Watery beer (like a mixture of a lager and an ale)

[salnajjar]

So, this is a bit of a strange one and might just be down to my impatience, but... I was just transferring a beer that had finished in the FV into a Cornie and decided to divert half a pint for testing (cooks privilege and all that).

The best way I can describe the taste of this beer is as if I had mixed a larger and an ale together. There's definitely hop flavours going on giving it a nice mild bitterness and a good aroma, the alcohol is around 4.36% ABV so I know it's not alack of alcohol content, but there is an undeniably "watery" flavour to the beer (it's had to describe exactly).

What's the most likely cause? Too few hops?

Recipe was:
3.95Kg Pale Malt 77.45% 5.0
1.00Kg Lager Malt 19.61% 5.0
0.15kg Caramalt (40L) 2.94% 78.8

28g Northern Brewer 60 min
14g Northern Brewer 30 min
14g Northern Brewer 0 min

DCL S-04 SafAle English Ale

Thanks for any help

[GARYSMIFF]

Now 1st things 1st, only half a pint for testing !!!!

is Thin, Weedy not a bad discription?

what temp did you mash at?

also was the beer quite cool when you did the testing.

[adm]

Mash temp too low? If you mash at a lower temperature it will produce more easily fermentable sugars and the beer will have less body.

[salnajjar]

Lacking in body but not flavour would be a good description... It actually has a lot of potential to be a nice session beer, and I'm not unduly unhappy with the result but I would like to understand what caused it...

I thought I mashed around the same temp as my first two AG attempts (67c just before putting the lid on, perhaps dropping to 63c after 90 minutes).

If I had mashed too low then wouldn't my FG be higher than expected for this yeast and my OG? I'll pull my figures up but I thought I had the expected conversion rate...

[Scooby]

If I had mashed too low then wouldn't my FG be higher than expected for this yeast and my OG? I'll pull my figures up but I thought I had the expected conversion rate...

Mashing at a low temp would mean lower fg.

Leave it a few weeks and I bet it 'fills out'

[GARYSMIFF]

Sorry when saying "Thin and weedy" I did mean the mouth feel

As Scooby said it should fill out, but have to say now I think about it, when I do a lower mash temp brew which is often a Lager Euro Fizz style beer, I always feel that I have just a bit too much volume thus reducing the body of the beer , I know that the lower temp will produce a more fermentable sugared beer / dryer but never alter water amounts for this style, " Note to self, when making low temp dry beer use less water".


salnajjar thanks for posting, it got me thinking.

[salnajjar]

For some reason I thought mashing too low produced unfermentable sugars. Glad I haven't tried to brew my fruit wheat beer yet as I had planned on using this method for that!

So, note to self, mash high for unfermentable sugars, mash low for higher fermenting sugars and a drier beer...

[GARYSMIFF]

salnajjar


this is a nice read ( if you have not already)

best get a Fº to Cº calculator or a thermometer at hand as its in Ye Olde Fº

http://www.realbeer.com/jjpalmer/ch14.html


worth a look!

[ADDLED]

Also remember that straight from the FV the beer will be dead flat and that will have an effect on mouthfeel. I bet it taste totally different when its been gassed up in a cornie for a few days and got some sparkle.

[salnajjar]

Unfortunately, I'll never know.

Let this be a lesson to all, friends don't let friends sort out their cornies when drunk... I went out to check on them and wondered where all the fruit flies had come from, discovered I had put a lid on the cornie with the sterilising solution in it and left the one with this beer in it open to the world... 4 gallons down the drain.

[adm]

Ooops.....however.....I'm sure a little bit of fly piss isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things....

[Dr. Dextrin]

Bit of beef, a few carrots - probably would've still made a nice stew.

[dave-o]

You could try 300-500g of crystal malt next time.