Beers come out kinda watery

[Adeering]

So my last couple beers have gone smoothly and Ive hit my OG and FG and everything seems fine. But the last two have been bland, flat, watery. They just dont have that little bite at the end. They feel like drinking flavored water.

They were both lighter hopped beers, could it been too little of hops (this latest one should have been around 22 IBU) or maybe the carbonation isnt high enough? Just not sure why

 

[mrgrimm101]

A recipe would help. What style are they?

 

[surffisher2a]

sounds like a carbonation issue if you hit your SG and FG. Did you hit your final volumes as well?

posting the recipes might yield some clues as well.

 

[Adeering]

I was thinking carbonation cause there is only a little bit of head that doesnt last at all. Heres the recipe:

8.0 oz Rice Hulls
9 lbs Brewers Malt 2-Row
3 lbs White Wheat Malt
2 lbs 4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
12.0 oz Apple Cider
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins)
0.50 oz Northdown [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
3.00 Items Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 mins)
0.50 tbsp Nutmeg (Boil 0.0 mins)
1.0 pkg Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004)
12.0 oz Apple Cider (3.0 SRM)

It was an Apple Pie Ale recipe, hit all my volumes (little too much nutmeg havent used it before hoping it mellows with age). Mashed at 152F.

 

[Beernik]

The two apple cider additions would thin it out. As body goes, it would be like if you had added 24oz of sugar water.

There would be a couple ways to handle it:
1) keep the grains the same and brew to 4.82 gallons and add 0.18 gallons (24oz) of cider. That way your final volume is 5 gallons and not 5.18 gallons.

I did this with my tea beer. I brewed 4.75 gallons and added 0.25 gallons of tea.

2) mash higher to increase unfermentables and body.

3) add 4 - 8oz of Carapils to increase body and to counteract the complete fermentability of the cider sugars.

EDIT: Another option I just thought of is using apple concentrate instead if apple juice. That way the sugar addition is the same but the additional water is kept to a minimum.

 

[surffisher2a]

The two apple cider additions would thin it out. As body goes, it would be like if you had added 24oz of sugar water.

There would be a couple ways to handle it:
1) keep the grains the same and brew to 4.82 gallons and add 0.18 gallons (24oz) of cider. That way your final volume is 5 gallons and not 5.18 gallons.

I did this with my tea beer. I brewed 4.75 gallons and added 0.25 gallons of tea.

2) mash higher to increase unfermentables and body.

3) add 4 - 8oz of Carapils to increase body and to counteract the complete fermentability of the cider sugars.

EDIT: Another option I just thought of is using apple concentrate instead if apple juice. That way the sugar addition is the same but the additional water is kept to a minimum.

Go with these suggestions: Esp the edit about using apple concentrate instead of the juice.

 

[Beernik]

Cheers.

But don't try all of them at once because you might go off the deep end in the other direction. Pick one or two and go for it.

 

[Adeering]

Ok thanks for the help, this was a first attempt at a recipe like this

 

[Beernik]

What was another recipe that turned out watery?

 

[100amps]

It sounds to me like a lack of carbonation. I don't see the cider causing the problem you described. How did you carbonate it?