My beer tastes like a light beer

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weimerbp

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I consider myself fairly new to brewing. I just brewed my 10th and 11th batch and encountered a new problem I haven't had before. My previous batches were fine.

I just brewed a Pale Ale with. I used Northern Brewer Pale LME, 1lb of Crystal, 1lb of munich malt, and Wyeast American Ale II. OG was 1.061 and estimated IBU 34. It was in a primary fermenter for 7 days, transferred to secondary for clarification for a total of 7 days, then I racked it into a keg and will allow it to age for a couple weeks. When I tested the FG before racking it into the keg, it read 1.015 (at room temp).

The problem is that I tasted it when I measured the FG and it tasted very very light, almost like a bud light. It had a great hop taste and aroma to it, but I barely got any malt flavor and the body was lacking. I actually did the same thing again with a stout brewed in the same manner with OG 1.072 and FG 1.018 and it tastes very light too.

I was hoping that the beers just needed time to age and develop flavor. ANyone have any thoughts? Am I missing something? Thanks in advance for the help.

Brian
 
weimerbp said:
I consider myself fairly new to brewing. I just brewed my 10th and 11th batch and encountered a new problem I haven't had before. My previous batches were fine.

I just brewed a Pale Ale with. I used Northern Brewer Pale LME, 1lb of Crystal, 1lb of munich malt, and Wyeast American Ale II. OG was 1.061 and estimated IBU 34. It was in a primary fermenter for 7 days, transferred to secondary for clarification for a total of 7 days, then I racked it into a keg and will allow it to age for a couple weeks. When I tested the FG before racking it into the keg, it read 1.015 (at room temp).

The problem is that I tasted it when I measured the FG and it tasted very very light, almost like a bud light. It had a great hop taste and aroma to it, but I barely got any malt flavor and the body was lacking. I actually did the same thing again with a stout brewed in the same manner with OG 1.072 and FG 1.018 and it tastes very light too.

I was hoping that the beers just needed time to age and develop flavor. ANyone have any thoughts? Am I missing something? Thanks in advance for the help.

Brian
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hey blacksburg ... i'm in roanoke go hokies... especially tonight we need the win. i'm new too i just went with a coopers real ale.. i hope it turns out ok.. just bottled last tues. good brewing i just thought i would drop u a line
 
I'm thinking too many fermentables vs un-fermentables. Not enough left to give body & flavor desired. I'm not real hip on grains yet,but it seems like you need some more un-fermentables in there. Maybe also raise your mash temp a couple degrees to make a bit more long chain sugars.
 
Maybe just young. I have some that tasted strong and others that tasted sweet at bottling time. They were very different after bottle conditioning.
 
How much LME did you use and how big was the batch? Did you put the ingredients into any software to see what it showed?

B
 
Thanks for the quick feedback. I used around 8lbs LME in a 5 gallon batch. The boil size was about 4 gallons. Since it was only a partial mash, I just steeped the 2lbs of grain in a grain bag for about 30 min at aroun 155deg F. I did use software to calculate the OG and I think I attained something around a 70% efficiency.
 
It seems to me that mashing takes longer than 30 minutes,but the temp was good. Typically,1 to 1.5 quarts of water to each pound of grain is used in mashing,even partial mash. Could be you didn't mash long enough.
 
Brewtarget is showing OG 1063, FG 1016 so your numbers seem ok. Looks like your IBUs are in range.

Maybe you like more body in your beer. More crystal maybe?

B
 
Yeah - if you're going to go with partial mash kits, definitely do some research on partial mash process. Steeping and mashing are two very different processes, with different intended outcomes, and your beers will definitely turn out a bit differently than intended if you simply steep grains that were intended to be mashed.

All that said, I'm definitely with the folks who say that carbonation will help. It does a lot for mouthfeel, and very often it's more a lack of mouthfeel that folks pick up in uncarbonated samples and interpret as weak flavor.
 
stratslinger said:
Yeah - if you're going to go with partial mash kits, definitely do some research on partial mash process. Steeping and mashing are two very different processes, with different intended outcomes, and your beers will definitely turn out a bit differently than intended if you simply steep grains that were intended to be mashed.

All that said, I'm definitely with the folks who say that carbonation will help. It does a lot for mouthfeel, and very often it's more a lack of mouthfeel that folks pick up in uncarbonated samples and interpret as weak flavor.
Click to expand...

I think he has steeped and not mashed. And yes, co2 bubbles go a long way to changing the feel of the beer.

OP - what beers have you had and really enjoyed?

B
 
I'd wait until it's finished to say anything. Warm, flat beer can seem watery and dull.
 
unionrdr said:
It seems to me that mashing takes longer than 30 minutes,but the temp was good. Typically,1 to 1.5 quarts of water to each pound of grain is used in mashing,even partial mash. Could be you didn't mash long enough.
Click to expand...

He did extract with steeping grains, he didn't mash. There is no mashing without base malts for conversion.


Rev.
 
I wouldn't worry. I had this same issue. I brewed up a ten gallon batch and attempted to batch sparge (all grain). Missed by OG by 10+ points. SO I boiled up some DME and added it to the fermenter. I have a conical so I can take samples. Every sample was like water. Bud light at best. I thought I had ten gallons of horrible beer.

When I kegged it, I threw a bag of hops in the keg because it still tasted like crap.

Two weeks later, it's one of my better beers. Crystal clear, not BudLight at all, more like an awesome EPA.

Don't worry.
 
if you are making this judgement early, i'd definitely wait until the beer is fully carbed before judging the body of it. Flat beer and carbed beer are two different worlds.
 
Rev2010 said:
He did extract with steeping grains, he didn't mash. There is no mashing without base malts for conversion.


Rev.
Click to expand...

The op said in post #7 that it was a partial mash. He also didn't say that it was caramunich or the like. he just said Munich,& I figured they have to have a base malt one too?
 
unionrdr said:
The op said in post #7 that it was a partial mash. He also didn't say that it was caramunich or the like. he just said Munich,& I figured they have to have a base malt one too?
Click to expand...

Hmm, didn't see that. Thought he'd said caramunich, guess the crystal threw me off, my bad.


Rev.
 
Which kind of crystal did you use (want lovibond?)? Also some dextrin type grains might give you some more body (cara-pils/carafoam). Flaked oats will also give body, along with some other characteristics that are often, but not always desirable. Dark and Amber extract will help a little, but there just isn't much there; extracts will give you color and even a respectable amount of maltyness but if you are looking for a rich silky mouthfeel you need to turn to some beefy specialty grains.

Also, that strikes me as a pretty light grain bill overall for what I'm guessing was around 9lbs of extract. Consider more next time; or it might be time to just go partial mash!
 
I think I was just being a little premature in judging my beer. It has been in the keg and carbed for a couple days now with significant improvement in taste and mouth feel. Another week or two of aging and I think it should be ready for some serious consumption!

I used crystal 40L I believe. I also looked in to adding some cara-munich or cara-pils malt and that sounds like it might boost the body of the beer a little bit. This kind of stuff is exactly why I like homebrewing... I get to play around with the ingredients to make my perfect beer.

Also, I think I will be moving on to AG for my next batch.
 
I think munich can self convert and with the crystal you used you should get some body, with it fully conditoned and good carbonation it should have some body,maybe change up the yeast if you are still not satisfied after some ageing.
Ok then just seen your recent post,yeah, give it some time you cant really ever judge it completly young.flaked barley can really get you some good head retention by the way also.
 
The first few post a ways back said that the beer was probably young. I wanted to expand on that and say that when Acetaldehyde, is present it covers up the character, no, the subtle character of a beer. You can still taste the stronger notes, but the more subtle tastes are undetectable. I have noticed that all of my beers benefit from a few days of cold conditioning.

Acetaldehyde - Home Brewing Wiki
 

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