Chances are good that you’ve seen some beer commercials when watching TV. Many times these ads advertise beer that is “full bodied.” Beer lovers everywhere enjoy full bodied beers, and commercial breweries make sure the general public knows that full bodied beers are what they make. So, what exactly is a full bodied beer?
In the beer brewing world, a full bodied brew has complex character, better head retention and better taste. This can be accomplished by raising the gravity of the brew without sacrificing the fermentation process. The brew can be enhanced with the addition of more sugar or more protein.
If you are just getting started beer brewing, then you should aim to produce full bodied beer. Here are some tips to help you produce a better home brew when you are beer brewing.
Use caramalized and roasted malts. These will aid in enhancing the mouthfeel of your brew. The key lies in the dextrins, which are present in the caramalized and roasted malts.
You can also add more unmalted grains to the mix. These unmalted grains will not add any fermentable sugars, so they won’t influence the flavor. However, they will add more proteins, which affect the mouthfeel of the brew. But you need to know a little about what you are doing when adding these additional grains. Too much and you can adversely affect the clarity of your beer. These protein grains are better off being used with darker beers, so that your brew doesn’t wind up cloudy.
Another way to improve the body of your home brew is temperature. Specifically, a higher mashing temperature. When you mash at a higher temperature, there will be a larger amount of sugar in your brew. Finally, to achieve a more full bodied brew, it is best to use a yeast strain with low attenuation. These strains only consume a small amount of complex sugar. This results in a beer with a high final gravity, which means a fuller bodied beer in the end. The recommended attenuation should not exceed 70 percent, as anything higher can lead to problems for your beer.
Keep these tips in mind when you start getting into partial mash and all grain brewing, as these will help improve the quality of beers you make. These are just a few simple tweaks you can make in home brewing that will make noticeable improvements to your beer.
