Making my beer drier

[yashicamat]

OK, so I have tried the mashing at 65 degrees, total alkilinity reduced to 25ppm, gypsum in the mash and boil (I did once try all the individual water treatment chemicals too but there was no massive difference), highly attenuative yeast (US-05 or Nottingham) and very little in the way of speciality grains (maybe a touch of wheat or vienna at most). I still can't get that very slightly mouth-puckering dry aftertaste to my beers though, such as Oakham achieve in their "Inferno". Any thoughts guys?

Cheers.

[boingy]

Have you tried including sugar in the recipe?

[yashicamat]

Have you tried including sugar in the recipe?

No . . . would Oakham do something like that?!

[boingy]

No idea but it will make the beer drier.
You could always ask the brewery but adding sugar is something many breweries do not like to discuss. Having said that, I have had email repsonses from Oakham in the past so might be worth trying. They (rather foolishly) publish email addys for most of their key staff on their web site. Try head brewer John first....

[Horden Hillbilly]

You could try mashing at the lower end of the temp scale, around 62c-63c. This should produce more fermentable "sugars" in the wort.

[yashicamat]

I already frequently mash at 64/65 degrees; would those extra few degrees make that much difference?

The beer I'm thinking of, Inferno, doesn't really seem to be watery thin though . . . there is body there, it's just there is this fantastically dry finish. I wonder if it is more symptomatic of just tons of late hops and that they are giving this effect instead?

[booldawg]

A (rather severe) way would be to pitch a sachet of Dry Beer Enzyme in when fermentation is slowing down. I once used this on a stuck fermentation with Windsor (which is pretty much EVERY brew with Windsor ) and it took it down to 1005.

Not sure what effect it will have on a yeast that does the job properly but 1005 is pretty dry but still with a hint of body.

[SiHoltye]

Are you sure it's attenuated dryness you're tasting and appreciating? Inferno's hops seem citrussy and zingy to me.

This light igniting ale flickers complex fruits across your tongue leaving a dry fruity bitter finish smothering your thirst.

Maybe the hop schedule tips the balance in favour of a dry bitterness impression with a regular grain bill? Maybe a decent bittering charge, late hops and perhaps dry hops too.

[jubby]

You have the opposite problem to me. Most of my beers have a fairly dry profile which is great for the likes of the Oakham ales beers as you suggest. However, I like a good malty profile for some of the darker beers.

I suspect that the answer is in my water treatment. This is because my water composition has a high Sulphate to Chloride ratio. A good friend of mine always produces beers with a good malty profile and his water has a higher Chloride ratio (fairly similar alkalinity and hardness). I have recently experimented with water treatments and found that not treating it with anything other than CRS ,or boiling produces a much maltier profile. I intend to add Calcium Chloride to my next dark beer to see what difference it makes. This is my water composition which may help: (ppm or mg/l)
Sodium, 11
Chloride, 22
Sulphate, 29
Calcium, 113
Magnesium, 4
Alkalinity 234 (CaCo3)

[Dr. Dextrin]

According to the books, a lower pH and a longer mashing time should also help to give a drier beer. Maybe you could go a bit lower with the mash temperature too.

Never tried it myself, though.