Apa Lacking Body

[bullsneck]

fellow brewers,

I recently put down an APA. It's okay, not great. I feel it lacks body.

Here is the recipe...

Extract

1.5kg Light Malt Extract Can
200g CaraMunich
250g Light Crystal
1kg Light Dried Malt

25g Horizon 60mins
20g Cascade 10mins
10g Cascade Flameout
20g Cascade 5 days

US-05 yeast used pitched @ 23deg, fermented @ 18 deg for 2 weeks

How can I get more body next time?

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Wisey]

run with a heavier malt?

e.g. Morgans Lager malt extract has a deep colour and flavour to it

 

[Bribie G]

Mate, you have gone all malt and the hop list is good so you have done all the right things, and I don't see a problem. Maybe you are a candidate for going to partial mash? If you do even just a kilo of something like Munich II mashed at 68 degrees for an hour along with the crystal malts, sparged into a pot and boiled with the hops and reduce the light dried malt extract to 750g, that should push the body for you. You can get into partial mashing really cheaply equipment-wise.

 

[Adamt]

What was your OG/FG? It really shouldn't be lacking body with those ingredients, unless there's an infection of sorts that is fermenting it drier.

 

[bullsneck]

My OG was high 1060s, perhaps even into the 1070s. I didn't mix terribly well, though.

It could be my tastes still stuck in winter mode, ie. thick stouts have been on the menu lately.

Anyone would be free to come taste and offer their opinion!

 

[bullsneck]

What about Wheat Malt? Would that add body?

 

[Fourstar]

People are not going to like me saying this but extract beers usually end up quite thin and you need some residual dextrins in there. Steep your next batch with some carapils, say 200g worth. all it will add is dextrins and more grain flavour. other option is maltodextrin.. i'd much prefer to add carapils. not to mention it will aid in head retention and glass lacing

Cheers!

 

[kegpig]

i have recently done one simmilar but used 4 kg malt

 

[Gavo]

Agree with Fourstar here, try steeping some Carapils. What was the volume you made this up to? To get an OG of 1060 with those fermentables it would have to be around 15lt.

Gavo.

 

[Adamt]

And what was your FG?

 

[bullsneck]

I did 24L. As I said, I didn't stir very well at all.

It finished up at around 1014-1016 from memory.

AG sounds so tempting, but I haven't the time.

Extract or even partial is as close as I'll get for a while.

 

[Gavo]

Those fermentables made up to a volume of 24 lt would give you an OG of around 1038 and consequently a beer with a thin mouthfeel. With an extract there are a couple of ways to increase body. The easiest way is to increase the OG, say for 24lt up the LDME addition to 1.7kg which will of course have the terrible side effect of giving you a higher ABV. The other way is to increase some grains such as the Carapils which are largley unfermentable.

I would have expected to see your FG closer to 1010, which again will lead to a beer with a thinner body. which brings us to the prospect of mashing even a kilo of grain to brew a partail and using extract to make up the balance of your fermentables. Using more grain will give you more body and waaaay moooorre flavor. You can experiment with mash temps then also.

Mashing for partials isn't really much of a larger step than steeping grain, just more control and time needed. Furthermore can be easily managed with a small amount of equipment and done in the kitchen

Cheers
Gavo.

Edit: Thyping

 

[buttersd70]

if it finished at 1014, it shouldn't have body issues...

if it's highly carbonated, it will be percieved as being thinner than it is; same goes if it's too cold.

 

[manticle]

AG sounds so tempting, but I haven't the time.

Extract or even partial is as close as I'll get for a while.

Partial mash and AG are about the same time frame as both need a 60 min mash before a 60 min boil. Unhopped extract requires a 60 min boil with steeping grains requiring an extra 30 mins on top of that.

Adding some crystals to what you are doing should help. Maltodextrin would also work but it's like adding chicken stock cubes to stew. I think there are better ways.