New to Beermaking - recipe question

Dec 08, 2003 1 Replies

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Phil V. 22 years ago

Hi all, Just brewed 4 cases - 2 of ipa and two of stout - my first time! Good fun!

I've only tried the stout after a week in the bottle and the ipa pre-bottling. I'm tentatively disappointed in the body of the beers - they're a bit thin. Any advice on this?

I'd also appreciate any recipe suggestions, links, etc. I'm a fan of the following brews:

Stone IPA & Ruination any Sam Smiths brews Boont Amber Ale Harp Lager Old Peculiar Guiness Hennepin Leffe Wicked Summer

Overall, I just want to brew something with strong character. Also, any book suggestions would be welcome. We're using my friend's setup, doing single stage (thus far) w/o racking and bottling afterwards.

Thanks, Phil

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Lafe 22 years ago

Welcome to a wonderful hobby!

Two things:

1) Give the bottle conditioning a chance. Proper carbonation *can* make a difference. And the IPA in particular will probably get much, much better with age. You may not have a problem!

2) If that isn't it, to add more body a little bit of malto-dextrin can do wonders, as can a few specialty grains steeped pre-boil (I'm assuming you're doing extract here), and adding more malt always helps!

There is an online book that I highly recommend:

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And if you'd like an offline copy, they are readily available.

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