This Wit is not white. What did I do?

waterse · 07-14-2008, 03:33 AM

I am curently brewing my first beer, Brewer's Best Witbeir extract kit. I fermented for a week in the primary, fermentation seemed to go ok but the beer looks like a brown ale. I racked to a secondary mostly to see what it would do and it's still very dark. What might I have done wrong and what's the probably end result? Should I bother bottling?

RICLARK · 07-14-2008, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by waterse

I am curently brewing my first beer, Brewer's Best Witbeir extract kit. I fermented for a week in the primary, fermentation seemed to go ok but the beer looks like a brown ale. I racked to a secondary mostly to see what it would do and it's still very dark. What might I have done wrong and what's the probably end result? Should I bother bottling?

Post your recipe and we can help ya brother!

Donasay · 07-14-2008, 03:39 AM

if it is extract you may have carmelized the wort by boiling the extract over to high a heat for to long a time. Additionally, wheat makes it more white, so you might want to look into adding more of that next time.

I did an all grain wit and it used 4 lbs of wheat and 6 lbs of grain.

z987k · 07-14-2008, 04:05 AM

You used liquid extract I'm assuming? If so, it's all but impossible for it not to be at least orange.

waterse · 07-14-2008, 04:20 AM

The kit used a can of liquid malt extract and a small amount of dry extract as well as 8 ounces each of pressed wheat and oat grains that were steeped. It's not orange, it's a dark, very slightly reddish brown. Scorched it? When boiling should it be a continuous rolling boil or is that too hot?

**Coastarine** · 07-14-2008, 04:34 AM

you just can't make a wit colored to style using extract in my opinion.

waterse · 07-14-2008, 04:35 AM

The whole recipe is:

3.3 lbs Briess Bavarian wheat LME
1 lb. Briess CBW Bavarian wheat DME
8 oz Flaked wheat
8 oz Flaked oats
1 lb. Briess crushed 2-row pale malt
1 oz vanguard hops
1 oz sterling hops
spice additives

The flaked oats and wheat and the crushed malt were steeped in a steeping bag for 20 minutes at approx 165 degrees and total boil was 60 minutes. I removed the pot from the heat when adding the LME, but I did keep the heat pretty high during the boil.

z987k · 07-14-2008, 04:39 AM

Coastarine is right, you can't make a wit color with extract. You can try late extract addition's to help get the color down, but there's no way you're getting a super pale white beer with extract.

homebrewer_99 · 07-14-2008, 04:41 AM

Lesson learned: steer away from LME unless you are making a dark brew.

LME is always darker than DME which is darker than grain.

Switch to DME and read up on the late addition method if you want to brew light colored beer.

waterse · 07-14-2008, 04:47 AM

To be honest I'm not really concerned about the color if it tastes good it can be blue for all I care. I just worried that since it was so dark I may have done something wrong that might make it taste bad.