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Hello all. I'm about to brew an extract oatmeal stout this weekend. I was wondering if anyone could suggest how I may be able to increase the OG of the beer (and the FG for that matter) without necessarily increasing the final alcohol content?

Are there ways to increase body without adding more fermentable sugars?

Thanks,

David.

Maltodextrin (dried corn syrup) will do it for you but don't go OTT with it. 250g for the lighter beers or max 500g for the heavy stouts, otherwise you run the risk of a wax-like or oily mouthfeel.

A bit of steeped crystal grain (100 - 150g) is the next step and will lead you nicely on to specialty grain usage.

Try this for an online calculator;

http://www.brewcraft.com.au/wa.asp?idWe ... etails=120

Cheers!

Yep, basically, anything that's not fermentable will add body. Your unmashed oatmeal porrige is going to add carbohydrates, so it'll add body. Torrefied wheat is similar. Maltodextrin is 30% fermenatble or so, so 70% of it remains. Crystal grains are mostly unfermentable. Maybe add 300g of crystal, 100g of carapils, 100g choc and 50g roast barley. Wheat malt is full of protien and this contributes to both body and head retention.

I think that's about all you can realistically do! If you add all that stuff, it should be getting close to the consistency of clag anyway.

If you want a high finishing gravity, you can always use a poor attenuatting yeast. Windsor dried yeast is perfect for this - i use in my low alc beers, where I want some extra body to stop it tasting wish washy.
just beware that the low attenuation will also add sweetness, so up your hops to balance.

Cheers Ross

Thanks guys, great suggestions.

David.