What are the causes of a "thin" beer?

I brewed an English Pale Ale that came out good for the most part. It tastes great but it is very thin in the mouthfeel. Everyone who drinks it comes up with the same critique.

What causes this to happen and how can I remedy it?

Malto dextrin – Mouthfeel; add at 20 min boil. There are other grains but I'm sure other members would be able to respond more intelligently than I on the subject.

Overattenuation and mash fermentability are two factors that come immediately to mind.

Mash fermentability is influenced by mash temperature and grain choice. Crystal malts add body through unfermentable sugars, and higher mash temperatures (154-158°) favor alpha amylase and a more dextrinous wort.

What was your mash temperature and your choice of yeast strain?

flyangler18 said:

What was your mash temperature and your choice of yeast strain?

Click to expand...

Here is the recipe. Instead of over attenuation, I had under attenuation.

View attachment Bass Ale.txt

My eyes jumped right away to the corn. Corn provides fermentables with very little body or flavor. Since the recipe was almost 25% corn, even mashing at 156 would give you a very thin bodied beer.

25% corn? Really? I didn't think they even had corn in England

Ayup, that's gonna cause a very thin crisp american lager ish mouthfeel to it. Kind of like BMC who use a lot of adjuncts like that.

I would completely eliminate that ingredient and make up the gravity with more Maris Otter.

There is a long history of using adjuncts (sugar, corn, wheat) in English Pale Ales, but I fear 25% is far too much.

If I recall correctly, Bass does have a proportion of corn in the grist to lighten the body but it's done judiciously.

Can't over-carbing also make it feel thin? I bottled a batch of english bitter last night with a target carbonation of 1.4 volumes of CO2 - I used a mere 1.5 oz. of corn sugar in 5.2 gallons. IIRC, in Brewing classic styles, Jamil said to carb this style between 1 and 1.5 volumes - any more can make it feel thin.

earlytimes said:

Can't over-carbing also make it feel thin? I bottled a batch of english bitter last night with a target carbonation of 1.4 volumes of CO2 - I used a mere 1.5 oz. of corn sugar in 5.2 gallons. IIRC, in Brewing classic styles, Jamil said to carb this style between 1 and 1.5 volumes - any more can make it feel thin.

Click to expand...

That is a good point. Over or under carbonation can cause a beer to seem thin. Especially a beer that has a low FG.