A bit dry in the finish...

[dandw12786]

Hey all,

I feel like I've finally got my process down, and I'm making beer thats starting to taste pretty darn good. However, I'm left with one problem. My beers tend to taste pretty dry, and I can't really figure out why. With my gravity levels, my attenuation appears to be around 75%, but there's just very little mouthfeel and a really dry finish. I'll post my last few recipes/processes down here to see if anyone can really nail something down for me.

Simarillo Pale Ale:
Water: Boil w/ about 3.5 gal RO bottled water, topped up with distilled for 5.5 gal.
6lbs pilsen DME (4 lbs late extract addition)
.5 lb cara-pils
.5 lb crystal 40l
.5 oz simcoe (60)
.5 oz amarillo (15)
.5 oz amarillo (5)
.5 oz simcoe (5)
.5 oz simcoe & amarillo - Dry hopped about a week
Yeast: Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale
OG: 1.053
FG: 1.011

Pomegranate Wheat (3 gal batch):
I believe I used half distilled, half RO water for this one, full boil on my turkey fryer in the garage, first brew I've done a full boil and used my turkey fryer for.
3 lb Wheat DME (2 lbs late addition)
.3 oz amarillo (60)
32 oz POM juice 1 week before bottling
Yeast: US-05
OG: 1.042
FG: 1.010

American Wheat:
This was my first all-grain. Water was about 3 gal of tap water diluted with 5 gal of distilled, and added about 4g of Calcium Chloride and one Campden tablet to get rid of my chloramine. My sulfates are about 241 ppm, so I needed to dilute my tap water, but that left other minerals a bit low, hence the addition of calcium chloride.
Mashed at 155* for 60 min.
6lb pale malt
2.5lb torrified red wheat
.5lb flaked wheat
.25lb honey malt
.25oz magnum (60)
.25oz simcoe (5)
.25oz magnum (5)
.25oz cascade (0)
Yeast: US-05
OG: 1.044
FG: 1.011
(right on target, woohoo!)

Any ideas? By diluting my water, am I shorting myself on minerals that will affect the final taste? Or should I try a different yeast strain? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[jessebymail]

Your FGs look fine but i would boil all the extract for more complex sugars maybe, late extract is for lighter dryer beer. Try using all tap water too, when i did partial boils i would boil my extra water first and put it in the fermenter to sanitize it while i boiled the wort. I think it is a water issue although i never mess with my water besides boiling. Just some ideas

 

[jessebymail]

Or is it a bitter taste? Maybe too much hop utilization

 

[dandw12786]

Really not a bitter taste, the hops have been coming through just as I want them to. I did late extract because I've found that the beers come out way too dark if boiling all right away. All of the extract got boiled for at least 15 minutes. It would help explain the taste in the extract batches, but not why my AG batch tastes so similar.

 

[dandw12786]

Oh, also wanted to mention my fermentation temps. They were pretty low, maybe around 55* ambient, so probably around 60* beer temp.

 

[dandw12786]

Bumping, sorry.