first brew... tastes watered down

[BOYDBrew]

Made a pale ale..
Turned out to be watery.
Anyone have luck with time making it better?
OG was 1.046
FG was 1.005
Used danstar nottingham yeast

 

[barneygumble]

Looks like your yeasties did their job. Was 1.046 your anticipated OG? Did you use extract or all grain? Its going to be a pretty mild ale anyway, so theres that.

Did you calibrate your vessels for accuracy? Too much water will do that.

How long has it been in the bottle/keg? It may need to round itself out a bit.

All that considered, a pale ale if all else checks out, and you still are unsatisfied can be fortified with some carapils (extract especially) or some crystal to add body and head retention.

 

[BOYDBrew]

Looks like your yeasties did their job. Was 1.046 your anticipated OG? Did you use extract or all grain? Its going to be a pretty mild ale anyway, so theres that.

Did you calibrate your vessels for accuracy? Too much water will do that.

How long has it been in the bottle/keg? It may need to round itself out a bit.

All that considered, a pale ale if all else checks out, and you still are unsatisfied can be fortified with some carapils (extract especially) or some crystal to add body and head retention.

I was shooting for 1.055 or so. First time with my equipment.... Used 7.5 gallons total. Been in keg for 1.5 weeks.. I even dry hopped with 1oz cascade...

 

[barneygumble]

I was shooting for 1.055 or so. First time with my equipment.... Used 7.5 gallons total. Been in keg for 1.5 weeks.. I even dry hopped with 1oz cascade...

OK so this was an AG batch? what was your final volume? What was the final volume of the recipe? I dont want to say poor efficiency might be a cause when the volume of water wasnt correct. Hops will not add body or fullness to beer, but if the IBU's seem weak too, I'd say your initial volume might have been high, and further boiling might have been needed to hit target final volme.

 

[BOYDBrew]

OK so this was an AG batch? what was your final volume? What was the final volume of the recipe? I dont want to say poor efficiency might be a cause when the volume of water wasnt correct. Hops will not add body or fullness to beer, but if the IBU's seem weak too, I'd say your initial volume might have been high, and further boiling might have been needed to hit target final volme.

Yeah AG...
Final volume was around 5 gallons.
My guess is that I used to much h20...

 

[barneygumble]

Yeah AG...
Final volume was around 5 gallons.
My guess is that I used to much h20...

Huh. Final volume sounds about right for most recipes. If about means 5 gallons for a 5 gallon recipe. If it means 5 1/2 gallons for a 5 gallon recipe, then yeah. A half gallon difference will cause this discrepency.

If you nailed the volumes, then look at the mashing process, pH of the mash, temp control, etc. In the meantime, you have a great lawnmower beer!

 

[BOYDBrew]

Huh. Final volume sounds about right for most recipes. If about means 5 gallons for a 5 gallon recipe. If it means 5 1/2 gallons for a 5 gallon recipe, then yeah. A half gallon difference will cause this discrepency.

If you nailed the volumes, then look at the mashing process, pH of the mash, temp control, etc. In the meantime, you have a great lawnmower beer!

So you think over time it might possibly improve?

 

[barneygumble]

So you think over time it might possibly improve?

This batch, in a keg for 1.5 weeks? Sure! Let it sit a week, and try again. It still might be thin in body. But the flavor is sure to improve and develop. Oh and if hops is what you are looking for, you might want to consider dropping a muslin full of another oz of hop in the keg (depressurize first), then repressurize and dry hop in the keg for another week.

Even if you take no other action other than waiting a week it will be better. But still, it may miss the west coast pale ale taste you sound like you are looking for. That is where you go back and make the same beer again and check process, step by step and document. But so what? Would you rather drink your beer right now, or a coors lite after mowing the lawn? Worse case its a learning experience with a beer that kicks MBC beers butt.

 

[jerryboy]

What method did you use to carbonate the beer? Set and forget? If so, just wait and I think it will change more to your liking.

 

[BOYDBrew]

What method did you use to carbonate the beer? Set and forget? If so, just wait and I think it will change more to your liking.

I keg my beer. Sitting at 15psi.
I most certainly hope so!!

 

[Yooper]

With a FG of 1.005, I suspect that the mash was on the cool side and that would favor a thinner drier beer. Between missing the OG by nearly ten points, and it finishing so low, I think this will be a beer with a thin mouthfeel although carbonation will improve it some.

Next time, check your crush and make sure that your mash stays in the 153/154 temperature range and that should fix it in the future.

 

[BOYDBrew]

With a FG of 1.005, I suspect that the mash was on the cool side and that would favor a thinner drier beer. Between missing the OG by nearly ten points, and it finishing so low, I think this will be a beer with a thin mouthfeel although carbonation will improve it some.

Next time, check your crush and make sure that your mash stays in the 153/154 temperature range and that should fix it in the future.

Thanks for the input Yooper.
My mash temp was fairly consistent. Stayed right around 152-153...
My guess is I didn't get a good sparge? I used the 1.25qt h20 per lb of grains... Thought the crush went well... This was my first time brewing by myself and with new equipment... Perhaps I should be stirring my grains a little bit more?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the input Yooper.
My mash temp was fairly consistent. Stayed right around 152-153...
My guess is I didn't get a good sparge? I used the 1.25qt h20 per lb of grains... Thought the crush went well... This was my first time brewing by myself and with new equipment... Perhaps I should be stirring my grains a little bit more?

I'd double check the thermometer- it's hard to believe that an all-malt beer mashed at 153 could finish at 1.005, even with nottingham yeast. That doesn't seem right.

Using 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, and then just sparging up to your boil volume is good standard practice. If you post your entire recipe, we could figure out your actual efficiency and see what's going on.

Stirring well when you mash in is imperative- stir, stir, stir. Then check the temperature in several different places in the mash. If the temperature is different in different areas, stir some more. You want the temperatures to equalize, and the grain and water thoroughly mixed. Make sure that there are no doughballs and that you can stir the mash and it's very fluid feeling. Once the temperature is equal throughout, you can stop stirring.

 

[BOYDBrew]

Here is the recipe. it was ed worts recipe for haus pale ale.
All grain recipe...
thermometer was consitently 153 even when stirring grains.
8 lbs. 2-Row Pale Malt
2 lbs. Vienna Malt
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L Malt
Apparent Attenuation: [(OG-FG)/(OG-1)] x 100
(1.045-1.005)/(1.045-1) x 100
.04/.044 x 100 = 90%

4 Gallons Strike water @175 degrees
Dough in @12:35pm
Mixed in Grains with Strike water
Mash Tun Temp @ 12:35pm = 152 Degrees

Fly Sparge @ 1:35pm
Heated up 3 Gallons to 170 Degrees.
Sparged Grains.
needed to add more H20
Added 1.25 Gallons to sparge.
Collected around 6.5 gallons of wort

Boil @ 2:30pm (220 degrees)
Boil Over!!! had burner on too high of setting.
Decreased heat.
Added 1 oz Cascade
1 Tsp Gypsum

1/2 oz Cascade
Boil @ 3:00 pm (215degrees)

1/4 oz Cascade
Boil @ 3:15pm (220degrees)

1/4 oz Cascade
1 Tsp Irish Moss
Flame out @ 3:30pm

Immersion Chiller placed in Kettle
Temp @ 200 degrees
3:30pm

Temp @ 110 degrees
3:45pm


Cooled down to 80 Degrees
Transferred to Carboy
OG @ 1.045 (80degrees)
will take another OG when cooled down.

Pitched Nottingham Yeast @ 6:30pm
Temp 77 degrees

 

[Yooper]

I'm still going to try to argue my "thermometer theory" ! Nottingham is attenuative, that's for sure, but 90% attenuation would be nearly impossible with that grainbill mashed at 153. Mashed at 149, yes. But not at 153. I'd double check that thermometer and calibrate it.

I will also mention that pitching notty at 77 is WAY too high. It gets weirdly fruity above 70, and sort of foul above about 72. I'd cool the wort to the 60s before pitching most yeast strains, but most especially nottingham. I don't think that is the issue here, though.

For the next time, I'd suggest mashing higher to keep the beer from drying out so much. I like my APAs at 1.010-1.012 FG.

Another thing I thought of- if you didn't mash out, just fly sparged with 170 degree water, you never got your grainbed or wort to mash out temps so the enzymes would continue to work on the wort. That could be part of the issue with the low FG. For next time, either batch sparge (and add the water MUCH hotter, to get the entire grain bed up to 168) or do a mash out before flysparging. That will maintain the mash profile.

If you starting to sparge with 170 degree water and the grainbed was 152, you probably dropped quite a few degrees before finishing the sparge. Did you happen to check the temperature of the grainbed or the runnings during the sparge, especially late in the sparge? A temperature drop with no mash out could be the cause of the thin finish and the lower FG.