New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association

Brewing => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: brynn on March 16, 2014, 09:58:36 PM

Title: maltodextrin for body
Post by: brynn on March 16, 2014, 09:58:36 PM
My honey oat ale seems a little thin. I'd like to add some maltodextrin for body. How much per gallon is a good rule of thumb?
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: Al-Loves-Wine on March 17, 2014, 08:20:19 AM
I myself typically use half pound to a pound of dextrine malt depending on style per 5 gallon. You could also use small amounts of wheat as well to give yourself a bit extra body and head retention.

As far as using straight maltodextrine, I have no experience with it.
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: jamie_savoie on March 17, 2014, 08:34:55 AM
like Al said or mash higher next time
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: Chris Craig on March 17, 2014, 09:53:25 AM
My favourite way to add body is to just add more grain.  Alcohol = body :)  Most of my beers have crept up to 6 - 6.5% these days.
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: Waterlogged on March 18, 2014, 09:17:19 AM
I read somewhere that vigerous boil equels good body as well. 
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: brynn on March 18, 2014, 12:39:17 PM
The beer is a honey oat ale which finished at 1.006 with US 05. Im gonna add 400g maltodextrine at bottling. Ill post results here
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: jamie_savoie on March 18, 2014, 01:29:19 PM
that's a whole lot of dextrine!   That’s going to result in an overly sweet beer.  If it's drinkable right now I wouldn’t touch it but that’s just me.  I’d take a dry beer over a overly sweet beer anyday
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: Chris Craig on March 18, 2014, 01:39:10 PM
I wouldn't do this either.  I'm not sure how much sweetness you'd get, but in the future, I'd increase the grain bill a bit and increase the mash temp.  That should keep your ABV close to where you are and increase the body at the same time. 
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: brynn on March 19, 2014, 09:40:53 AM
i used beersmith and figured out that 200g would add approx 6.5 pts to the FG. i dissolved it with the honey I used to prime and added to the bottling bucket. Should bring it up to 1.012 ish which is what I was shooting for. Give it a month to carb and 2 months to age and well see whats up. I probably try one in a month. Will post results here
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: pliny on March 19, 2014, 11:41:35 AM
Does it really work that way?
There's still some amount of yeast left in there but one wonders if it will actually add body.
Either way it seems that you had your mind set on getting more body from the get-go.
Hopefully no bottle bombs.
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: Al-Loves-Wine on March 19, 2014, 12:12:14 PM
Yeah, I'm rather interested to hear how that is going to work out. I'm with pliny on this one, hope ya dont get any bottle bombs. I had bottle bombs once in a milk crate, took out every bottle in the crate, and 3 more in the crate that was stacked on top.  :o
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: jamie_savoie on March 19, 2014, 01:39:25 PM
Maltodextrin is unfermentable (like lactose) so bottle bombs won’t be an issue
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: Al-Loves-Wine on March 19, 2014, 05:06:44 PM
He mixed it with honey though, hopefully it won't blow the caps off.  :o
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: Chris Craig on March 19, 2014, 05:14:57 PM
Probably only enough honey for priming though.
Title: Re: maltodextrin for body
Post by: brynn on March 19, 2014, 08:25:43 PM
I did some research when I was trying to make a sweet sparkling bottled conditioned cider. Maltodextrin is 97% unfermentable. I used northern brewers priming calculated so the 100g of honey should give me approx. 2.6 volumes of carbonation. Well see in a while.