heaaaaaad and body knees and toes knees and toes

[Thor the Mighty]

so the last two beers ive made have had very light bodies and crappy head retention. anything short of adding heading powder during time of bottling, is there anything you can do to improve this?

 

[Parker36]

How big are your boils?

 

[Revvy]

What are your recipes? Are they AG or Extract?

 

[Yooper]

Sure, there are several things you can do. Are you doing extract with steeping grains, partial mash or AG?

 

[BierMuncher]

1/2 pound of carapils goes a long way to add body and good head retention.

 

[blacklab]

1/2 pound of carapils goes a long way to add body and good head retention.

quoted for emphasis. Works like a charm for me.

 

[Thor the Mighty]

What are your recipes? Are they AG or Extract?

extract

How big are your boils?

on my face and arms? OMGOMGOMGOMG jk

5 gallons

EDIT: i just looked carapils up and was wondering....its a specialty grain, so could i just smash them up and add them in with my other specialty grains when im brewing w/ extract?

 

[Yooper]

Yes, carapils (also known as dextrine malt) goes in with the other specialty grains. It's unfermentable, and works great to add body and head retention. You can also use a pound of wheat in recipes, which will really help with head retention, too.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Clean glass???

 

[Thor the Mighty]

cool cool. here's another one just so i dont have to open another thread:

i just made my first belgian wit *hoegaarden clone from austin home brew* 5 gallon batch extract, i followed the instructions to the T, but it didnt say wether or not to strain the orange peel/corriander/hops out when i poured my wort into the primary fermenter. i DID strain it just because i thought it would be funky as all balls if i left that stuff in there.

AND ANOTHER!

i made a double barrel ale too *5gal extract* from morebeer.com and it requires you to oak and double hop it. it just smells, and tastes very oaky and hoppy but with zero body and or sweetness. wtf happened?

thanks for the help

 

[Parker36]

The oakiness and hoppiness should go down in time. How long ago did you make it?

PS: Oakiness: trademark pending

 

[Thor the Mighty]

probably about a month and a half ago. still smells pretty oaky. like someone armwrestled an oak tree, then punched you in the face.