First homebrew tasting

So I tried my first home brew yesterday, one is a wheat and the other a brown ale.. The has been bottling for around 3 weeks the brown ale around 2. Both were extract kits from NB. Overall they were good and tasted as they should, carbonation was a little light but not too bad however they both had a very heavy feeling to them. The viscosity was a little thicker than I was expecting. Is this typical of homebrew or extract brews? Should I be doing something different?

They probably need more time to carbonate. Also, all of my beers have tasted much better after 6 weeks or so.

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This, also after 8 weeks it's even better.........

That's the beauty of homebrew, it can be anything you want! So, no, as a rule the mouthfeel or viscosity is based on recipe and process, not the fact that it is homebrew. If they were not carbed, that may have something to do with it. How much wort did you end up with? Did you make a 5 gallon batch and only end up with 4 gallons, etc? Other than that, if you want to list the recipes it may help track the issue down.

I did a full boil on both started with 6 gallons on the wheat and by the time we bottled ended up with 4... Did 6.5 gallons on the brown ale and ended with 5 after testing and racking I to the secondary ended up with a little more than 4

If you mean you ended up with 6 gallons of the wheat in primary, and 6.5 gallons of the brown in the primary, I would think it would be somewhat watered down. IME most kits are based on 5 gallon recipes.

Zonk007 said:

So I tried my first home brew yesterday, one is a wheat and the other a brown ale.. The has been bottling for around 3 weeks the brown ale around 2. Both were extract kits from NB. Overall they were good and tasted as they should, carbonation was a little light but not too bad however they both had a very heavy feeling to them. The viscosity was a little thicker than I was expecting. Is this typical of homebrew or extract brews? Should I be doing something different?

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Check valve(s) for correct operation. These valves keep exhaust gases from entering and harming the smog pump. Disconnect the valve from the outlet hose and manifold air pipe/hose. Blow through the valve then try to suck air back through the check valve. If the valve is good air flow should be in only one direction (toward the air manifold). If not replace the check valve. DO NOT install the new smog pump without replacing a defective check valve or the new pump will be destroyed.

I'm not 100% sure if this will solve your viscosity problem but it will most definitely fix your smog pump.

Sounds like you just didn't have the correct amount of water throughout the process.

zc

reverendj1 said:

If you mean you ended up with 6 gallons of the wheat in primary, and 6.5 gallons of the brown in the primary, I would think it would be somewhat watered down. IME most kits are based on 5 gallon recipes.

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No that's how much water we started with for the full boil

Zonk007 said:

No that's how much water we started with for the full boil

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How much did you put in the primary? Did you take an OG and FG reading?

that thick mouthfeel i notice in a lot of extract/beginner brews. i think it is a combination of the munton's ale yeast that is in so many of them, long boils of liquid extract, and beers with high OGs

can you share your recipes?

reverendj1 said:

How much did you put in the primary? Did you take an OG and FG reading?

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I ended up with 4.5 in the primary with the wheat and right around 5 with the brown ale. I don't have the OG with me but it think the FG of the wheat was1.007 and the brown ale was 1.012