My beer lacks body

[toadfuller]

I have been brewing all grain for some time, but recently I have noticed that my beer is lacking body. The flavor is good, but the overall mouthfeel and body are light and lackluster. I have brewed a red ale and also a porter and both are the same. Great taste, no body. What am I doing wrong here?

 

[agrazela]

Tell us about your grain bills and your mashing conditions.

 

[ThunderpantsBrewing]

At what temps are you mashing? A higher mash temp will yield more dextrins in your wort, which are unfermentable sugars, so they stick around and give your beer some viscosity.

 

[hunter_le five]

On a somewhat related note, my body lacks beer. Tragic.
I'll rectify that later.

What temp are you mashing at? How are you measuring mash temp? Is your thermometer calibrated properly? Grain bill? Yeast? OG/FG? etc etc More details would help.

 

[toadfuller]

So yeah. In the past I have always used a stepped mash.. starting at 130, then to 145, 155 then mashed out at 170, This past time I just mashed at 153 or so for an hour. The most recent grain bill was 9#marris otter, 1# flaked oats, 1#chocolate malt (350SRM), 12 oz caramel malt (80L), 8 oz black patent and 1 ounce roasted barley. This is for the porter obviously. I had a starting gravity of 1.060 and final of 1.017

 

[toadfuller]

Oh, and I am using a pretty new Thermapen for temp.. so it should be pretty accurate.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

At what temps are you mashing? A higher mash temp will yield more dextrins in your wort, which are unfermentable sugars, so they stick around and give your beer some viscosity.

This, definitely. I would also add that you would want to keep your water to gran ratio pretty low... around 1qt/lb of grain. A little harder to regulate this with a step mash, but i guess you can compensate by using less water at a higher temp for each addition.

 

[Kate00]

Mash temp is likely your biggest factor as mentioned above. A mash of 154 should give a decent medium body, in general

Another thing that will help mouthfeel and residual sweetness and body is yeast. Yeasts that attenuate more will be dryer, with a lighter body, and some that attenuate less will leave more sugars and malts behind, giving more malt backbone and mouthfeel. Another factor to play around with. I'm a big fan of WL 002. Switched to that after using 001 for a while and I like it better.

 

[lazarwolf]

have you tried adding some dextrine malts to your grain bill?

 

[Merleti]

If you have brewed before and had body look to your notes to see what has changed. Where did the body drop? New equipment , new recipe, different fermentation temps?