Thickening my beer question

Hi All, I’ve got an spiced beer 10 days in primary. Alls on track except the beer tastes a little thin. Was wondering if it would be ok to boil down a pound of DME on hand and add it to the primary. If so, would it start a big fermentation? Also have another pack of 05 on hand to pitch if that seems necessary. Any thoughts on this idea as well as any other ideas to thicken the malt flavor?
Thanks, Mike

After 10 day I would think fermentation is done. What is the gravity now? Adding more dme would probably cause refermentation but I wouldnt think it would achieve what you want. Some malto dextrin may add mouth feel but would also add sweetness which you may not need. Not much you can do.

FG was close to target so I’m ok with that. Maybe a couple bottles of Malta?

Beer mouthfeel is very difficult to determine pre-carbonation.

My advice: Don’t screw with your beer now. Take it through to completion. If, after properly conditioning and aging your beer you say “it’s too thin” then look to adjust it for next time. If you are an extract brewer, malto-dextrine will really help you with mouthfeel.

Thanks Wahoo,
Even though I agree with what you wrote, curiosity got the best of me yesterday and I boiled 2 bottles/21 ounces of Malta cola and added it to my primary this morning. It had a very malty thick profile when rendered. Is it going to enhance the mouth feel? Maybe but probably not due to the small qty I had on hand. Is it going to increase the abv? Likely by just a little. In learning my process better, I’ll in turn learn the qty’s of ingredience I need to start with to get the end result I’m looking for. Are you familiar with Malta cola?

I’m familiar with what it is, although I never had it.

I’m going to tell you a little story. Early this summer, I brewed an IPA. A slight variation on my normal recipe, but very typical for me. Except I re-pitched a slurry of American “2” yeast that made a sub-par american wheat in the prior generation. I brewed this IPA on June 16. By Late July, the beer had been dry hopped and tapped, and I thought it was awful. It was almost like it had “gone belgian” on me. You know the difference between a shaved armpit and a hairy armpit? Anyway, that has an easy solution in the summer… throw a bunch in growlers and bring to cookouts. So that’s what I did. And for the first few weeks in august, there was an ample supply of “Hop Juice” to go around. A few of my friends really liked it, but I still thought it was not what I was shooting for, so I was unhappy. Then about two weeks ago, I started to notice that this beer (still on tap) was getting VERY GOOD. Like, maybe one of my better IPAs ever. And I’ve probably brewed 30 IPAs in my life. So last Thursday I decided to bottle a bunch of it, and then have the rest of the keg left over. 6 bottles into my bottling session, the keg was finished! I had drank most of the beer thinking it was no good, when all I had to do was wait until it’s time was right. I have no idea why this IPA took 8 weeks to come into it’s own while most of my IPAs are ready after a month, but that’s not the point. My point is that sometimes you don’t know what you are going to have in a beer until it is fully conditioned.

What you have shared is very much appreciated.

Wahoo, I did the very same thing with a blonde ale. I was doing everything I could to get rid of it. About 6 weeks kegged and it was exactly what I was going for; light, crisp, clean, but there were only a couple pints left.

Home brew, a double edged sword.

Unless you were boiling to remove the carbonation Malta does not need to be boiled before use. I have used Goya brand a few times to make yeast starters for dark beers with so-so results but it had no ill affects on the yeast/beer. Since it is bottled for human consumption it is sanitary.

Adding it to your fermenter Malta has enough sugar that as long as the yeast is healthy it should ferment. That could be bad if bottling soon and adding more sugar to prime. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. Good luck.

My thoughts on Malta are put it in a blender with some ice cream and have a malted :lol:

The addition of the Malta has renewed the batch with a nice krauzen to boot. I honestly did not expect this level of activity. Will keep you posted.

Ice cream and malta… nice idea…