Giving a beer more body?

In reading the thread on thin beer, a question came to mind. If you have a beer that after transferring it to secondary you take a taste and it is good, but a little thin, would it be possible to add some malto dextrine or corn sugar or maybe a little DME (all sanitized/boiled, of course) and let that "ferment" in the secondary to perhaps give it more body? What would be the downside of this?

First, it is possible to correct the body of your beer at bottling time . . . to a certain extent. However, you have to do it correctly.

For instance, corn sugar will definitely not work and DME will probably not get you what you are looking for. You want something that is non-fermentable. I suggest adding some lactose - milk sugar. This is entirely unfermentable and will give you the body and mouthfeel associated with non-fermented sugars.

Be careful though. Remember that carbonation will increase perceived body/mouthfeel. In other words, what seems like a dry beer as you rack to secondary may turn out perfectly after some bottle conditioning. I would leave it alone.

In the future, if you are doing extract batches, you should think about your specialty grains/etc. and what characteristics they add to your beer. If you are all-grain, raise your mash temp a few degrees.

If you want more body, add a bit of this...

Yeah, adding more fermentables is not going to give you more body because body comes from nonfermentables. As far as preplanning goes, try steeping some carapils. After the fact, but before bottling, you could add the lactose as mentioned. Once it's bottled, I'd just choke it down and think about my next batch.

I'll take the blond behind door number 2!!!

Maltodextrin AKA MD also found in dextrin malt AKA carapils will add body and not ferment out. If you want to help a thin ale, dissolve 8 oz. of MD with your priming sugar.

8 oz of MD? Man, that'll be some thick beer.

I've tried MD several times and each time I have always used less and less.

Even with recipes recommending 4 oz I use 1 tops.

homebrewer_99 said:

I'll take the blond behind door number 2!!!

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Man, I hear ya, Bill! If my beer had that much body, I'd be an alcoholic!!

Dave R said:

Man, I hear ya, Bill! If my beer had that much body, I'd be an alcoholic!!

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A very happy one though...