Are Papzian's recipes just...on the weak side?

[Evan!]

Every time I've tried Papazian's recipes (I just started homebrewing in July, and I've brewed 50 gallons since then ), without doctoring them, they come out very light. Not nearly as malty or alcoholic or fullbodied as I expect.

So, last week, I bought ProMash. Excellent program. Funny thing is, I entered the recipes that I used from Papazian (Irish Red + IPA), and neither of them fell within ProMash's acceptable gravity for their respective styles. And when I bottled them, I tasted them...and lo and behold, while they were both very clean and tasted excellent, they seemed a bit...light. Especially the IPA. The recipe came out with 1.046 SG, and ProMash's minimum for IPA is 1.056.

I guess, now that I have ProMash, I won't make that mistake again, but is Papazian just going light so that newcomers aren't frightened off by "big" beers?

 

[david_42]

No, it's an older book. The monster beers dominating the craft & homebrew industries are relatively new. In the last two years, I've noticed it getting worse, it's Imperial this and Double & Triple that and three pints and you're DUI (even if you won't admit it).

I like big beers, but not for every day consumption.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Yep. I personally don't like the BJCP's version of styles. I like the American Brewers Assoication's style guide.

http://www.beertown.org/education/styles.html

 

[Exo]

There's also different styles of "IPA" in promash...english, american and imperial. They vary from a min of 1.050 to a max of 1.1+.

Got to be dozens of sub-varieties.

 

[Captain Willard]

I've brewed a number of Charlie P's recipies, a few were strong enough for my taste (~6% ABV) without modification, but most were pretty light. I just add some extra fermentables to recipes that I want to be a bit hotter. Rice syrup solids are a good way to do this with minimal impact on the flavor pofile of the beer.