watery green beer

[noobrewer]

I made the porter in How To Brew, it has been in the primary for 17 days. Tasted some of it yesterday and it seemed very watery. The only thing I did different was the LHBS guy gave me 7lb of LME instead of 6lb per recipe. Also, I don't exactly remember why, but the liquid level is 5.5 gallons. Did I accidentally step on my dick and over dilute my batch (it was a 3 gallon boil, but it did have 1 extra lb of extract). Thanks!

 

[Beerrific]

Many times uncarbonated beer is described as watery. You would be surprised how much body the carbonation will add.

Beyond that, I would say post the recipe you used and your OG and FG and maybe something else is going on.

RDWHAHB!!

 

[Dark_Ale]

I think LME gives you ~37points so 7lbsX37=259/5.5 should give you around a 1.047 OG....I think once you carbonate it , will be great, its very young....I dont think you stepped on it.....What kind of yeast did you use?

 

[noobrewer]

I used American Ale Dry yeast (I did keep the wraper, but am not going to dig around for it), the OG for 5 gallons was 1.052 (recipe predicted 1.048).
Port O' Palmer - Porter
Malts Gravity Contribution
6 lbs. of Pale Malt Extract (syrup) 72
1/2 lb. of Chocolate Malt 3
1/2 lb. of Crystal 60L Malt 3
1/4 lb. of Black Patent Malt 1
BG for 3 Gallons 1.079
OG for 5 Gallons 1.048
Hops IBU Contribution
1 oz of Nugget (10%) at 60 minutes 26
3/4 oz of Willamette (5%) at 40 minutes 9
1/2 oz of Willamette (5%) at 20 minutes 4
Total IBUs 39
Yeast(s) Fermentation Schedule
American Ale (liquid) Primary Ferment at 65°F for 2 weeks, or 1 wk Primary and 2 wk Secondary

 

[avidhomebrewer]

Sounds good to me. Let it go and it will turn out good. I have tasted many brews that are still fermenting and they taste nasty, only to let them age, finish fermentation and package, they taste great. Don't give up yet.

 

[noobrewer]

cool, wilco

 

[malkore]

I'd guess your OG reading was a little off too. It's hard to get a partial boil mixed with top off water for a truely homogenous solution. your hydro sample was 'malt heavy' so it read a few points higher. This is really common for partial boil extracts.

once its carb'd it'll have the right mouth feel.

 

[mrk305]

When I was brewing extracts with steeping grains I used the same amounts you used. Seven pounds LME plus specialty grains to make 5.5 gallons. Looks great to me.