Getting that malty sweetness in an IPA

[banjokat]

Hello chaps!
I'm after brewing something along the lines of Goose Island IPA, the bottles of which I've tried all have a real sweetness about them that my beers don't tend to have. I've read that they crash chill to stop the ferment, but I guess they then filter to get rid of the (still hungry) yeast. How can I replicate this? I'm guessing mashing high or using a low attenuating yeast is all I can do. Any thoughts?

[Mr. Dripping]

You can use some Carapils (dextrine malt) in the grain bill.
Any crystal malt will add body, sweetness and mouthfeel.....but darker crystals will impart toffee and caramel notes too.

[TC2642]

Pushing up mash temp works for me. I usually do mine at around 68oC and make them around 6 - 6.5%, even using SO5 I still get a nice balance between maltyness and hoppiness. I'm not the biggest fan of putting darker malts in IPA's I think they should stand alone with pale.

[hebbstar]

Hi mate

I've had some fine malty results using White Labs WLP002 yeast. It seems to accentuate the hops while keeping the malty flavour very present.
It ferments out quickly and cleanly.
Used in conjunction with a higher mash temperature may be just the ticket !

Cheers

Paul

[zgoda]

Caramalt imparts sweet notes.

[Dads_Ale]

I used 250g of Cara Amber malt in my Galaxy Pale Ale.

[Matt12398]

Caramalt or lower attenuating yeast.

[MTW]

I've just bottled a Galaxy 6% IPA in which I wanted to get some more maltiness, like you. My first one (though a lower ABV) had around 12% Munich, which may have contributed to a relatively drier taste than desired and my mash might have cooled a little from a 66C start. Both were with US05. I think most hop-forward yeast will likely to be high-attenuating (?)

This time, I matched 10% Munich with 10% Cara Vienna and did more to stop the mash temp dropping. Whatever happened, it looks to have turned out much closer to what I wanted, though the bottles have yet to fully condition.

[Piscator]

Caramalt or lower attenuating yeast.

What Matt said

Dextrins from higher mash temperatures contribute to mouthfeel but NOT necessarily sweetness as they are a class of sugars with a very low relative sweetness index.
Caramel type aromas are normally associated with sweetness and act in a congruent manner with sugars via retronasal olfaction to increase the perception of sweetness.
In other words because you are used to associating caramel type flavours with sweetness they enhance the perceived sweetness when mixed with sugar.
This has been demonstrated in psychophysical experiments and neuroimaging using several different congruent aromas with standardised sugar solutions(interestingly adding the odour of ham reduces perceived sweetness of a sugar solution)

Making sure the grist is big enough to carry the IBU's and selecting a less attenuative yeast that will leave more of the sweeter malt sugars behind and using a caramalt type grain will all help increase the perceived sweetness.

Cheers
Steve

[Mther]

Correct me if I am wrong, but you can actually stop your fermentation earlier (maybe when your OG is 1020ish), by cold crashing, so some sugars will be left behind. Of course this means that your starting gravity should be above 1050 for your ABV to be above 4%.

[fego]

Correct me if I am wrong, but you can actually stop your fermentation earlier (maybe when your OG is 1020ish), by cold crashing, so some sugars will be left behind. Of course this means that your starting gravity should be above 1050 for your ABV to be above 4%.

You can..... But when you package the beer, those left behind sugars will be attacked by the suspended yeast and ferment out leaving the finished beer with too much condition at best or, more likely, all over the place after the packaging explodes.

Caramalt and sweeter yeast is a safer option.

[Deebee]

Mash higher and use a lower attenuating yeat. S-04 is one that leaves some sweetness. S05 and nottingham dry things out.

i alsways use caramalts in IPA even though it is really not tru to style.

[banjokat]

Thanks all, caramalt and WLP 002 it is then!

[Jocky]

Correct me if I am wrong, but you can actually stop your fermentation earlier (maybe when your OG is 1020ish), by cold crashing, so some sugars will be left behind. Of course this means that your starting gravity should be above 1050 for your ABV to be above 4%.

The other thing to remember is that the yeast does a lot of 'cleaning up' as it finishes fermenting - for one thing it breaks down diacetyl. If you artificially stall your ferment you're asking to have a lot of undesirable flavours left in your beer.

[banjokat]

As previously mentioned by far the biggest problem with stalling the ferment will be the ensuing bottle bombs!