How do I make my beer less thick?

[IamAPenguin12]

Hi, guys. Brand new on this site. I had just undertaken a huge project making a 12 lbs grain Imperial Stout. I also used 6.6 lbs of marris otter syrup. I only have 7 gallon mash tun and lauter tank and thus I was hardly able to get any water in at all for the mash out after my sac rest. The brew is in the secondary fermenter right now and it looks, smells and tastes really really nice. BUT, I notice a significant amount of malty, syrupy thick sludge that sits on the bottom of my glass. I really don't want this in my final product and I'm thinking it's because I could not perform a complete mash out. Is there any advice I could receive to keep this sludge from forming in the final product? I was thinking I could add some 5.2 PH water either to the secondary fermenter or a tad in each bottle during bottling day. Let me know what you guys think, thank you!

 

[fartinmartin]

Where do you start
How clean was it coming from the tun?
Was the syrup fully diluted in the boil?
Hot break ?
Cold break?
Was all the trub left behind?
Has it had time?
As its still in secondary it hasnt cold crashed yet.

I would just hang in there and let it be so as to clear.

 

[IamAPenguin12]

That's a good point, all the gunk falls to the bottom anyways. I think another reason may be that (I don't have a temp controlled environment, so) I read to slowly stir up the primary to awaken the dormant yeast, and I probably stirred up the sticky malts on the bottom as well. I'm probably just worrying too much. I'll take another sample after secondary fermentation. Thanks! Cheers!

 

[fartinmartin]

What makes you think you have dormant yeast? I suggest you do a brew or part of a brew in glass, you will then see how active those yeasties are, they will get out of anything at the bottom of your fermentor when they want to. By doing a secondary you have denied them the chance to try.

 

[gr8shandini]

When you say the sludge is at the bottom of your "glass", do you mean the carboy or the glass you're tasting with? If it's the latter, it's normal to have a little film at the bottom when tasting a gravity sample. There are still some solids in there that need to settle out. By the time the beer is packaged and ready to drink, it'll be clear.

And not having a mash out isn't going to hurt anything. The mash out is just to denature the enzymes in the wort and stop conversion of some complex sugars into simple ones. Skipping it just means you'll have a lower FG and thinner beer than you may have planned on.

 

[pokerpat]

DON'T add the 5.2, it's meant to be added in the mash. Read the label for cautions.