Low abv- how to improve mouth feel/body?

[rhubarb]

Hi, first time poster, long time reader.

Am about to start a low gravity session beer. I like hops, so will dry hops with jester.

I don't want it to be too thin though, so I have 5 options (I think) to boost this:

1) carapils - dextrine malt to add body
2) small quantity of oats / wheat to add extra unfermentable protein
3) crystal malt
4) mash at a higher temperature
5) use a low attenuation yeast

Here's the basic recipe for 23l...
Maris otter 2.75kg
Brown malt .3kg (I like the taste!)
.2kg carapils
.1kg oats
.1kg crystal

10g warrior fwh
25g falconers flight - whirlpool
50g jester dry hops

Safale 04

Beer Smith predicts
OG1.032
FG1.010
Abv-.2.95
Ibis 35.9

Mash at 68.9 60mins plus 10mins at 75.6

Notes: I WANT a low alcohol beer. I don't like hazy beer, which is why I kept the oats down to 100g.

Any suggestions for improvement welcome.

Thanks

[Sadfield]

Looks good, although from your options I would say 1 and 3 are the same, Carapils is low colour crystal. Another option is to replace the crystal with more Carapils for body and add Munich malt for flavour. This will give a more malty beer than the caramel of crystal.

I would also use some hops mid boil. In the pursuit of aroma, it is fashionable to load the whirlpool with hops, neglecting a flavour addition, but I think this is often a result of the limitations of hop packet size.

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[scuppeteer]

Your mash temp is still rather high, no more than 67.5. Another hop addition at 10mins would help. And malt to liqour of 2.5 or even 2.4.

[orlando]

Your mash temp is still rather high, no more than 67.5.

Why's that Dave?

[MTW]

Just on the 'low-attenuating' yeast part, be careful if you're bottling, especially if mashing high. It wasn't a low OG beer, but I did a 70C mash last year with plenty of cara and fermented with WLP 002, generally accepted as lower-attenuating than many strains. It made a fantastic beer with a great malt base. Several months later, despite all the usual good practice of plenty of time in primary, stable temperature, stable FG readings... very fizzy beer. The yeast had found new pathways into the more complex sugars it had initially left behind. (No sign of any infection btw, just fizzy). If it's going in a cask to be used within weeks, maybe not such a concern.

For a similar brew again, for bottles, I won't be using a 'low-attenuating' yeast, at least not on its own. Certainly plenty of cara, and a reasonably high mash.

Maltodextrin?

[Bad 'Ed]

Putting glycerine in can help with the mouthfeel of really thin beers.

[stokie_spaceman]

I second MTW on the low attenuation yeast thing. I've nearly always found a high finishing gravity with low attenuating yeasts equals trouble down the line in a bottle...and not predictably either.

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[AnthonyUK]

Mash high at around 70°c and for as short as possible. 30 mins should be adequate to retain more long chain compounds.
Take a look at the recipes for some of the Brewdog low ABV beers such as Nanny State or All Day Long for the grain bill but there is unfortunately little technical details.

https://www.brewdog.com/lowdown/diydog

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I second MTW on the low attenuation yeast thing. I've nearly always found a high finishing gravity with low attenuating yeasts equals trouble down the line in a bottle...and not predictably either.

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Thirded. I bottle everything, and low attenuators are trouble after 6 months.

[Jocky]

Purely anecdotal suggestion regarding low attenuation yeasts here, but I've found for some yeasts a higher temperature rest at the end of fermentation has reduced my instances of over carbonated bottles. If your main ferment is at 19 then when it's slowing down you can bump it up to 21, 23, even 25 for 24-36 hours to get it to really finish.

I also really recommend avoiding getting sediment into bottles - even highly carbonated beer will not fob if you minimise sediment.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Yeah the sediment adds nucleation sites that give you a Coca Cola head effect.

Keep the sediment out, and you get a nice dense head on top of a beer with loads of condition

[MTW]

Purely anecdotal suggestion regarding low attenuation yeasts here, but I've found for some yeasts a higher temperature rest at the end of fermentation has reduced my instances of over carbonated bottles. If your main ferment is at 19 then when it's slowing down you can bump it up to 21, 23, even 25 for 24-36 hours to get it to really finish.

I do think that's good advice, though my eventually-fizzy batch did spend the last 4 days of primary at 21.5 to 22.5C, and was roused. Admittedly, not a lot of data; just my limited experience with that. I'm yet to try a high mash + cara with a high attenuating yeast, but that's the way I think I'd go.

[Drifting slightly OT, but: the flavours were so nice from the WLP002, that this is a brew I will repeat, but will probably pitch in some higher-attenuating strain after a day or two. Might even do a forced fermentation test alongside.]

[rhubarb]

Thanks for the advice. I've modified the grain bill slightly:
Maris otter 2.3kg
Brown malt .25
Carapils.25.
Crystal .1
Oats .15
Chocolate rye 0.05

This should give an og of 1.028 and an ABC of 2.54%

I'm using the brown and chocolate malt so that I get a bit of extra flavour, but also for the colour. A really ale beer could be perceived as quite light, whereas a darker beer has different flavours associated with it. See http://brulosophy.com/2017/04/27/the-im ... t-results/

If it comes through too low. I can always add some DME.

I'm using Cara and crystal based on advice from the Briess website: Cara should be flavourless and simply add to the body as it is malted to be predominantly dextrin, whereas crystal, whilst containing dextrin also has fermentables and colour.
I got the temperature straight from brewsmith's full body mash profile - I didn't really think about it otherwise.

Regarding yeast - was planning on using safale 04. Will be barrelling around 3gals and bottling the rest- I don't anticipate it lasting more than 6 weeks

[rhubarb]

One last question- does anyone have any experience re which adds most mouth feel / least haze between oats and wheat please?

[Sadfield]

Lactose is another way to add body without haze.

In my experience, due to the low SG any further fermentation in low
attenuating yeast shouldn't cause enough carbonation to cause a problem if you carb on the low side for the style you are brewing.

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