"Real Ale" mouth feel

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

NEPABREWER

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
184
Reaction score
0
Location
Scranton PA
I don't know if this is technique or recipe related, but here it is. I am craving the mouth feel of real ale cask conditioned served from a hand pump.

I have no intention of building one anytime soon, never mind the proper cellaring etc. So.

Wht the devil can I add to my IPA to get closer to that creamy goodness?:ban:

Will a bit of oats or flaked wheat do the trick? Is there a malt that might help? Anyone?

My recipe is something like 6lbs LME
2 Lbs Pale Malt
1-1.5 lbs of something crystal or cara

Thanks
 
one word (or maybe it's two?): Maltodextrin. It's a powdered complex longchain carb that is not fermentable with beer yeast. It's especially good in stouts and porters, etc., but you can use it to give any beer a fuller, silkier mouthfeel. Use 2-8oz per 5gal batch, depending on how full you want it.

You can buy it from homebrew supply shops, but they mark it up like crazy. You can get it for much less when it's sold as a nutritional/bodybuilding supplement. Personally, I get big tubs of it from bulknutrition.com (in the form of "carbo-gain"), and I use it in my pre- and post-workout shakes for a complex slow-digesting carb. I've been using it for much longer than I've been brewing...but it just so happened that when I got into homebrewing, I had a tub of it laying around, and found out you could use it for beer too.

Anyway, long story short, maltodextrin will add body and smoothness without affecting flavor or color.
 
To me, it is a carbonation issue. I feel that the ale must be conditioned in a cask with a light amount of priming sugar or DME. Then, the carbonation must be "knocked out" of solution by a sparkler during serving at real ale temperatures.

Light Carbonation + sparkler/beer engine + 48-52 degrees serving temp = great mouthfeel associated with real ale. IMO

That is why I made this:

thread
 
High strike tempt meaning 160 instead of 150 at mash in? I low carb most of my beers and stir up most commercial brews to de-carb - I too serve cooler than most care for. I don't have a sparkler or beer engine - I was under the impression that the beer would deteriorate before I could use it all at home in a cask / beer engine situation. Right now bottling is a bit more convenient for me, unless you could enlighten me.
 
Yeah, basically some non-fermentables (high mash temp and/or some crystal) and low carbonation... serving on nitro is also a plus.
 
The carbonation is key for me. When it is light and soft the beer is rounder, with more CO2 it gets sharper. Also, temperature is a key. Warmer (45 degrees or so) has a softer rounder flavor and feel then does a 32 degree brew.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top