Thin APA?

[Somerville]

So its been 5 days in the PF and fermentation has slowed to 1 min intervals. I decided to try just a wee bit and my first impression was that it tasted a bit like really hoppy watery beer or just really thin beer...I could be mistaken though, I only had a tiny taste...heres was my final recipe:
extract: 6lb LME.
Steep .5lb crystal 40L and .5 lb carapils.
For 60min 1 oz perle 7.7%
For 30min 1 oz cascade 5.6%
For 15min 1 oz cascade.
aroma: .5oz cascade.
yeast: WLyeast American Ale (new)
I decided to ditch the honeymalt (as I spoke about in the "Recipes" thread). I'm going to put it 1-2weeks in secondary...will my beer thicken up? the taste would be really nice if it was thicker. oh and I boiled a 2.5 gal batch and then filled to 5gal mark with water in PF. Thanks!

 

[david_42]

Many beers have more mouthfeel when they are carbonated, but you can add 4-8 oz. of maltodextrin for more body. It can go in the secondary or the priming pail.

 

[Somerville]

Ok that sounds good, thanks

 

[sonvolt]

Add some dextrin malt . . . unfermentable, adds body and mouth feel. You can add this at brewtime as a specialty grain called cara-pils. I believe that you can also buy dextin in a bag at your LHBS. Sanitize it by boiling in a little water and add it to your secondary.

 

[Somerville]

Actually, if you look above I did add about 1/2 lb of cara-pils...guess it wasnt enough or was hardly utilized due to steeping. I put it in a bag and left it in until water reached about 170degrees. I think i'll add some dextrin to the secondary like you guys said. Thanks

 

[chillHayze]

I just brewed one very similar to yours except no perle and I used XtraLME. It has decent body. It IS supposed to be a lighter ale after all. Did you steep the grains at 170 for 30 min? If not try it next time you'll get more good stuff outta them as opposed to doing just a few mins of steeping while warming up the water.

I also don't use a grain bag, but a seperate pot, and I dump the contents through a collander into an interum container, then dump that liquid back through the grains in the strainer into my brew pot.

Also, I don't think this relates to your problem but it's a good tip: If you get grains cracked and there is some fine dust in the bag, it is best to filter that dust out, as it imparts an undiserable bittering flavor to the beer. Just pour the dry grains through a collander before steeping.

 

[Somerville]

I just brewed one very similar to yours except no perle and I used XtraLME. It has decent body. It IS supposed to be a lighter ale after all. Did you steep the grains at 170 for 30 min? If not try it next time you'll get more good stuff outta them as opposed to doing just a few mins of steeping while warming up the water.

I also don't use a grain bag, but a seperate pot, and I dump the contents through a collander into an interum container, then dump that liquid back through the grains in the strainer into my brew pot.

Also, I don't think this relates to your problem but it's a good tip: If you get grains cracked and there is some fine dust in the bag, it is best to filter that dust out, as it imparts an undiserable bittering flavor to the beer. Just pour the dry grains through a collander before steeping.

Well, its interesting. onlne hbs catalogs always have picture diagrams with explanations on brewing steps. So, I usually have them out as a reference (so I don't forget something). Morebeer.com's catalog's first step was to place the grains in a bag, place the bag in the pot and turn the heat on. Once the water reached 170degrees, remove the grains and then so forth. Perhaps I will wait until it reaches 170degrees THEN steep for 30 min. Also, what is the point of a seperate pot (so I can learn )? I do notice a fine dust, I will try to filter that out next time.
You said you brewed one very similar (that makes me more confident about my brew), what did you use instead of Perle? Any opinions on the use of Perle hops? Do you think I should add dextrin? Thanks for the help!

 

[Kaiser]

Also, I don't think this relates to your problem but it's a good tip: If you get grains cracked and there is some fine dust in the bag, it is best to filter that dust out, as it imparts an undiserable bittering flavor to the beer. Just pour the dry grains through a collander before steeping.

Where did you hear that? Or has this been your own experience.

The dusty stuff can also be sugars or starches from the grains that you actually want.

As for the malto dextrin, be careful with it. I once added some to bump up the FG by ~3 points and the final beer had an artificial taste to it, that I blamed on the malto dextrin.

Try to determine the attenuation of the ME that you are using (making a starter and letting it ferment out is the best way to do that). Then get Laaglander ME and check it's attenuation. Now you can get any attenuation in between the attenuations of these two extracts by mixing them.

BTW, what was the FG of the beer?

Kai

 

[chillHayze]

Where did you hear that? Or has this been your own experience.

My LHBS owner told me that one. He said it has a larger effect on AG but still is noticeable in just steeping grains. I tried it on the last batch (the one I was referring to in this very post) and I noticed the bitter flavor present in most of my past brews was not there. There could be some fault in my experience because I also used hop plugs this batch instead of pellets which were common in all past brews. Think he might be FOS? Maybe. He's a bit of a . <---crazy person

And Somer, to answer your question I used 2 oz. Cascade plugs ~5%AA: 1oz at 60min, .5 at 15, and .5 at flameout.

 

[Somerville]

Hm...well maybe I'll add just a bit of malto dextrin...or maybe end up not using any at all. I'm just worried that my beer is going to taste like hoppy water. Perhaps that impression will disapear after 1 week in secondary and the carbonation from bottlings. If I was to add malto-dextrin...how much do you think I should use...I do not know my FG (as Kaiser asked). I didn't measure my OG because my hydrometer broke haha oh well.

 

[chillHayze]

I don't think you will have hoppy water at all. 6 lbs of DME is plenty enough to be tasty. Above all, relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

 

[Somerville]

I don't think you will have hoppy water at all. 6 lbs of DME is plenty enough to be tasty. Above all, relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

Haha, an all too common saying but oh so true for a homebrewer! It was actually 6lbs of LME...but I'm sure it will be fine...I'll let the forum know how it went. I'm going to be starting a lager soon with my new fermentation chiller

 

[calman]

In my limited experience, DME gives a much better mouthfeel and after taste, and hence hop seems to be dominated. So far it also seems I am in a lone planet though!