FG 1.016 and beer is watery!!

[bob3000]

Made a bitter with OG 1.038 and IBU 30 I used about 10% dark crystal and a touch of brown + Black ( 50g). Fermented with Windsor down to 1.016.

It tasted watery in the primary so i kegged to see if that was better but it is still very watery.
i know the abv is very low around 3% instead of the 3.5% I was expecting. but still it does seem a little odd to taste so thin at 1.016.

Am i missing something? Are there any fixes? I was thinking of adding some bitterness to see if that helped but not sure boiling extra hops in water would work.

 

[FarmerTed]

If it's thin now, adding more water to it (hops or no) isn't going to improve the body. I guess you could try adding lactose, but that may just be gross. Maybe add maltodextrin to it?

 

[Ash_Mathew]

Hey dude, boiling hops in water then adding would actually work, I have done it a few times for Meads etc where I haven't wanted to boil the honey. Can't see how adding more water to it would make it 'thicker' though.

Was it a kit that you used, or a recipe or one that you have put together yourself? If it was one of the last two, what was the recipe? Also, if it was an American recipe, their gallons are our navel gallons so are smaller. So you would need to adjust the ingredients for that.

You could try and add some maltodextrin to it, that could help to 'thicken' it as well as help the head. There is also something else I used when I first started with beers and it was a little 'thin' was adding some glycerine. You should be able to get both from the shop in Morley, and I know that Karl in Featherstone has the glycerine. When I have done bitters I have used Dark Brown sugar and golden syrup and it has turned out with quite a nice body.

 

[bob3000]

I suppose the hops Idea was just to give it a bit of extra flavour. It is a little thin but I can cope with that. Its just the watery taste which is getting to me.

I also thought of brewing a gallon of 1.090 beer and mixing. But im not sure it is worth the effort.

I didn't follow a recipe but its a pretty standard bitter, I can't see where the problem would be. I outlined it in my first post.

Would maltodextrin be something i could add to the keg?

 

[Ash_Mathew]

Well, if you want it for a bit of extra flavour then I would say go for it, man. There is also hop extract which is turning up on more and more British websites recently. Again, the may have it at the shop in Morley but I would check first. Put it in and leave it a few weeks for it to break down properly.

Should be able to add it, yeah. Would have to re-carbonate it though, if not doing it naturally? Could also use some golden syrup added to the barrel? I have done it with honey before and the body got a little thicker...

 

[BryanJ]

I'd check to see how accurate your thermometer is first and second I wouldn't touch the beer. Use it as a learning experience, nothing good comes from trying to add body or trying to improve the flavor without prior planning. I'll bet you money that it will turn it out worse than it started.

Invite friends over to get rid of it if you don't like it.

 

[FarmerTed]

The easiest thing may just be to dry-hop it or oak it. Oak would definitely add some complexity and mouth-feel, and would be easy to do in a keg.