How can I obtain Good Body and Mouth feel with this Recipe?

[HomeBrewMaster]

Looking for some ideas on how to make sure I get the right body and mouth feel for this recipe. I have oak codes that have been sitting in bourbon for over a year. I usually mash at 152-153, I am thinking I might try this brew at 156. I don't really want my beer to be overly sweet though. I also BIAB.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

If you are fine with an increase in OG, the adding oats to the mash will help. Lactose is another option as well, it's only 1/6th as sweet as regular table sugar so it's unlikely the beer will end up sweet on the other side.

Otherwise very low carbonation if you don't want to make any changes to the recipe itself. Serve it warm and pour vigorously to knock out the carbonation and you'll get decent body. Another option would be to pull a page from Wee Heavy brewing and boil some of the first runnings till they're a thick syrup.

If your fermentation is healthy you shouldn't have issues with the beer becoming sweet with the above options.

 

[ChemErik]

For mouth feel without much sweetness, I like using flaked grains. In your recipe flaked oats sound ideal. But rye, wheat, or flaked barley would also work.

 

[HomeBrewMaster]

If you are fine with an increase in OG, the adding oats to the mash will help. Lactose is another option as well, it's only 1/6th as sweet as regular table sugar so it's unlikely the beer will end up sweet on the other side.

Otherwise very low carbonation if you don't want to make any changes to the recipe itself. Serve it warm and pour vigorously to knock out the carbonation and you'll get decent body. Another option would be to pull a page from Wee Heavy brewing and boil some of the first runnings till they're a thick syrup.

If your fermentation is healthy you shouldn't have issues with the beer becoming sweet with the above options.

For mouth feel without much sweetness, I like using flaked grains. In your recipe flaked oats sound ideal. But rye, wheat, or flaked barley would also work.

I would be ok with my OG going up, i was thinking of using some sort of flaked oat, but I am unsure of how much.

I also just noticed that my recipe has changed since I have updated some of my equipment info. I see my SRM and OG are lower then before I am curious how to balance the recipe out. I understand that having to much caramel malt can be an issue sometime, and I already have a total of 1.4lbs.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I would be ok with my OG going up, i was thinking of using some sort of flaked oat, but I am unsure of how much.

I also just noticed that my recipe has changed since I have updated some of my equipment info. I see my SRM and OG are lower then before I am curious how to balance the recipe out. I understand that having to much caramel malt can be an issue sometime, and I already have a total of 1.4lbs.

For a brown ale I think 1.4lbs of caramel malts isn't that bad unless you are going for the hoppier end of the style (I'd almost bet most of the issues that stem from a beer becoming too sweet and high caramel malt bills are from fermentation issues rather than recipe issues).

The flaked oats and barley probably will have the least amount of character but will add body and such to your beer. The wheat and rye will add some of their unique character to the beer that may come through in the flavor. If you are a fearless person though the flaked rye, lightly toasted in the oven, will in my experience add a big creamy almost oily character if you don't do a beta-glucan rest, its fun to pour a cold glass of a beer with lots of flaked rye in it, looks like you are pouring maple syrup. Though it will add that rye spiciness, but if you are gonna age it on oak with whiskey it will probably actually compliment the beer.

 

[HomeBrewMaster]

For a brown ale I think 1.4lbs of caramel malts isn't that bad unless you are going for the hoppier end of the style (I'd almost bet most of the issues that stem from a beer becoming too sweet and high caramel malt bills are from fermentation issues rather than recipe issues).

The flaked oats and barley probably will have the least amount of character but will add body and such to your beer. The wheat and rye will add some of their unique character to the beer that may come through in the flavor. If you are a fearless person though the flaked rye, lightly toasted in the oven, will in my experience add a big creamy almost oily character if you don't do a beta-glucan rest, its fun to pour a cold glass of a beer with lots of flaked rye in it, looks like you are pouring maple syrup. Though it will add that rye spiciness, but if you are gonna age it on oak with whiskey it will probably actually compliment the beer.

I am definatly thinking I am going to add flaked oats of some sort. I feel as if I need to add more specialty malts to bring my SRM up so I have a nice "brown" brown ale. This is where my lack of experience with building recipes comes in, I want the end product to be balanced. I hate the thought of just guessing and adding extra malt to achieve a higher SRM number.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

If you have any midnight wheat handy that could do the trick without majorly messing with the overall balance of the recipe. Midnight wheat is nice and dark at 550L, huskless so it doesn't give off a ton of astringency, and its flavor is very mellow even at high amounts.

Decoction mashing is another option as well to add color without messing with the recipe. Though its much easier in this case to use a high color low-roast-flavor dark malt like midnight wheat. Increasing the pale chocolate couldn't hurt either since its a tasty malt anyway, little bit of midnight wheat, and a little bit extra pale chocolate should get you to the range you need.

2-4 oz of midnight wheat should get you right into the minimum range for a brown ale, then upping the pale chocolate a tad, another 2 or so oz max. You could up the black patent but from my experience black patent is much more assertive compared to midnight wheat.

 

[HomeBrewMaster]

i got some advice today and I changed the recipe to this. let me know what you think.
I am brewing this tomorrow because the weather will be nice.