Beer is watery and lacks flavour

[Maherj1]

Hi guys,

started my first brew last week. It was the Coopers brewmaster wheat beer kit. Followed the instructions exactly so brewed using 500g spraymalt and 300 dextrose.

Now thats only 800g of sugar and I see most places recommend 1kg but I said Id follow the recipe. Got an OG of 1035 (very low!) but pressed on.

Its been a week it foamed up nicely and was bubbling away and now the foam has receded and its no longer bubbling. Took an SG reading today and got 1008.

Now that all seems okay but I tasted a sample of the beer and it was watery and lacked flavour. Will this improve much after bottle conditioning or is there anything I can do now to give it more body/flavour? I know the alcohol content will be very low due to low OG but Id at least like it to have a bit of body.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[JBrady]

It'll get better with bottle conditioning for sure. 1.035 to 1.008 is going to be pretty thin regardless but it will get better, especially with full carbonation and maturation. hope this helps

 

[Maherj1]

It'll get better with bottle conditioning for sure. 1.035 to 1.008 is going to be pretty thin regardless but it will get better, especially with full carbonation and maturation. hope this helps

Thanks JBrady.

Do you think the low OG was down to using too little brewing sugar at the start?

 

[JBrady]

Thanks JBrady.

Do you think the low OG was down to using too little brewing sugar at the start?

By brewing sugar I'm assuming your referring to malt extract, if it came from a recipe kit that you bought then the only way that you would come out with a lower og than what coopers specified is if you ended up with alot more volume than specified in the recipe. What does the coopers kit say that the og should have been?

 

[shamrockdoc]

Sugars would've definately had bumped your OG levels it sounds like poor effciency as well. What yeast did you use? My suggestion since its only been a week leave it in primary for awhile longer like 3 wks so it has time to sit on the yeasy cake and gather up the characteristics of the malt and yeast. Bottle Conditioning will help out a bit but as stated before it will be a thin ale regardless. Congrats you made beer mate.

 

[Maherj1]

It said it should be 1.042.

Thats what I dont get..I followed instructions perfectly, correct amount of water/malt/sugar as far as I am aware. When I got the low OG I thought it may have been because a lot of the wort was still at the bottom (i.e. not fully mixed in) and I took a sample from the top but now with the weak taste Im not so sure that was the case.

 

[mixedbrewer]

That is not enough malt... you have a little over 1 lb. of malt there and almost 2/3 lb of sugar. It might be enough for a 2 1/2 gallon batch, but you are really lacking on the wheat spraymalt regardless.

 

[Maherj1]

Sugars would've definately had bumped your OG levels it sounds like poor effciency as well. What yeast did you use? My suggestion since its only been a week leave it in primary for awhile longer like 3 wks so it has time to sit on the yeasy cake and gather up the characteristics of the malt and yeast. Bottle Conditioning will help out a bit but as stated before it will be a thin ale regardless. Congrats you made beer mate.

Haha thanks Shamrockdoc.

I used a sachet of yeast I got with the kit.

That was my other Q actually..Suppose I take another hydrometer reading on Sunday and its 1.008 (i.e. same reading after two days therefore ready to bottle) are there harmful effects to leaving it longer in the Fermenting bin or could it actually benefit the beer?

 

[JBrady]

hell your not too far off, I'll bet you will enjoy it once its been bottled for 2 or 3 weeks. Time heals alot of problems in home brewing in my opinion.

 

[Maherj1]

That is not enough malt... you have a little over 1 lb. of malt there and almost 2/3 lb of sugar. It might be enough for a 2 1/2 gallon batch, but you are really lacking on the wheat spraymalt regardless.

Thought this may have been the case...weird that the instructions would recommend this. Thought Id be safe following to the letter...if only I had found this forum earlier.

 

[shamrockdoc]

Haha thanks Shamrockdoc.

I used a sachet of yeast I got with the kit.

That was my other Q actually..Suppose I take another hydrometer reading on Sunday and its 1.008 (i.e. same reading after two days therefore ready to bottle) are there harmful effects to leaving it longer in the Fermenting bin or could it actually benefit the beer?

Not to start a debate here. But no there is no harm in it. I leave my beer in primary for 3wks to a month and never transfer secondary just straight to kegs. Never had any issues and most of these are winners in local comps.

 

[JBrady]

Haha thanks Shamrockdoc.

I used a sachet of yeast I got with the kit.

That was my other Q actually..Suppose I take another hydrometer reading on Sunday and its 1.008 (i.e. same reading after two days therefore ready to bottle) are there harmful effects to leaving it longer in the Fermenting bin or could it actually benefit the beer?

I'm with shamrock on this one. Longer primaries help make better beer in my opinion. 21 days in primary, no secondary, and then bottle work well for me and alot of other brewers who choose to not secondary.

 

[Maherj1]

I'm with shamrock on this one. Longer primaries help make better beer in my opinion. 21 days in primary, no secondary, and then bottle work well for me and alot of other brewers who choose to not secondary.

Cool...will take the patience of a saint but I'll leave it be for another couple of weeks.

One question though, temperatures here have plummeted the last few days and after 5 days at around 18-20 degrees my thermometer is now reading 15 degrees....could this harm the beer or is it too late for temp to have any affect?

 

[BaldManBrew]

did you pour your wort into the primary, add water to fill to 5 gal, and then take your measurement? If you didn't stir (as I was guilty of last batch), when you take your sample you will get a low reading because the sample has a higher concentration of water than the denser wort you pour on top of. This will result in a lower reading.

 

[mixedbrewer]

2 lbs of fermentables in 5 gallons of wort? I still cant get past that part...

 

[JBrady]

did you pour your wort into the primary, add water to fill to 5 gal, and then take your measurement? If you didn't stir (as I was guilty of last batch), when you take your sample you will get a low reading because the sample has a higher concentration of water than the denser wort you pour on top of. This will result in a lower reading.

I agree, I didn't even think about that until you said something but that definitely will throw off his reading.

 

[Maherj1]

did you pour your wort into the primary, add water to fill to 5 gal, and then take your measurement? If you didn't stir (as I was guilty of last batch), when you take your sample you will get a low reading because the sample has a higher concentration of water than the denser wort you pour on top of. This will result in a lower reading.

I poured 2 litres of boiling water onto the wort/malt/sugar, stirred until all that was dissolved, then topped up to 20 litres, top up to 23 with warm water to get temp right and then stirred everything well.

Seems it should've been well mixed in but it was just one explanation I thought of.

 

[turtleboy3737]

I'd be wary of any recipe where over 1/3 of the fermentables is dextrose.

Like others have said, give it time, let it condition and it probably will get better. Live and learn.

 

[mixedbrewer]

I just looked this kit up. Its is a 3 1/2 lb can of hopped extract. In addition to the can you need 1 lb of DME, and 11 oz. of sugar... so that would make 4 1/2 lbs malt and 2/3 lbs sugar.