Fairly new to brewing, been lurking quite a while - I was hoping to get some expert advice on how to improve my all-grain homebrew. I brewed a small batch of pale ale. It has a nice aroma, good initial taste, but the finish is very bland and watered down. So much so it's a bit disappointing. I was hoping for some backbone behind the hop flavor but there's just a watery tasteless void! I mashed all the ingredients at 152F (1.25qt/lb) for 75 minutes and did a 'teabag' sparge in 168F water. I stirred the mash inside the bag gently while it was submerged in sparge too - figured this would help efficiency. 60 minute boil adding 6 grams of hops at 20, 15, 10, 8, 1 minute (3 grams each of Mt Hood and Columbus). Immersion chiller cooled the wort in 15 minutes. I used US-05 rehydrated - both yeast and wort 68F when i pitched the yeast. I fermented at 62F in a homemade swamp cooler for 18 days (krausen dropped after 6) - then removed it from the swamp to room temps (~68F) for another 5 days as it dry hopped. Racked on top of corn sugar shooting for 2.8 volumes CO2, 4 weeks in the bottle at 72F. Refrigerated 37F for 2 weeks. Good head, carbonation, aroma. The hop flavor is good. There's just no real beer flavor here, it's tough to explain. It just tastes watered down after the initial taste on the tongue.
tl;dr beer has a bland watered-down finish...help!
2 2/3 gallon boil
carbon-filtered tap water
OG 1.066 (efficiency was higher than expected)
FG 1.014
11 SRM
35 IBU
recipe:
3.75 lb 2-Row
4.0 oz Caramunich I
4.0 oz Melanoiden Malt
4.0 oz Victory Malt
2.0 oz Carafoam
2.0 oz Caramel 80L
any advice? recipe need improved? mashed for too long/too low temp? fermented too cool? is this a common result of the hopbursting method?
tl;dr beer has a bland watered-down finish...help!
2 2/3 gallon boil
carbon-filtered tap water
OG 1.066 (efficiency was higher than expected)
FG 1.014
11 SRM
35 IBU
recipe:
3.75 lb 2-Row
4.0 oz Caramunich I
4.0 oz Melanoiden Malt
4.0 oz Victory Malt
2.0 oz Carafoam
2.0 oz Caramel 80L
any advice? recipe need improved? mashed for too long/too low temp? fermented too cool? is this a common result of the hopbursting method?