First All-Grain batch

[mneilson]

After extract brewing for a while, I finally decided to move on over to the all-grain club. Brewday was on Sunday 1/15/2012, and I decided to make a 2.75 gallon batch of amber ale. Decided on a smaller batch size as I figured that would be the easier to bring ~3.5 gallons to a boil on the electric stove compared to a full 6-6.5 gallon boil

Recipe:
5 lbs pale malt
0.5 lbs crystal 40L
0.5 lbs crystal 120L
0.5 lbs Victory
0.5 lbs munich

0.25 oz Magnum pellets (13.1% aa) 60 min
0.25 oz Willamette pellets (7.5% aa) 20 min
0.25 oz Willamette pellets (7.5% aa) flameout

Yeast: Safale US-05

I decided to try out BIAB and mash directly in my boil kettle, as the 5 gallon paint strainer bags fit my kettle perfectly. I used a folding steamer as a false bottom, which worked great. Planned on mashing at ~154 F, and I hit my target temperature perfectly (yay strike water calculators!). Boiled for 60 minutes, then chilled, whirpooled, and transferred to my bucket fermenter for pitching.

A few more pictures:
bringing wort to boil, with my legless hop spider
cooled, finished wort (before pitching)
super high-tech wort aeration device

Of course, it wouldn't be a brew day without at least one problem, right?!? So where did I screw up? Basically, I ended up with too much wort, between incorrectly calculating my volume loss to grains/trub and my evaporation rate (calculated rate with plain water, but I think it was different with sugars in wort, hop bag, etc.) and adding in about 2 quarts extra "just in case". Predicted OG was ~1.055, actual OG was 1.048, target post-boil volume was 2.75 into fermenter, and the actual volume into the fermenter was ~3.1 gallons. But, after much reading here on the forums and a little calculation, I think I can dial this in a bit better for the next batch.

 

[mneilson]

Batch fermented for a week at 65 F in my fermentation fridge, and I'm planning on letting it sit for another two weeks in the primary at 69 F to condition. Checked SG the other day and it was 1.013, but when I tasted the gravity sample it tasted pretty thin, much thinner than other previous batches at this point.

Question: is there a good way of increasing body after fermentation is complete? Considering boiling 4oz of maltodextrin with my priming sugar during bottling to try and help with this. Thoughts?