Thick Cloudy Beer???

Well I think I finally botched a batch. We're dark beer drinkers so I've been pretty comfortable whipping up stouts and such, no problems.

Long story short what began as an Irish Red became a red IPA.

When it came time for secondary, I was taking my final gravity. When I took the sample it felt thick, it also looked thick, I was expecting it to clear up.

I tasted the beer, it was quite light in flavor. That was partially intended. I also chose lighter malts because I wanted more of the red from the roasted barley to show through.

I used light DME. I'm confident that was just fine. I'm suspecting the thick cloudy character comes from the lighter grains I used.

Though they're crystal malts, or were supposed to be, I'm suspecting they're light enough that there were still a lot of starches present in them. I suspect them more than the barley, as I was fairly certain it wasn't steeped long enough to add more than flavor and color.

The beer tasted ok and it should be drinkable. It might be kinda thick but it does have a nice deep red color to it.

So the next time I try it I'm either going to do a simple mash or add extra light DME instead of chancing lower roasted Crystal malt.

Anyhow I figured I'd bring this up and see what others think about the cloudy issue.

Also would extra starch affect bottling much?

Recipe, process and OG will help troubleshoot.

Well the OG was 1.058 it finished up about 5.25% ABV which is about where I thought it would be and was the general area I was "aiming" for.

Aside from 6lb Light DME I had 1lb of Crystal Malt 20L and 2lb of Crystal 40L and 1/2lb Roasted Barley.

As for the process 30min steep at 150-155.

Bring the temp up add the DME bring to a boil add hops at the right times.

If the crystal malts are ok being that light, I sure didn't think the barley would have had that much effect. Unless it's because I didn't properly use it in a mash for the color and thusly nothing got converted.

If that's the case next time, and I don't feel like mashing I may just give the barley a quick steep on it's own.