too dry. how do i get some body back?

kegged beer. fermented from 1.070 to 1.004. beer is boozey. how do i combat?

 

What kind of beer is it?

 

If you are doing all grain, mash out at higher temperatures to make the brew less dry. Also, reduce the amount of fermentables to get your SG down to the 1.060 or so level. Yes this lowers alcohol content, but it also reduces the dry/alcohol taste (if any).

I usually mash at 158.

 

Wow, you got 94% attenuation? That's crazy. What was your recipe, mash temperature, and yeast? I don't know if there is much you can do for this batch. I would definitely change something for the next batch though. Depending on what kind of beer it is, you could add some lactose or maltodextrin or something but I don't think it will taste great.

 

Did you add any simple sugars? Are you sure your hydrometer/refractometer are calibrated.

 

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/belgian-ipa-ver-1-a-419913/

yeah numbers are legit. hydrometer has been used on two batches (dropped spoon on my last one while cleaning) and is basically brand new. numbers are adjusted for temp using dave's dreaded actual SG calculator.

wlp530/westmalle. 2 step starter, 2L and 2L. 2 step mash @ 145 and 156 split 45 minutes and 30 minutes. 8 oz light brown sugar added to fermenter on day 3 of fermentation. sugar was disolved in 8oz of water then pitched.

all grain:

8# pils
3# two row
1.5# caravienne
.5# aromatic

goal for the batch was to come off as a hoppy tripel with lots of fruit from simcoe, citra and amarillo all added at 15 and 5. no 90min addition. in theory this was a tripel with crazy hopping. this hop technique doesn't provide much perceived bitterness. i'm wondering if an initial bittering charge could cover the alcohol. other ideas are to drop the sugar addition or just do a single step mash at 148.

 

For a Belgian and that yeast it turned out the way it's supposed to

Boozy means it just need some time to condition and mellow out

Next time you can mash higher but typically good fresh well pitched Belgian strains will finish below 1.010 easily. Personally I would let it condition and mellow and enjoy it

 

+1. With that low mash temperature, the sugar, and the highly attenuative Belgian yeast your FG sounds about right. The booziness might fade with conditioning time.

I read in your other post that you fermented it at 70*F. Was that ambient temperature? If so, your actual fermentation temp might have been a good deal higher than that. Fermentation creates heat so the temperature inside the fermenter during the most active part of fermentation can be anywhere from 6-10 degrees higher than ambient. High temperature fermentation creates fusel alcohols that have a harsh boozy taste. They also give you pretty bad hangovers. That could be an explanation for what you're tasting. These don't really go away with conditioning though so hopefully that's not what you have.

 

Myf ac is set at 65-67. There's no peppery flavors at all so it didn't get warm enough to produce phenols. I'll run this one again and bitter it more to hedge against any losses from aging/mellowing.

 

From my understanding, phenolic compounds are more noticeable at lower not higher fermentation temps.

 

Age it for 3-6 months. If it's still too boozy, use it for beer cocktails and/or cooking.

 

this

 

I would consider making a sweeter Belgian and blending the two in the glass. Belgo-IPA anyone?