Body?

[croc4]

I couldn't resist the urge and cracked open a bottle from my first batch last night, it has mellowed considerably from how it tasted at bottling (~5days ago). However, it does not have much body,
Will the beer "grow" body as it ages?
or is there something to add to the wort to create body at boil time?. On my last batch I "made up" a recipe, I used a lot more crystal malt than what I used in the first batch, I understand that is one thing that will give it some body?


I'm not a big fan of hoppy beers, so I'm not looking to boost the hop flavor alone. Since this is my first ever homebrew, maybe I don't have a good reference to judge it from?, I'm comparing it to commercial brews (fat tire, Newcastle, red hook, Gordon Bierch, etc) when I say "no body"
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[fuji6100]

I have noticed with several of my beers that they taste a little watered down until they have aged a bit. I'm not sure why this happens, but usually they don't taste right until they have been bottled about 2 weeks. 3 weeks has been my benchmark for beer not tasting "green" and about 6 weeks until the hops/malt comes to a balance.

[beerman1001001]

I think more time in the bottle would definitely help. Dextrin malt is also pretty good for adding body to your beer, without contributing sweetness.

[Tom C]

I prefer carapils over dextrin malt for body.

Tom C

[sallad]

i thought carapils and dextrin malt were just different names for the same thing..? am i wrong on that?

[beerman1001001]

I think they're pretty much the same thing. Here's a BYO article on it: http://byo.com/mrwizard/776.html

[fuji6100]

So is it worth using cara-pils in an extract/specialty grain brewing when crystal malt is available? I was following a recipie for a pale lager that called for steeping 1/2 lb of cara-pils for 45 minutes at 160F.

I read somewhere that little to no enzyme action occurs when grain is steeped because there is too high of a water/grain ratio, I wonder why they called for steeping for 45 minutes?

[croc4]

I have been going over the steps I took , to see if there was something I missed.

After doing some web searches / reading I think I may have found at least part of my problem, aside from the obvious therapy ;-).

The kit I used came with crystal malt, and the directions were not clear on how to steep them, other than remove them once the water temp hits ~170. So I added them as I was heating the water and then took them out at ~170 ish. But I have found that the grains should be steeped at 150-170 for 30mins.

So this may account for some of the "mising" body.
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[mcarlson74]

Another thing you might want to look at too is how much extract did you use. If you only used a 3.3lbs kit then this might be why your beer is lacking that body that you are looking for. I try to use at least 5lbs of extract.

[croc4]

The kit came with 3.3lbs of extract, and 2lbs of pale DME
To this I added an additional .5lbs of amber DME

Adding more extract syrup will add body as well?, but won't this also boost the alcohol content as well?. Not that I'm against that
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[mcarlson74]

Actually what I was wondering was did you only used 3.3lbs of extract because if you did that would definitly give your beer that watered down taste. For your next batch try throwing in about .5lbs of dextrine. Dextrine will definitly add a mouth feel and give your beer a monster head. Oh and yes adding more extract will increase the alcohol content.

[sallad]

"body" of a beer is generally just unfermented sugars. so, more sugars = more fermented sugars + more unfermented sugars. yes, it'll be have a higher alcohol content, but also leave more sugars behind.