Maltodexrin Substitute?

[wjjohnson]

I have a beer that is really thin and really alcoholic! 11%abv blonde ale, I was told to put about 4 ounces of maltodexrin in the 5 gal batch along with some lactose. My LHBS is always out of maltodexrin, other that paying for shipping and ordering it online, is there any thing else I could use to add some body to this beer? I have heard of using malto meal? Any ideas or suggestions. Thanks all!

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

add some specialty malt to your grain bill like biscuit or victory or cara-pils dextrin malt 10-14L.

 

[Edcculus]

Whats the recipe. Its hard to tell you where to go when we don't know where you started.

 

[wjjohnson]

9lbs 2-row
2lbs maize
2lbs orange blossum honey (added into primary)
1lb honey malt
1lb buscuit malt
1/2 lb carapils

I think the honey made it too thin.

 

[Edcculus]

Yea, the honey will dry it out and reduce the body. Have you bottled yet, or is it still in the fermenter?

If its not bottled yet, it will gain some body with carbonation. You could even bottle it in champange bottles and carb it up to 4 volumes. It will be somewhat tripel-esque.

 

[david_42]

You could try steeping 8 oz. of dextrine malt and adding that, but it will give you some starches as well. Oatmeal might also help, same problem.

The corn also reduced the body, not just the honey. That's a heck of a high ABV for a blonde though.

This might be one of those brew-another-beer and blend problems.

 

[Edcculus]

Wow, I didn't even see the maize. 2lbs of maize and 2lbs of honey. That has got to be one thin beer.

 

[BJBrewer]

Hey! Its the same guy, diffrent name. I thought that the honey would leave a nice taste to this beer, Is the Dry malt carapils? I know this stuff is going to be like rocket fuel but could I dump in 3 lbs of LDME in hopes that it will add some body and maltyness, not to mention that the ABV will also go up quite a bit. It could be more like a blonde barley wine. Age it for about a year? I did the hops a little bit diffrently. I used Spalt(60min) and nugget (15min). Then I used more nugget to dryhop. Its been in the secondary for about a month and 2 weeks. I could just bottle it and stick with what I got. It smells great, just dam thin! I took a sample taste the other night and by the time I walked out of the room I felt tipsy...oh yeah 11.1%abv. So any help with this is truly helpful! thanks all!

 

[Bob]

First, multiple logins is a forums faux pas. There's no reason for being two people.

Second, your best bet is to brew another batch and blend it. Dumping in more fermentables like DME isn't going to fix it. On the other hand, it's not going anywhere in the secondary; you can simply wait until your LHBS restocks his maltodextrin.

Cheers,

Bob