Something missing from my brews

[Stag]

I've brewing all grains for a few years but there something missing. I just can't get that toasty, coffee, caramel taste that commercial beers have. I've tried adding all sorts of special malts in different amount but I still can't get that dry caramel taste. Any suggestions?

 

[Covrich]

Is there a particular style you're trying to replicate? you say roasty are you doing stout and porters?

Might be a good idea of posting up a recipe you have done see what people think

 

[MyQul]

Like Cov says some more info would be helpful, but have you looked into firstly yeast and using liquid varieties as yeast can give something like 70% of a beer it's flavour and secondly water. If you've been trying to brew a particular style with the wrong water profile this might be it. From your toasty, coffee, caramel description it sound like it's a porter or stout your trying to make. If your water is soft this might be the reason your having trouble making your perfect pint, as porter/stout needs hard(ish) water

 

[timcunnell]

Just a note on the issue of hard/soft water (as this affects me, being in a soft water area, and being a big fan of porters and stouts) - is there a simple way of "hardening" the water if it is soft and you want to brew a porter for example.

 

[clibit]

From byo.com "If you have true soft water, anything lower than 150 ppm, then you can brew any style of beer you want. You can brew light pilsners without altering the water at all, and you can brew the rest of the styles by adding minerals to your water.

Making Water Harder
You can make your water harder by adding several types of minerals..."

Have a read of the article, it explains what you can add to harden the water. Water calculators generally tell me to add calcium chloride to my very soft water when making dark beers. But I usually brew dark beers by steeping the dark grains separately, this avoids their effect on the mash PH, and I have had great success doing this, with no water additions.

http://byo.com/color/item/1478-the-elements-of-brewing-water

 

[HebridesRob]

Just a note on the issue of hard/soft water (as this affects me, being in a soft water area, and being a big fan of porters and stouts) - is there a simple way of "hardening" the water if it is soft and you want to brew a porter for example.

A mash with a lot of dark grains in it might be too acidic for the mash enzymes to work well.
To make decent stout it might be you need hard but alkaline water, which means temporary hard water. To mimic this you could add Calcium Carbonate (precipitated chalk). Calcium Carbonate is very insoluble so needs to be added directly into the mash.
Alternatively, you could dissolve the Calcium Carbonate in fizzy water, which would give you Calcium Bicarbonate, which is the component that makes temporary hard water. Calcium Bicarbonate breaks down when boiled, Calcium Carbonate then precipitates out as "furring".

If you're making a stout, you might feel that a malty flavour is desirable. If that is the case you might want to add some Calcium Chloride, which will give a more rounded malt flavour. This will make your mash more acidic and counteract the effect of the Calcium Carbonate. Knowing this, you'll add more Calcium Carbonate. Be careful though - too much Calcium will make your beer horrible.

Temporary hard water tends to make less good beers with light malt mashes because light malt mashes are less acidic. Less acidic malts + alkaline water = mash that isn't acidic enough for the enzymes to work properly. Less acidic mashes also tend to leach more tannin from the grain husks, which leads to astringent flavours.

Permanently hard water has Calcium Sulphate and/or Magnesium Sulphate in it, which is acidic. This is very bad for dark beer since acidic malt plus acidic water = way to much acidity. Permanently hard water tends to work better with light malts, which make less acidic mashes. The Sulphates present also tend to enhance the hoppiness, which is usually desirable in lighter beers