I'm completely new to homebrewing. I started my first batch (an irish red ale) about a month ago, and it's been in the bottles a week now. I taste tested a bottle after chilling it and found the taste clear and floral. the alcohol strong, but the body nowhere to be seen. it was very thin and though fermented thoroughly and brewed (i'd thought) appropriately, I was a little surprised. is a characteristic like body going to develop more over time or have I screwed something up beforehand? BTW, as a first post I'd like to thank all of you who frequent this places, newbies and experts alike as it makes learning very fascinating and personable! Thanks!
Bottle Conditioning; One week in
- Thread starter MrPostman
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Welcome to hbt! And, yes, it is not really fair to judge a beer that has only been in the bottle one week. It will, most likely, get better around week 3. 
You fail to mention whether the beer was fully carbed or not. I'm going to bet that at only 1 week it wasn't.
Until a beer is actually carbed up you really don't know how much body it really has. Co2 adds that feeling of fullness to the beer. Think about soda in a fountain dispenser, like at your favorite fast food joint. You ever pull some that wasn't carbed? It was thin and watery, not because the mix of liquids was off, but because the gas was not saturating the liquid.
Granted your recipe might be thin on body, but I'm betting the issue is more that everything is not fully developed yet.
The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.
Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.
Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.
Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."
Give it time and see if it doesn't turn out fine. Don't go by what it is YET. The beer is still going through a process.
Until a beer is actually carbed up you really don't know how much body it really has. Co2 adds that feeling of fullness to the beer. Think about soda in a fountain dispenser, like at your favorite fast food joint. You ever pull some that wasn't carbed? It was thin and watery, not because the mix of liquids was off, but because the gas was not saturating the liquid.
Granted your recipe might be thin on body, but I'm betting the issue is more that everything is not fully developed yet.
The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.
Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.
Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.
Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."
Give it time and see if it doesn't turn out fine. Don't go by what it is YET. The beer is still going through a process.
Got anymore stats on the beer? OG, FG, recipe? With this we should be able to see where you wen't wrong (if you did). From memory Irish reds is a dryer style, with an expected FG as low as 1.010. What sort of beers are you comparing it to in terms of body?
Thanks for the good words, guys. My beer only visibly fermented from the airlock about 3 days, I left it in for another 4 before siphoning it to a big glass carboy for another week before bottling (batch size before priming sugar was 4.5 gals so i mixed 14 oz of water with 4.5 oz of the priming sugar that came with the pack). The beer was carbonated a little. it hissed with the release of c02 right after opening it and could develop a decent head if swirled a bit. to be honest, it just tasted like carbonated wine/champagne, but more hoppy. and yea the FG was around 1.011. i'm just judging it on other 5.2 percent beers I've had from the liquor store, and other red ales, not to mention a whole host of other beers in the past.
Wow, fast on the ctrl_v today Revvy
I have found that an uncarbed soda feels less thin, and more syrupy. That's just my opinion on the matter though.
I tried one of my very first beers last weekend. I knew it wasn't ready but being a newb I wanted to try it to see. It was under carbed and had a flavor that tasted like hops smell. I tried another one today at now 2 weeks and it is better carbed, the hop raw hop flavor (best I can describe it) is definitely less pronounced, and just overall it tasted better. I'm only drinking these from this batch to see how the conditioning changes the beer etc.
