouthfeel and Head Retention

Do I need Carapils if I use corn sugar and DME in a recipe???

I am planning a new imperial IPA recipe with a partial mash. This will be my second IIPA (although different recipe) done this way.

My first IIPA was really, really great except it had too much mouthfeel and not enough head retention for my tastes. For that recipe I did not use any sugar or Carapils. It was about 12 pounds of mashed grains with supplemented DME for a FG of about 1.090.

My goal with my new recipe is to have decreased mouthfeel as well as increased head retnetion compared with the first recipe. To do this, I was planning on supplementing my mashed grains with 1 to 1.5 pounds of corn sugar (in addition to what will amount to 4 pounds of DME) for a 1.078 recipe.

For head retention I thought about adding carapils. But, will adding Carapils for head retention negate subbing the one pound of corn sugar for mouthfeel? Is there anything else that works well for head retention?

I guess another question is does Munton's extra light DME have dextrin? It certainly seems to result in prominent mouthfeel.

Sorry. 1.090 was the OG...

what was your fg?

not sure about muntons, but I know Briess has carapils in it so my guess is probably.

FG on the first batch was 1.020.

I would definitely lower your mash temp and/or add the sugar to bring that down. 20 is a bit high for a IIPA. however, higher fg's are supposed to help with head retention.

the carapils and sugar are definitely conflicting qualities but sometimes it works (see Pliny the Elder). there are lots of factors that effect your head stability (hop rate, yeast strain, beer temp, ferm temp, FG, CO2 volume, malt type, abv) so seeing your recipe might help figure out what to do.