Regarding color

jester22151 · 01-30-2008, 01:20 PM

I am a newbie and have just completed cooking up my second batch. At least for the moment I am using DME for brewing and I had a question regarding hot to get the color I want out of the beer I am amaking.

In my first batch, I used two 3 lb bags of amber DME and I got a very dark beer that is currently sitting in my secondary.

In my second batch I wanted to make some lighter that would resemble a coors ormiller lite in color so I bought two bags of Golden Light DME and after boiling the wart and adding the hops and everything it is almost identical in color to the first batch.

I checked the bottom of the pot and there was nothing scorched on the bottom so I know that I didn't burn it, but could I be cooking it to long and in effect causing my beer to be this dark, or is there some part of the process that I am missing?

SRFeldman79 · 01-30-2008, 01:27 PM

how long are you boiling? and how much water are you adding to the wort in your fermenter before pitching the yeast? are you steeping any grains?

SuperiorBrew · 01-30-2008, 01:30 PM

generally the smaller the boil the darker the wort will end up. if you are boiling 2 gallons it will be darker than if you were boiling 3 gallons. Extra light DME and boiling the largest amount you can will result in the lightest colored beer.
Plus you have to watch any additional grains you are using for their color

jester22151 · 01-30-2008, 01:32 PM

Iwas told to boil it for an hour and a half, I did not steep any grains and I put 2 gallons of spring water in before I put in the 2 gallons of wort and poured another gallon of water on top, then I aerated the wort for about 10 mins and pitched the yeast.

SuperiorBrew · 01-30-2008, 01:36 PM

a hour is more than enough. You should also use the search to look up late extract or late extract edition. You will find lots of good info

Jim Karr · 01-30-2008, 08:13 PM

By all means, add the majority of your extract just a few minutes before flameout. Start with a quarter to a third of your fermentables at the first hop addition, then boil the specified time.

Five to seven minutes before the fire goes off, stir in the rest. (Of course, you will turn off the flame while stirring in the extract, then fire on again.)

**the_bird** · 01-30-2008, 08:20 PM

Remember, too, that beer sitting in a fementer looks a lot darker than beer sitting in a pint glass, just because you're looking at a much greater volume of it. Light has a hard time passing through a full carboy even when the beer inside is pretty light in color.