Learning from my first beer

[Fusorfodder]

Well, my first beer is in the bottle right now and I want to know what I could have done to make it better.

The recipe consisted of:
1lb crystal 60 steeped
6lbs light lme
2oz fuggles for 30min
1of willamette for 10min
Nottingham Ale Yeast

I ended up with a rather malty brown ale which is fine, but I'd like for it to have had more body. It has a good flavor up front but after the initial taste it seems a bit watered down. All said, it seems to be to be similar to some mass marketed brown ale. I am not at all disappointed with it being my first brew, but I want to do better for future brews.

Any tips or ideas for this particular issue? Is there some additive or different yeast that would have produced the result I'm looking for?

 

[Yooper]

Well, the first thing that jumps out at me is that you didn't boil any of the hops for 60 minutes, just the fuggles for bittering at 30 minutes. While that will give you some IBUs, I don't think it really gives you the bitterness in the beer to balance out all that crystal.

The body might come with time- how long has it been bottled? If it's been at least 3 weeks, and brewday was at least 6 weeks ago, it probably won't get much better. If that's the case, next time steep some carapils (about 7-8 ounces for a 5 gallon batch) with the crystal.

 

[Fusorfodder]

Thanks, that's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for!