Gravity sample: no flavor

[foxtrot]

Hey guys- just getting back into AG brewing again and have a general question for the experienced folks here. My brown ale is at day 12 and it's finished at 1.012 (OG = 1.056). I tasted the SG sample last night and its pretty flat tasting as far as hoppiness and maltiness goes. I used a recipe from BYO 's Replicator for Bell's Best Brown (one of my favorite browns). The taste so far is not even close! I followed the recipe to the letter (AG option), although I missed the OG by a few points. I used WL Cali yeast. At this juncture, I'm wondering if I should just be patient and see this batch to the end and taste it again in about a month, or should I consider dry hopping to boost the hop flavor.. and what to do about the maltiness???

Just wondering what anyone has done to "flavor boost" a brew right after primary fermentation. The beer is still in the primary. Here's the recipe I followed:


Bell’s Best Brown Ale
(5 gallons, extract with grains)
OG = 1.058 FG = 1.013 IBUs = 30 ABV = 5.9%

Ingredients
6.6 lbs. Briess light malt extract syrup
14 oz. Briess Victory malt
14 oz. Briess Special Roast malt
14 oz. Briess crystal malt (60° L)
2 oz. Briess chocolate malt
6.2 AAU Cascade hops (bittering hop)
(0.75 oz. of 8.3% alpha acid)
3.25 AAU Nugget hops (bittering hop)
(0.25 oz. of 13% alpha acid)
1.2 AAU Fuggle hops (flavor hop)
(0.25 oz. of 4.7% alpha acid)
2.4 AAU Fuggle hops (aroma hop)
(0.5 oz. of 4.7% alpha acid)
1 tsp. Irish moss for 45 min.
White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming

Step by step

Steep crushed malts in three gallons of water at 150º F for 30 min. Remove grains from wort, add malt syrup and powder and bring to a boil. Add Cascade and Nugget (bittering) hops, Irish moss and boil for 45 min. Add 0.25 ounce of Fuggle hops (flavor hops) for last 15 min. of the boil. Add 0.5 ounce of Fuggle (aroma) hops for the last two minutes of the boil.
When done boiling, strain out hops, add wort to two gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 80º F, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68-70º F, and ferment for 10-14 days. Bottle your beer, age for two to three weeks and enjoy!

All-grain option:
Replace the light syrup with 8.25 lbs. 2-row pale malt. Mash all your grains at 155º F for 45 minutes. Collect enough wort to boil for 75 min. and have a 5.5-gallon yield. Lower the amount of the Cascade boiling hops to 0.5 of an ounce to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Catfish]

I have a lot of trouble tasting my beer flat... I can drink it no problem, but the final flavors are a mystery. Carb it up and drink it. Do not worry about adjusting this batch of beer, you can adjust the next, or tha one after that. If you do someting odd to it now you will not know if the final off flavor is the beer recipe of your attempt to fix it. Drink it as is (it is beer after all) fix the problems next time.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

#1, you used 6.6lbs of malt extract so this is not an AG brew, it's an extract brew
#2, with those steeping grains I would expect some very nice maltiness. Don't worry about it, let it carb up, get cold and then pass your judgement. A lot can happen while it's aging. The hops are going to mellow, but you again, let it age, then pass your judgement. Although, it wouldn't hurt it to dry hop it, if you really want some hoppiness.

 

[mrk305]

Looks like a good recipe to me, and your gravity looks right. I think this beer will suprise you.

 

[mrk305]

#1, you used 6.6lbs of malt extract so this is not an AG brew, it's an extract brew
#2, with those steeping grains I would expect some very nice maltiness. Don't worry about it, let it carb up, get cold and then pass your judgement. A lot can happen while it's aging. The hops are going to mellow, but you again, let it age, then pass your judgement. Although, it wouldn't hurt it to dry hop it, if you really want some hoppiness.

I followed the recipe to the letter (AG option),


I had to read it twice, too

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

If it was AG then it could be a lot of different reasons for lack of maltiness. What temp did you mash at? How long did you mash? How was your crush? What was your base malt?

 

[adx]

RDWHAHB. The flavors need time to meld. I drank a hydro sample that tasted like nothing more then warm water and 5 weeks later I had a great beer.

 

[foxtrot]

To answer O' Flannagain, I mashed for 45 minutes, per recipe. I usually mash for 60 - 90 minutes, which may have been part of the issue. (I should probably stick with what works for my set up). My temp was fairly steady at 154. Grains crushed at LHB (crankestein).

Cool. I think I'll take the majority's vote here and wait it out. Thanks all for the kind support!