How to get that yellow color?

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rockdemon

rockdemon

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Ive reallt started to like the yellow color in my favourite belgian beers. Ive never thought about it before i started brewing my own beers. Ive never gotten a beer with that yellow, almost lemonjuice color in my beers. De la senne brewery is a good example of that yellow color. i think that dupont and st. beranrdus also has it. is it a kind of malt?
Heres an example of what im talking about:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JUNJ-Gi3vAQ/TkMqBhWZpPI/AAAAAAAAAng/KhPD9scO_D0/s320/SANY1672.JPG
 
From the picture, the beer is hazy. I think it's just a light-colored beer, but with a lot of haze that makes it look yellow/orange.

So, use only very pale malts, then get a bunch of unconverted starches in your beer to cause the haze. Traditional recipes probably use unmalted wheat, but you get the same by simply adding a couple of teaspoons of normal wheat flour from your pantry to the boil. Flaked oats would probably work well too due to the presence of beta-glucans, another haze-forming starch. After a lot of cold storage, you'll probably need to shake the beer before pouring to get it cloudy again.

Also, if you want to try something entirely different, check this Wyeast product out. I've never used it, and I don't know if it's available to homebrewers, but it would be perfect for your endeavor:

Wyeast Tanal A
 
passedpawn said:
From the picture, the beer is hazy. I think it's just a light-colored beer, but with a lot of haze that makes it look yellow/orange.

So, use only very pale malts, then get a bunch of unconverted starches in your beer to cause the haze. Traditional recipes probably use unmalted wheat, but you get the same by simply adding a couple of teaspoons of normal wheat flour from your pantry to the boil. Flaked oats would probably work well too due to the presence of beta-glucans, another haze-forming starch. After a lot of cold storage, you'll probably need to shake the beer before pouring to get it cloudy again.

Also, if you want to try something entirely different, check this Wyeast product out. I've never used it, and I don't know if it's available to homebrewers, but it would be perfect for your endeavor:

Wyeast Tanal A
Click to expand...

The de la senne beers are yellow in color, and hazy. Ive gotten hazy beer at home but brownish not yellowish. I was thinking about wheat, so youre probably on to something there. In the beginning my beers became brownish in color(i accidentaly burned the grains during mashing) and hazy(coldhaze due to slow cooldown). its more the yelow color im after than the haziness. but ill try some wheat in my next belgian blonde
 
Color comes from melanoidins. The more melanoidins you have the deeper and redder the color. Getting yellow beer is a matter of minimizing melanoidin formation and that means minimum heat. Choose the palest malts you can get (few melanoidins because of low kilning temperature) and keep the boil as short as you possibly can.

Getting very pale (yellow) beer is difficult for home brewers because we typically use flame or electric elements to obtain the heat for the boil. Stem works somewhat better in this regard.

Oxidation also darkens beer so try to minimize the exposure of especially hot wort to air. Some use metabite in the kettle to reduce formation of this kind of color. Sounds awful to me but apparently some do it.
 
ajdelange said:
Color comes from melanoidins. The more melanoidins you have the deeper and redder the color. Getting yellow beer is a matter of minimizing melanoidin formation and that means minimum heat. Choose the palest malts you can get (few melanoidins because of low kilning temperature) and keep the boil as short as you possibly can.

Getting very pale (yellow) beer is difficult for home brewers because we typically use flame or electric elements to obtain the heat for the boil. Stem works somewhat better in this regard.

Oxidation also darkens beer so try to minimize the exposure of especially hot wort to air. Some use metabite in the kettle to reduce formation of this kind of color. Sounds awful to me but apparently some do it.
Click to expand...

Ive gone from 90 min to 60 min boil on my beers but i get some air to it when im sparging BIAB.
 
I think we should analyze the picture itself first. It looks heavily filtered. In the 'Instagram filter' days that we live in so many things are now artificially colored and saturated to appease our visual senses. I'm not sure that achieving the bright orangish-yellow color in that picture is possible with conventional malts other than adding orange-juice to your beer...

Getting the vivid yellow color is certainly achievable with base malts. When I make a pilsner I use about 95% pils malts and they are always pleasantly yellow.
 
kblankenship11 said:
I think we should analyze the picture itself first. It looks heavily filtered. In the 'Instagram filter' days that we live in so many things are now artificially colored and saturated to appease our visual senses. I'm not sure that achieving the bright orangish-yellow color in that picture is possible with conventional malts other than adding orange-juice to your beer...

Getting the vivid yellow color is certainly achievable with base malts. When I make a pilsner I use about 95% pils malts and they are always pleasantly yellow.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but their beers and other that ive stumbled upon are very yellow, i dont mean the normal pale color but yellow as in orange/lemon juice.
http://brasseriedelasenne.be/EN/

Ill pour one up when i get home and upload a pic
 
You could experiment with annatto powder. It's natural, used in cheese to get the yellow color. Pretty cheap on amazon. I'm not suggesting this is the best route to what you're doing, but might be an interesting diversion at some point. I've got it on my list for making cheddar, but was thinking about how it would work in beer.

Dog Fish Head uses it in their Theobroma.
 
passedpawn said:
You could experiment with annatto powder. It's natural, used in cheese to get the yellow color. Pretty cheap on amazon. I'm not suggesting this is the best route to what you're doing, but might be an interesting diversion at some point. I've got it on my list for making cheddar, but was thinking about how it would work in beer.

Dog Fish Head uses it in their Theobroma.
Click to expand...

cool! have to check it out!
 
kblankenship11 said:
I think we should analyze the picture itself first. It looks heavily filtered. In the 'Instagram filter' days that we live in so many things are now artificially colored and saturated to appease our visual senses. I'm not sure that achieving the bright orangish-yellow color in that picture is possible with conventional malts other than adding orange-juice to your beer...

Getting the vivid yellow color is certainly achievable with base malts. When I make a pilsner I use about 95% pils malts and they are always pleasantly yellow.
Click to expand...


ImageUploadedByHome Brew1407008840.400256.jpg
Heres the Brasseirie de la senne Zinnebir. All their beers have this color more or less. I love it


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I think you want to make a hazy beer in the 4 - 8 SRM range. I think I'd start around 5 or 6. That's the transition point between straw colors and golden colors.
 

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