2nd brew very thin

[Guitarhead2000]

I've only brewed 1 Extract/Specialty kit before attempting my own recipe. It was an Irish Red Ale that turned out really good! So naturally my cockiness got the best of me.

Using a 6 gallon Bucket system.

So I made a recipe for a 5 gallon extract batch in BeerSmith for a Pumpkin Ale. Researched many different recipes before coming up with my own...

Steep 30 min at 155F-
1.5# Victory Malt
0.5# Chocolate Malt
30oz roasted canned pumpkin

Boil 60 min-
6# Pale LME
1# Dark Brown Sugar
1oz Northern Brewer hops

15 min-
1 Whirlfloc tablet

10 min
1oz Willamette hops

5 min
1 cinnamon stick

Flame out
1/2 TBSp Pumpkin pie spice

1pkg Wyeast Labs 1335 British Ale II

O.G 1.054
F.G 1.012



Primary 16 days @ 68-70F

Bottled using 5oz Corn Sugar

Brew day was fine, gravity readings were close to expected. Fermentation went fairly smooth and so did bottling. Conditioned for 2 weeks and put in fridge for 3 days before sampling. There is not as much spice but the overall flavor is good, but it feels very thin. Carb level is good, head retention is nice but the mouthfeel is very thin. Where did I go wrong?

Does the recipe make sense? Is it the Brown sugar? Thoughts and help?

 

[Bensiff]

Sugar can thin the beer out; but, looking at those gravities you shouldn't have a thin mouth feel. I'm going to guess a couple of things and maybe a little of both. Cinnamon adds a lot of tannins which will give a dry mouthfeel. Your beer is also very young in its bottle conditioning. While you might get a lot of head when pouring, there is probably not much CO2 in solution. Give it time, the tannins will ease up and CO2 will go into solution rounding it out. If at five weeks its still watery, revisit the topic.

 

[RM-MN]

I find that darker beers take more time to get their proper mouthfeel. The half pound of chocolate and the Victory malts contribute to that. Give this beer some more time.

 

[TripelDubbel]

Agree with other comments. I would also add that if mouth feel is your biggest problem with your second batch, then you are doing great! Enjoy the hobby... obsession.

 

[Guitarhead2000]

Thanks for the feedback... I'm having so much fun with this. Just a little anxious, but I know it will be well worth the wait.