How Do I Give My Ales More Body

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climbatize

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I'm just wondering how would I go about giving my ales more punch, more body..

I punched a six pack of Burleigh’s 28 Pale Ale on new years eve and the taste is quite heavy and it's quite dark in the glass, yet it's only ABV 4.8%.. Hell, it's a good beer.

http://beerbureau.com/brew-review-burleighs-28-pale-ale

I have brewed two toucans (Aus Pale Ale) in the vain hope i'm gonna get an explosion of flavour in my mouth, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Any ideas?

I may add i've been hopping with Galaxy, Cascade & Amarillo.

Cheers.
 
Going to be quite difficult if you aren't brewing AG. Then you can play with mash temps and different grains (like munich and the like) to add more body.

Would also be worth trying an all extract brew if you haven't done this before.
 
you could try steeping some crystal malts and/or adding some maltodextrines to your kits for some extra body.
 
Not using any grains.

Would also be worth trying an all extract brew if you haven't done this before.

What do you mean 'all extract brew'?

And I would get crystal malt from my local home brew shop? I've no idea how expensive it is, but is it worth the extra cash?
 
yes you should be able to get crystal at any good hbs and with kit beers it is totally worth it.
 
Not using any grains.



What do you mean 'all extract brew'?

And I would get crystal malt from my local home brew shop? I've no idea how expensive it is, but is it worth the extra cash?

What he means is lose the cans of pre-hopped goo (Coopers, Blakrock, Muntons etc) and add all hop additions yourself. Using Malt extract (liquid, dry, wheat etc) in conjunction with greater amount of hops enables you to play as you please. You can use grains also. For the $15-20 you spend on the kit beer you can spend that on additional hops, grain and better yeast.

I have recently made the switch and it is definitely worthwile. I have 3 young kids so All Grain is not an option at present, however with extract at least i feel i am doing something, as opposed to just adding sugar to goo and getting ok beer. Now I feel like I am getting good beer, anbd feel a lot more proud of it!

Also, a fridge has been a very wise investment to control temperatures :)

Cheers,
Mut
 
you could try steeping some crystal malts and/or adding some maltodextrines to your kits for some extra body.

Agree marksfish, you could try Carapils, steeped. Have a look at Craftbrewer crystal malts They vary on adding colour, maltiness and caramel/toffee flavours. If its just body, head retennion and mouthfeel the carapils might help.
Are you achieving the flavour you are after?

Ive had the 28 and thought it was good. If you are getting close with cans you are are doing very well.
Daz
 
cost of crystal??? its about $4 a kg and you you about 200g so less then $1

you could take your beer to the gym and get it to work out might make it get more body :p or feed it heap of malt (no dextrose or sugar) and it will get fat and get more body :D
 
And I would get crystal malt from my local home brew shop? I've no idea how
expensive it is, but is it worth the extra cash?
Crystal malt is not expensive (like $5 for 1kg).

Using up my cans of pre-hopped goo, I recently made a ghetto DrSmurto Golden Ale
(sorry Doc :rolleyes:) with a tin of Coopers Real Ale, half a tin of Coopers Wheat Malt,
and 1kg of caramalt (I've read many people say to put no more than 0.5kg of specialty
grains in a brew but I thought what the heck, have sweet tooth) into 22L with 20g
Amarillo @10mins and 40g Amarillo dry hopped for 5 days in cold conditioning before
bottling. It turned out pretty well and body wise had a nice and fluffy texture.

FYI, my procedure was to steep the caramalt to get about 3L of liquid, boiled it up for
about 15mins or so, added the Real Ale and Wheat goo, mix it all up, add amarillo and
boil for another 10mins before pouring into chilled water, etc. (fermented with yeast
originating from a Thomas Coopers Sparkling Ale kit).

I used a large brewing dedicated sieve to strain the liquid from the caramalt or you
could get some swiss voile cloth and do it BIAB-like.
 
Is using a yeast like US-05 going to give a very different drink as opposed to using the yeast under the can lid?

I'm on my third brew and my first tastes quite like my third, although i've easily used twice the amount of hops and fermentables on the third brew and slightly less water! First and third brews i've used the yeast that comes with the can and the second I used US-05 & kit yeast together. The second brew was very taste heavy. Very malty and a taste I can't quite put my finger on was nearly over the top. Haven't tired dry hopping yet. It's strange that the second came out quite dark and with a heavy taste using the US-05 and the other two taste a little.. well bland. I've only used the Aus Pale Ale cans.
 
Is using a yeast like US-05 going to give a very different drink as opposed to
using the yeast under the can lid? ... Aus Pale Ale cans.
Seems so as you are finding out - yeast is probably the main factor in determining
how a beer turns out.

Tracking down a can of Coopers' Thomas Coopers Selection Sparkling Ale
might be worth your while - the main man at Brewmaker (SA LHBS) told me
the T.C.S. range has a better premium yeast than the standard range that
the Aus Pale Ale is in - esp if you're into yeast reuse by washing or culturing.
 
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