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Hi all,

Just cracked the first of the batch from my pale ale made from:

Coopers Pale Ale kit
LDME (1.5kg)
200g Crystal Malt, steeped for 40 minutes
20g Cascade Hops for 20 mins
Safale 56

It tastes great straight out - it has a beautiful bitterness to it, and the head retention was great too. Using the LDME I have done away with those BE2 packs and as a result, the oily mouthcoat feel has gone too. Excellent.

Only downside is that there isnt much body in the drink. The initial taste is fantastastic, but then afterwards it doesnt quite back up the initial aroma and bitterness - it tastes quite bland and watery.

Question: What could I add to this in the future to bring up the rear? I would ideally like the beer to just have a nice balanced feel to it. Now - it is drinkable, and I look forward to more - but feel a bit of a tweak and it will be a quality drop.

Cheers!

Add some more grains or malt or both. Or you could cheat, and just add some maltodextrin.

maltodextrin is in BE2, it might be what caused the mouthfeel that he didn't like previously..

how aged is it?

Ah. I'm not up on the history of it all.

Chris wrote:Ah. I'm not up on the history of it all.

Could try reading the first post.

I have done away with those BE2 packs and as a result, the oily mouthcoat feel has gone too

Its had 2 weeks in the fermenter, and then 3-4 weeks in the bottle. I realise its young - and its great because it doesnt taste green - but just lacking. I am not going to touch it for quite some time again anyway, but do you think that the taste will come through stronger over time? I'm all ears to that.

I will focus on drinking my other pale ale whcih is considerably more aged.

chris.,

pull your head in. I am sick of the constant running commentary. Remember, you started off as a troll on this site. Don't fall back into old habits.

If you don't like my posts, don't read them. If you have a personal problem with me, fine. But it's YOUR problem.

RDWHAHBRIS

Ease up gang.
Answer the query first, then put the comments in General

39Niner wrote:Ease up gang.
Answer the query first, then put the comments in General

oh ok...

MOFO what was your FG.
To tell you the truth I'm surprised that a Pale Ale using that recipe would need more body.

An extra 250 to 300 gms DME and 22 litres volume will increase the OG to 1050 or so,then use a windsor ale yeast or muntons gold as they don't attenuate as much as US56,giving a higher FG of around 1015 which will improve body and taste with the extra unfermented sugars.
Cheers,mark.

Butchers are known bullshit artists. Don`t take his word for it . Have a look yourself.

MOFO wrote:Hi all,

Just cracked the first of the batch from my pale ale made from:

Coopers Pale Ale kit
LDME (1.5kg)
200g Crystal Malt, steeped for 40 minutes
20g Cascade Hops for 20 mins
Safale 56

It tastes great straight out - it has a beautiful bitterness to it, and the head retention was great too. Using the LDME I have done away with those BE2 packs and as a result, the oily mouthcoat feel has gone too. Excellent.

Only downside is that there isnt much body in the drink. The initial taste is fantastastic, but then afterwards it doesnt quite back up the initial aroma and bitterness - it tastes quite bland and watery.

Question: What could I add to this in the future to bring up the rear? I would ideally like the beer to just have a nice balanced feel to it. Now - it is drinkable, and I look forward to more - but feel a bit of a tweak and it will be a quality drop.

Cheers!

In addition to all the suggestions to add more ingredients, you could also reduce the final volume of the brew. I used to fill my fermenter to the 23L mark every time I used a Coopers kit, regardless of what I added to the recipe and wondered why I had watery beer.
Once I got used to filling the fermenter, with the (pre-sanitised) hydrometer in the fermenter, and stopping at 1.040 to 1.050 I finally stopped making watery beer - mind you adding dextrinous sugars such as corn syrup or Carapils or just being more generous with the malt and / or crystal addition also helped add body to the beer, of course.

Cheers,
TL

So....how many litres did that give you?

What are peeps thoughts on brewsugar the liquid stuff in tins?

OK, I tried another on Sunday - it was smashing. A damn good drop - with plenty of maltiness - either something magic happened in 1 week, or it seems it isnt consistent across the batch, or perhaps my pallette was out the first night. I did go on to have a glass of white and red wine, and both I thought were putred... so maybe it was just me that day.
Anyway - I am veryl happy. It didnt retain its head, but I didnt care much about that considering the taste.

I refuse to put Dextrose in, unless there is a magic figure that helps the head without the oily mouthfeel - 250g in a BE2 kit caused this, so I am guess it cant be much.

I filled the fermenter to 22 litres - it was 1042, with a FG of 1012.

I'm pretty excited about this brew, I will age it, and taste it again in a few months. If it is good, I will experiment with it a little bit to see what I can do about the head.

For now, its on to Hoegaarden and Ginger Beer clones.

MOFO wrote:I refuse to put Dextrose in, unless there is a magic figure that helps the head without the oily mouthfeel - 250g in a BE2 kit caused this, so I am guess it cant be much.

I'm guessing you mean Maltodextrin rather than Dextrose here...