Adding body to a low gravity beer

[banesong]

I have been refining a very low gravity (1.034 or so) beer that I really love - it almost tastes like a 3% IPA. At this point, the only real complaint that I have is that the beer is lacking in body. After tasting some oatmeal stouts, I was wondering if adding a quarter or half a pound of oatmeal would improve the body without raising the alcohol level. I am trying to keep it under 3.2 or so. My recipe is below.

Thanks for the help and advice!



Mini mash - 60 minutes at 155
% LB OZ MALT OR FERMENTABLE PPG °L
23% 1 9 American Munich 33 10 ~
15% 1 0 Cara-Pils/Dextrine 33 2 ~

Boil for 30 minutes, LME @ 30, DME @ 15
% LB OZ MALT OR FERMENTABLE PPG °L
15% 1 0 Briess Pilsen Light DME 44 2 ~
47% 3 3 Briess CBW Pilsen Light 34 2 ~
Batch size: 5.0 gallons

.75 ounce Citra - 30 minutes
.25 ounce Citra - 5 minutes
1 ounce dry hopped for a week

 

[billtzk]

I would suggest doing a standard all-grain mash at a higher temperature, maybe 158. That should yield lower conversion, meaning more long chain unfermentable starches in the runoff that increase body without increasing alcohol content. I do it by accident, much to my annoyance, all the time. It'll be a sweeter beer, but you could counter with more hops or just boil longer to get better hop utilization (bittering). Say a 60 minute boil.

Undermodified grain would help too, if you can find it. Skip the protein rest.

Now where is Kaiser when you need him? I think he could answer this for you better than most.

 

[Dogphish]

i think you will want to add some powdered malto dextrin to the batch. it is unfermentable sugar that will add body.

start by adding a quarter pound. if that isn't enough, add a half pound to the next batch.

 

[banesong]

I have not yet made it to the all grain level, although it looks like I could do it with this recipe (calculated the I would need room for about 10.5 pounds of grain in conversion). I suppose I could hit a higher temp on the mini mash and hope for the best, but I am not sure that 2.5 lbs of grain will get me much unfermentables.

I will look into maltodextrine; my 2 seconds of research indicates that it is an adjunct for mouthfeel. Does it add/affect flavor profiles as well?

 

[billtzk]

It is slightly sweet, but I don't believe you will be able to dectect a difference in taste in your beer.

It's also a common filler additive in junk food. And it is habit forming, meaning that your body will begin to crave it.

I use it sometimes anyway, but I prefer to alter my mash to affect body.

 

[banesong]

I use it sometimes anyway, but I prefer to alter my mash to affect body.

So, by mashing at a slightly higher temperature, I might increase my beer's body?

 

[RivahBrew]

I use 4 oz of maltodextrine in a five gal extract blonde recipe that I like to improve the body. I didn't know about its habit forming properties.

Someone did once tell me its the maltodextrine that causes "beer farts". I luckly don't have that problem. (or atleast don't care when i'm drinking that addictive blonde ale)

 

[Dogphish]

i think that mashing at higher temperatures just produces malto dextrin.

 

[jusware]

You could add more carapils, which should add dextrins. 1lb is usually good enough in an all grain batch, but with extract it probably isn't enough. You could also raise your mini-mash temp closer to 160 but I'm not sure if that'll help much. I'd try those two before adding malto-dextrin.

 

[billtzk]

So, by mashing at a slightly higher temperature, I might increase my beer's body?

Yes. Mashing above 156F yields a sweeter, less fermentable beer. This results in more body.

 

[dzlater]

Try adding 5% flaked oats or flaked barley, it should work well.