Brews Lacking Body

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losp

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Hi All,

The last few brews have all come out lacking a bit of body/flavour. I was hoping someone could give me a hand or a few hints as to why.

I single infusion batch. The last few brews (bright ale, pale ale and dark lager) have all come out slightly thin tasting. They have all been done at about medium body temps.

I usually mash for 60 and boil for 75. I am going to start boiling for 60 and treating hop aditions like i am boiling for 75 as i no-chill and i have also noticed that they have had a bit too much hop flavour instead of aroma.

I use regular tap water and i bottle.

Thanks in advance guys
 
You mention this has only been "the last few brews", have you done anything different for the last few brews than the ones before? I'm assuming you didn't have this issue before.
 
How about a few more details losp, ingredients, what is medium body temps, also I would expect boiling for 60 instead of 75 will make the problem worse with less reduction of your wort.
 
wbosher: its a problem that has been around for a while (perhaps lingered since i have been AG-ing). The few brews before that i overshot the SG a lot (combination of underestimating efficiency and crushing grain a little thin) and they ended up coming out very nice (body wise) although the alcohol content was much higher than initially planned. I am guessing that the problem was around then, but i just hadn't noticed.

yum beer: The last 3, i know for sure sat at 67 (watched it like a hawk) for about an hour (there was a few minutes of so of stuffing around to get to that temp, it went in in at around 65 i think). I'm at work, i have the recipes at home. Ill pop them up later. I can tell you that the SG and FG were in the expected range though.
 
What gear do you use for your mash? E.g. stovetop or urn. I'm wondering about a thermometer calibration or something like that (if it would be applicable for your gear).
 
carpedaym said:
What gear do you use for your mash? E.g. stovetop or urn. I'm wondering about a thermometer calibration or something like that (if it would be applicable for your gear).
I mash in an esky.
I calibrated the thermometer before installing it and checked it lat time and it was bang on.

Could it be anything else? the way things are cleaned? water quality?
 
Is your base malt pilsner? If so change to ale and I imagine your problems will be solved
 
eddy22 said:
Is your base malt pilsner? If so change to ale and I imagine your problems will be solved
This could be it!! How much of a difference would it make? I had thought that they were very similar and interchangeable.

It wouldnt it explain the lagers that have come out a little light though? Many/most recipies call for a combo of pilsner and munich/vienna. Maybe that was just a coincidence.
 
Diesel80 said:
Yeast, pitch rates?

Cheers,
D80
For the Ales, just 1 pitch, wyeast, no starter. for lagers, i generally do 1 - 3L depending on what it is.
The cube is usually at the right temp, pack is already smacked, and i drop it in.
 
losp said:
This could be it!! How much of a difference would it make? I had thought that they were very similar and interchangeable.

It wouldnt it explain the lagers that have come out a little light though? Many/most recipies call for a combo of pilsner and munich/vienna. Maybe that was just a coincidence.
For me it was the case, I made my first with 5 and found they all lacked a little body, still great none the less, used ale malt however and definitely solved my problems, I'd say it would be your issue, try it and see what happens
 
Just think of the normal body of a pilsner then compare it to most pale ales or ipa's and if your beers are tasting more pilsner and lighter in body and not as much pale ale, ipa bodied then that's your issue
 
Try adding your specialty malts at mashout instead of adding with your base malts at dough in as well to improve the flavour.
 
Are they the same recipes as you were using before?

If you're hitting the numbers (gravity and volumes) then i assume your scales used to measure the grain are on the mark.

What method did you use to calibrate the thermometer? and was it calibrated at 65 degrees C? ie calibrating at 100 deg C is pretty pointless with a lot of cheap themometers.

Do you test your pH in the mash?

Cheers,
Martin
 
losp said:
I mash in an esky.
I calibrated the thermometer before installing it and checked it lat time and it was bang on.

Could it be anything else? the way things are cleaned? water quality?
So you're relying on a dial thermometer in an esky?

Unless you have constant recirculation, it is very likely you have hot and cold spots in your mash. Dial thermometers do not, in my experience, paint an accurate picture of what occurs an esky tun.

Body is generally related to dextrins which a high mash will help with but perception of the beer may also be to do with alcohol content, dryness/attenuation, recipe, etc.

Can you give us an example of a recipe, including processes, types and brands of malt etc?
 
I'm curious about why the Pils malt would have any less body mashed at the same temp as Ale malt especially because I use both and havent noticed it.

regarding the issue, something to think about is the carbonation. Over carbed beer to me also feels thinner, but also lends a somewhat acidic bite when extreme
 
Pennywise said:
I'm curious about why the Pils malt would have any less body mashed at the same temp as Ale malt especially because I use both and havent noticed it.

regarding the issue, something to think about is the carbonation. Over carbed beer to me also feels thinner, but also lends a somewhat acidic bite when extreme

definitely right about the carbonation thing, at least I've always noticed that as well. As for the malts, personally for me it made a big difference, pilsner just tasted thinner and cleaner than the ale malt which had that 'warmer' malty mouth feel I was after to back up the hops. That's just my 2c,
 
Just been doing a litle search and came across this article:

http://byo.com/breweries/item/89-add-body-to-your-beer

The reason I was searching is because a lot of the reactions that occur during mashing are either begun during malting, or are replicated/similar to those which occur during malting. Thus the idea that changing a lighter kilned malt for a slightly higher kilned malt (say pils for munich or vienna) as well as changing the variety of barley (and the brand) might lead to a different result - protein and dextrins being the main culprits.
 
Example Recipe:

Amt Name Type # %/IBU 3700.00 g Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 68.3 % 1075.00 g Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 19.9 % 320.00 g Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.9 % 320.00 g Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.9 % 18.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 5 8.8 IBUs 18.00 g Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 6 6.4 IBUs 4.00 g Pride of Ringwood [9.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 7 3.2 IBUs 10.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 3.2 IBUs 10.00 g Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 2.3 IBUs 20.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs 20.00 g Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 12 - 13.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs 11.00 g Saaz [4.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
 
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