Maltiness not coming through

I'm still fairly new to all grain and the three beers I've made all have a common flaw in them. They all lack body. Granted not all beers are suppose to be creamy and malty but I'm getting nothing. I can taste the other flavors but its so off balanced that its just not a very good beer.

Hopefully yall can help pinpoint the main problem areas where this happens. I am going to change my water next time I brew just to keep that problem out of the equation. Its definitely not the best water. We only drink it after it has been though the fridge filter.

Also my next two batches will be simple malty beers to work through these problems. Feel free to suggest a recipe that fits the bill. Thanks in advance

Recipe? And gravity readings?

Sbarnard80 said:

Recipe? And gravity readings?

Click to expand...

And a description of your process.

mash temperature will help with body when I do SMaSH brews I like to mash at 156 - 158

which gives the beer more body

but as stated more info would help

all the best

S_M

Brief description of my process. I have a 10g ss megapot w/ thermometer and ball valve and a 15g water cooler for mash tun.

I boil my strike water in my kettle to prepare for mash. I will from now on preheat my mash tun before mashing in. I missed my mash temps by 4 degrees last time. That beer is still fermenting so I don't know the result of it yet. I mash in. Wait the designated time in recipe and fill my only 5g kettle after vorlofing(sp?) then add in my sparge water. Stir and wait 15 mins. Then vorlof and get the remaining wort needed to hit my preboil volume. Transfer wort in my 10g kettle and boil and add hops according to recipe. Add my IC with 15 mins left then use it to cool down till the temp of my tap water stops working. I then transfer into my carboy or bucket and set in my temp controlled chest freezer. I am generally able to pitch my yeast fairly soon after I get it in the carboy but on hot days with warm tap water I will wait till the next morning to pitch. I generally ferment on the lower end of the recommended fermentation range. I've never had a problem with fermentation or any infection that I have been able to notice. I use starsan in a large tub to submerge all my hoses and fill my carboy with it and splash it around myself several times throughout the process when I have free time. I use oxyclean free to clean after each brew.

The beer I am drinking now I got from here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/caramel-amber-ale-167880/ I followed the steps and made the caramel. It was delicious before I added it into the boil. I missed my OG by .010 so that might be some of it.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope it helps. I can get other recipes later. thanks

I did a Vienna SMaSH which I have done a bunch of times not long ago

just start doing E-brewing missed my mash temperature by 4 to 6 degrees (low)

ended up a bit thin and a little dryer then I wanted it drank good but just wasn't the same

so I drank it mixed with a big porter and it was great

all the best

S_M

to truely trouble shoot this we would need a list of notes about how you did it extract, and a list of all grain

there are other things to consider than just the mash temp

was the extract a partial boil?

what was the length of the boil

cooling techniques of both

length of mash

OGs and FGs

yeast used

etc

there are so many varibles

I may not have described it well but there was no extract. This was one of the recipes and it was all grain.

60min boil
IC used to chill
Mash was 60mins and was done at 148 degrees recipe called for 150
My OG was 1.040 (shooting for 1.050) FG was 1.011
Yeast was US-05
I fermented for a month and then bottle conditioned for 2 1/2 months

Tasting notes: beer comes off as a little flat although carbonation is easy to see. Beer keeps a very small head on it.The caramel comes through but with no body to round it out it finishes oddly.

Mashing at 148 would create a very fermentable wort which would end up beer with little body. Mashing a 158 would be better.

Now how about your recipe? What is in it, what is not in it?

Poor efficiency and mashing a little low might account for your problems with this one.

Id look and see what you can do to up your efficiency or factor in low efficiency when putting together your grains next time.

Link to recipe of the beer in discussion is in post 5.

I hope efficiency and mash temp is my main problem. They are something I have been working on correcting anyway. Mash temp was just a mistake the calculator I used was taking pre heating into account and I didn't realize that.

I am adding a sight glass to my pot before my next brew so I can measure volumes more accurately.

Any more advice or tweaks to my routine would be helpful. I am thinking of doing a basic cream ale or something simple to get my process down better. Thanks

joyceman said:

Poor efficiency and mashing a little low might account for your problems with this one.

Id look and see what you can do to up your efficiency or factor in low efficiency when putting together your grains next time.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I would expect a 3.8% beer that was mashed quite low to taste thin. Definitely make sure your volumes are on. If they were correct it looks like you're down around 53-54% efficiency. I'm not in the group who thinks you should chase ever increasing efficiency, but I would at least try to get up around 65% or so. First I would check our crush. It sounds like a batch sparge, what is temp of your sparge water? You don't need to let it sit long when sparging but do stir really well. What kind of tun are you using, is there a lot of deadspace or did you have a lot of leftover wort?

First thing to check is the crush. Next, make sure you're not getting doughballs when you mash in. Stir the hell out of the mash both at doughin and when you sparge.

I am pretty new as well but I have been adding my water to my mash bucket first then slowly add the grains while stirring to avoid dry balls during mashing.

Not to hijack the thread or anything but it's given me good efficiency so far. What do you guys think?


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You're doing a 5 gallon batch in a 15 gallon tun...a 10 gallon tun would be better, as there is likely a lot of empty space. I had a problem with my Igloo cooler not maintaining my temps (over an hour I lost around 3 degrees...and that was with preheating and the lid filled with foam sealant). I have remedied the problem by placing the stainless steel lid of my old 5 gallon pot on top of the mash, then putting on the cooler lid. I now hold steady, even when I brewed last week during snowmageddon.

If you are mashing low and still getting that poor efficiency, you need to check your grind...the grind will affect the body as well. Last resort: add malto dextrin.

First, don't get discouraged. We have all had these sorts of problems. The first thing I would do is calibrate your thermometer. My old mash thermometer was reading 8 degrees high and I had the same issue that you have.

If you really want to boost maltiness, I would try brewing the same recipe a few times and experiment with mash temps and different grains. You could try something simple like 2-row 80% and Munich/Vienna 20%. Then brew it again with Maris Otter and Munich. Try mashing at 155 to 158 and see how it turns out. The key is to keep it simple for a while. I would also recommend using Brewing Classic Styles as a good baseline for recipes.