funny thing happened today

[b3s]

so i'm brewing an irish red (ok...a red ale using irish ale yeast)...my own recipe, created it off of recipator. 1/4 # black patent steeped until boiling and 9 # light DME.

not red...not even close to the color that recipator came up with...maybe this will mellow or something, but the tube from the bottling bucket to my primary didn't look red...looked more like a very deep brown...verging on black!

i don't know what is up with me and grains lately!

although i'm not going to complain too much...the wort tasted AWESOME! very malty with just a hint of hoppiness.

[fuji6100]

I've noticed that my colors always come out a little darker than what the recipie thingy at brewery.org says. I also noticed that my colors lightened a little when I got a bigger pot and was able to boil more wort at a time (still only have a 4 gallon pot though). Maybe this is due to caramelization?

[sallad]

personally, i'd use about 1/2 to 1 lb of medium crystal (maybe 60-80L) for a nice red color..

[Beerconnoisseur]

If you use malt extract, chances are very good that most of your beer will turn out a brown/black color. It's one of the tradeoffs to brewing with extract.

If you don't care about the final beer color, then it's not a problem. But if you *MUST* have a rainbow of color in your beer selection, then you'll pretty much have to switch to all-grain.

[toneyc]

Um, I brew with extract and my beers are not brown/black. I've gotten some beautiful yellows and golds in between the darker beers I've brewed.

:)
Toney.

[b3s]

i concur with toney on this one...my honey wheat is a beautiful golden color...it was an extract ale with one pound of crystal #20.

[wortchillergoal]

Count me in on the I get different color with extract group. I do admit that carmelzing the extract can be a problem at times. A trick that helps me and forgive me for singing praises of my wife,she loves the smell of wort, again is have her stir while I pour in the malt.

[Beerconnoisseur]

Well, saw off mah legs and call me shorty. Every extract I've brewed has been a nice brown color, with the clear exception of stout.

Maybe it varies, depending on the extract....

[homebrewaddict]

Originally posted by Beerconnoisseur
Well, saw off mah legs and call me shorty. Every extract I've brewed has been a nice brown color, with the clear exception of stout.

Maybe it varies, depending on the extract....

Funny thing, the last two beers I brewed (1. an 1845 clone, and 2. a standard brown ale) have both turned out LIGHTER in color than I wanted. The 1845 was supposed to be a dark red in color yet turned out maybe a dark gold (although the taste is dead on!), and the brown ale I just tried and it is a dark red! Oh well, even with extract, you can attain a spectrum of colors, although most likely not the one you were shooting for!:rolleyes:

[S.F.B.]

Originally posted by Beerconnoisseur
If you use malt extract, chances are very good that most of your beer will turn out a brown/black color. It's one of the tradeoffs to brewing with extract.


I agree with this...

...sort of. I was able to get some variety of color using extract with specialty grains. Since I started doing mini mash, I get much better colors in my final product.

[Brownbeard]

I do find that it is easier to get a lighter color with DME than LME. My LME brews are all dark.

[b3s]

while i'm a little disappointed in the color, i can't wait for this beer to be done...OG of 1.079 and after three days, the primary is still bubbling quite furiously (once per second) and the sediment is still swirling around a lot...i've had nothing but luck with white labs irish ale yeast and one of these times i'm going to remember to make a real starter and harvest several vials! fermentation kicked in after about 6 hours.

[chris1kanobi]

I disagree, I use Muttons Extra Light Dry Malt Extract and Wheat extract to make my extract Kolsch. It is the same color as the all-grain version that I make. I think that Dry Extract is lighter in color, and different brands do vary. I know that light colored beers can be made using mostly malt extract. I also do full volume boils, and I don't add the malt extract untill the end of the boil to avoid carmelization.

[b3s]

ok, i'm racking this one right now....the color did mellow out...just the shade of red i was going for...and WOW the maltiness of this one is excellent, and the hops profile (while low) is just what i was going for...i can taste the fuggles, but it's not overpowering...this one is going into the recipe book as a standby, and it's only going into the secondary!

i think the next time i make this i'll add another ounce of fuggles @ 60 and 4 ounces of british 80 crystal.

calling it maureen o'hara, and i think the british 80 will get the color right :D