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Adding body to all-grain brews
Hi all,
I've recently converted to all-grain brewing -- "recently" meaning that I've completed two batches and have one in secondary right now.
One thing I've found with all of my all-grain beer I've tasted so far is the texture. Flavour-wise, it's all been excellent, but the beer seems to have a thin, watery sort of texture. Obviously this is great if I'm trying to make light summer beers, but my latest batch is a porter and though it's the right colour, I sneaked a taste when racking it and it's not as heavy as I'd like it to be.
So my question is: What influences the 'weight' of a beer -- how thick and sticky it feels? Is it just alcohol content, or does the type of grain you use have an effect?
If alcohol content is the deciding factor then that might make sense, since in the brews I've done so far I'm not convinced I sparged the mash thoroughly enough (my brewing tub is fairly basic -- as far as I could tell, someone took a plastic fermenter and fitted a heating coil to it -- and I'm sparging just by drizzling hot water from a plastic kettle over the bed of grains)
Equally, if grain type is important then that would also make sense since all three brews so far have used pale malt as a basis.
Thanks for reading! All advice is welcome.
Mash temp is probably your culprit. What did you mash at, and how long? A lower temp(145-152) will produce a lighter body, with more fermentables. A higher temp(153-158) will produce a less fermentable wort, leaving more starches, hence more body and mouthfeel.
What do you use for a mash tun?
WyattJ wrote:
So my question is: What influences the 'weight' of a beer -- how thick and sticky it feels? Is it just alcohol content, or does the type of grain you use have an effect?
If alcohol content is the deciding factor then that might make sense, since in the brews I've done so far I'm not convinced I sparged the mash thoroughly enough (my brewing tub is fairly basic -- as far as I could tell, someone took a plastic fermenter and fitted a heating coil to it -- and I'm sparging just by drizzling hot water from a plastic kettle over the bed of grains)
Equally, if grain type is important then that would also make sense since all three brews so far have used pale malt as a basis.
Hmmm... this is interesting. A friend of a friend once told me my hefeweizen tasted thick. It took me a minute to figure out what the hell he was talking about. It was a full bodied beer. I think that is what you mean.
To reinforce what Rick said, basically, the beta amylase enzymes (which create maltose) work typically in the lower 140's to about 150F. The enzymes eat the ends of starch chains, exposing more fermentable sugars, and since the chains are smaller, it creates a light body (less mouthfeel) beer, vice alpha amylase (which create dextrine), work mostly in the 152F to 158F range, chopping the starch chain in the middle, exposing less fermentable sugars, but leaving those longer chains and creating a fuller bodied beer. This is my understanding. As for the temperatures, few are exact. One book might say 140-150, another book 130-145, and so forth. In fact, Dane Line's "The Big Book Of Beer" gives LARGE temperature ranges.
So yes, mashing temperature affects the body style and mouthfeel.
My recommendation for a porter or stout would be to mash around 155-158F to give it plenty of body. One trick if you want more fermentable sugars would be mashing lower, around 145F for more sugars, but use something like dextrine malts to increase the body. There are multiple types of tricks.
Just some ideas.
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