I'm a little worried about my Brown Ale

[gtpro]

I think I read that browns usually have less carbonation as a style marker so I bottled mine with a bit less priming sugar, 3.5 weeks in the bottle and its tasty, its just lacking body and head.

I do realize that I'm still at about the minimum bottle conditioning time, and I dont mind waiting longer, but the fact that I used less priming sugar makes me think that it might never reach its full potential.

 

[chode720]

Anything that is carbonated low will not have a good head retention. I just did a brown ale and i tried pouring it several different ways to get a bigger head, but with a lower carbonation, its just hard to get a good head formation.

As for body, I dont think that carbonation has a huge effect on that. Are you brewing extract or all grain? Without knowing process, recipe, etc, its hard to evaluate that part of it

 

[gtpro]

all grain, it was https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/nut-brown-ag-30187/ I think the flaked oats addition is solely to introduce more body to the beer, maybe its just a little too flat for me and its causing a thin mouthfeel.

 

[david_42]

Worst case, get some carbonation drops and add one to each bottle. But browns don't generally have good head retention and as do other session beers, less body.

 

[kjjohns5]

I say open the sucker! lol, I'm actually drinking a brown ale I made about 5 1/2 weeks ago; like stated above, the head retention is low. It actually pours well, a good 1/2 inch of beautiful white foam, but after a couple of sips it's virtually gone.

 

[gtpro]

yeah, the retention isnt the problem for me, its producing any head at all, all of my beers so far have had great head, this was the first that I've had problems with and coincidentally the only one that I've used less than 3/4 cup priming sugar in. The next one I open I'm just gonna pour it straight down into the glass to try to rouse some protein pillows, maybe that will help psychologically at the very least.