Syrupy mouthfeel

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mattcuso

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So I attempted to brew 5 gal batch of a iipa about 2 months ago. I cracked one open yesterday and it's super thick and syrupy. Tastes great just super thick. Any thoughts

16 lbAmerican - Pale 2Row
2 lbAmerican - Rye
1 lbAmerican - Victory
1 lbAmerican - Caramel / Crystal 10L
4 ozAmerican - Carapils (Dextrine Malt)
2 ozAmerican - Caramel / Crystal 20
2 ozAmerican - White Wheat

0.5 ozCitra Boil60 min
0.5 ozCentennial Boil50 min
0.5 ozCentennial Boil40 min
0.5 ozCascade Boil30 min
0.5 ozCitra Boil30 min
0.3 ozCitra Boil20 min
0.3 ozCascade Boil15 min
0.5 ozCascade Boil12 min
0.3 ozCitra Boil10 min
0.5 ozCascade Boil5 min
1 ozCentennial Dry Hop10 days
1 ozSimcoe Dry Hop10 days
1 ozColumbus Dry Hop10 days
1 ozCentennial Dry Hop4 days
1 ozSimcoe Dry Hop4 days
1 ozColumbus dry Hop4 days

*mashed at 156 for 60 min



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Some people add simple sugar to big beers to keep the body thin while allowing the ABV to get up where you want it. And when I say thin body, I'm talking relatively thin. It's not going to come out like Bud Light with 2 lbs of sugar.
 
My only thoughts (keep in mind that I have only been brewing for a few years now and NEVER have made an IIPA.) I too make 5 gal batches.

20.5# of grain (basically 2x as much as I use for a regular IPA)

Mashed at 156 which results in a heavier / less fermentable wort.

I would think that you ended up with a lot of unfermented sugars that are giving it that thick sugary/syrupy taste.

EDIT: Plugged this into BeerSmith and your OG of 1.104 is out of range (1.090)

So, I think you could probably back off the grains a little and mash lower and you might get a better product.
 
What yeast did you use? Did you measure your FG?

I suspect your FG was somewhere in the range of 1.030 to 1.035.
 
What yeast did you use? Did you measure your FG?

I suspect your FG was somewhere in the range of 1.030 to 1.035.


This too ^
If the yeast could not handle high attenuation and pooped out early then that is even more unfermented sugars
 
I used 1 vial of San Diego super. Probably should have done a starter but I didn't have the needed items. Beer Smith gave me an og of 1.096 and I don't know what the fg was.

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It's also barely carbed after 3 weeks in the bottle

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i think several things have led to your mouthfeel.

rye gives a slickness. you mashed relatively high. for an DIPA/IIPA, you have high amount of crystal (ok, that's more a preference of mine, but if you want a dry beer lower or drop the crystals). you have a really high OG, so depending on your fermentation management (yeast selection, aeration, etc) you might have finished with a high FG as well.
 
I used 1 vial of San Diego super. Probably should have done a starter but I didn't have the needed items. Beer Smith gave me an og of 1.096 and I don't know what the fg was.
It's also barely carbed after 3 weeks in the bottle

this leads me to believe your yeast crapped out early. that's a high OG that requires some special attention if you want decent attenuation. 1 vial was not enough, and even with a starter you would have needed a lot of aeration. your bottles aren't carbed because the yeast is pooped out and can't ferment the sugar you added to the bottles.

you could try rehydrating some champagne yeast and adding a 1-2 drops (with an eyedropper) to each bottle and then re-capping with new caps. although personally i would experiment on a few bottles first and let them carb up in a box or plastic bin in case they explode. there is a change that the san diego left behind some simple sugars that the the wine yeast might munch on along with the priming sugar, and create bombs. i don't think this is likely as the san diego would have attacked those simple sugars first, but there is a chance.
 
i think several things have led to your mouthfeel.

rye gives a slickness. you mashed relatively high. for an DIPA/IIPA, you have high amount of crystal (ok, that's more a preference of mine, but if you want a dry beer lower or drop the crystals). you have a really high OG, so depending on your fermentation management (yeast selection, aeration, etc) you might have finished with a high FG as well.

For the grain bill, there isn't much Crystal in there at all, a little more than 5% so I don't think it was that. My amber I brew has about 15% crystal in it, no one has ever mentioned a syrupy feel and flavor.

I think it's yeast, he said he only pitched one vial. My guess is the FG probably finished too high.

The only way to tell would be to know the FG, but I suspect the yeast wasn't able to finish the job.
 
I think I'm just gonna drink it haha. I'll try it again next time. What do you guys suggest? More yeast? And what else

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For the grain bill, there isn't much Crystal in there at all, a little more than 5% so I don't think it was that. My amber I brew has about 15% crystal in it, no one has ever mentioned a syrupy feel and flavor.
but when you make your amber, i suspect you don't mash at 156, have an OG og 1.096 (or higher), under-pitch, etc... so 15% works in that case. plus, an amber is supposed to be maltier and sweeter than an IIPA. IIPAs need to be really dry hence the use of sugar in most IIPA recipes i've seen.

the OP's 6.7% crystal (i count carapils as a crystal) is one of many things that likely contributed to the syrupiness. given a difference process and recipe, that amount of crystal would be fine.

i completely agree with you that the yeast is the biggest culprit here.
 
but when you make your amber, i suspect you don't mash at 156, have an OG og 1.096 (or higher), under-pitch, etc... so 15% works in that case. plus, an amber is supposed to be maltier and sweeter than an IIPA. IIPAs need to be really dry hence the use of sugar in most IIPA recipes i've seen.

the OP's 6.7% crystal (i count carapils as a crystal) is one of many things that likely contributed to the syrupiness. given a difference process and recipe, that amount of crystal would be fine.

i completely agree with you that the yeast is the biggest culprit here.

156 certainly didn't help, I just don't think at the amount he used, in that grain bill, the crystal was the culprit at all. He probably could have taken them out all together and I believe he would have gotten the same results.

I think I'm just gonna drink it haha. I'll try it again next time. What do you guys suggest? More yeast? And what else

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Yes, definitely more yeast. And on a IIPA, mash at a lower temp.
 
i'm a fan of west coast IIPAs. keeping this in mind, i would:

- mash lower
- use a pound of sugar
- reduce or drop the crystal (you've got rye and victory in there, that's plenty of malt character)
- use http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html to figure out how much yeast to use
- aerate the bejeesus outta that wort. if you don't have pure O2, use an aquarium pump or shake several times in the first 12 hours.
 
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