I feel ripped off

[jeremyjudd]

Still, watery is weird. 8.5 pounds of malt is a lot of extract. I just brewed a pale ale with 5.5 pounds of DME and a pound of crystal malt and while it's certainly lighter than my stouts, it's far from watery. And even if you totally spaced it and didn't add any hops at all, it still wouldn't be watery. It would just be thick malt (basically, not beer).

FYI - for crushing your grains in the future, my LHBS won't mill less than 2lbs of grain, but they recommended using a large ziplock bag and rolling over it with a rolling pin. Seemed to work fine.... I've also heard a coffee bean grinder will do the trick. Just make sure you've got a strainer fine enough to catch the grain after it's been through it...

 

[bigmanbt]

the "D" word referring to what happens to Hops when exposed to heat and oxygen. I just cant' remember what it is. Like Denatrification or something like that but I know thats not it. The breaking down of the hops quality.

 

[passedpawn]

Maybe you are thinking of denatured, which is used to describe enzymes that have been made inactive by excessive heat. I haven't heard that word used with hops, though.