What Color is this?

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novahokie09

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I just finished my 5th AG brew today, and I'm curious about the color.

I attempted to brew an Ordinary Bitter for my brew club competition, but I'm afraid the brew turned out too dark. My OG and IBU were spot on, and I confirmed the bitterness by testing the wort before pitching yesat. According to Beersmith, the recipe is a 10 SRM while Hopville is predicting 9.5 SRM. To me, it's looking much darker into the 30 SRM.

Here's a picture, please chime in with your opinion on the color.

 
To me, it looks brown, maybe 20-25 Srm. I think it would be black if it were in the 30s.
 
Recipe? That will make commenting easier.

My guess is 1) you used extract or 2) HBS swapped a grain on you.
 
18 Srm lol

image.jpg
 
It's an all grain recipe.

3406 g - Thomas Fawcett Marris Otter
210 g - Muntons Crystal Malt 60L
45 g - Black Malt

Hop Schedule
19 g - Target 9.6% AA at 60 min
14 g - East Kent Goldings 6.7% AA at 30 min
7 g - East Kent Goldigns 6.7% AA at Flameout

I added Whirlfloc at knockout and 1/4 tsp of Wyeast nutrient at 15 minutes with a 75 minute total boil time. Started with 7.25 gallon and boiled off 1.6 gallon during the 75 minute boil.

I wish I could copy and paste the BeerSmith recipe, but I'm a noob.
 
Agree with CPDawg, definitely in the mid-teens, any change you can get a pic with a white background and a comparable commercial beer next to it though? And yeah, 30 SRM would be black. How about a Sam Adam's next to it if you've got it around, looks about the same from here. You could always use some of the dilution methods (described elsewhere in this forum or at http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-make-your-own-srm-tester.html) to more accurately test color.

More than anything though, what does it taste like? Aside from color, if it tastes like an Ordinary Bitter and lines up with numbers otherwise, go for it.
 
That looks about right. I guessed 17 SRM from the first picture.

It's a little dark for an ordinary bitter, but not really out of line for a special bitter or ESB. You could still enter it, and see what happens! It is a little too dark for "light copper", though.
 
Yooper has a good eye.

My guess is a 18 from the new picture. That would be 1/4 tsp of Kinkomans soy sauce mixed with 4 tsp of water.
 
I got a 13 Srm at hopville, wondering if your black malt was ultra black.
 
I appreciate everyone's feedback. I'm going to let it ferment and see how it looks in two weeks. I'm hoping it will lighten.

OG was 1.038, and I'm predicting it to finish out around 1.011/1.010 because I mashed thinned at 152 and it dropped to 149 during the hour. The ABV should be 3.4%-3.7% after fermentation. Calculated IBU are 30.4 with Tinseth.

Yooper, do you think I should enter it as a special over a standard? It doesn't have the ABV to fall under standard, but I think the judges will have a harder time differentiating between ABV rather than the color. Also, thanks for the feedback and nice call on 17 SRM.
 
I appreciate everyone's feedback. I'm going to let it ferment and see how it looks in two weeks. I'm hoping it will lighten.

OG was 1.038, and I'm predicting it to finish out around 1.011/1.010 because I mashed thinned at 152 and it dropped to 149 after an hour. The ABV should be 3.4% after fermentation. Calculated IBU are 30.4 with Tinseth.

Yooper, do you think I should enter it as a special over a standard? It doesn't have the ABV to fall under standard, but I think the judges will have a harder time differentiating between ABV rather than the color. Also, thanks for the feedback and nice call on 17 SRM.

No, if it tastes like an ordinary bitter (standard bitter), then even though it's a little dark it will do much better in competition as a bitter. Appearance is 3 total points, (clarity, head, color), so if you lose one point there it's not a big deal!
 
A good judge will know if it isn't big enough to be an ESB. Keep in mind that appearance (of which color is only one element) is only worth 3 point total out of 50. So it's a bit out of the style parameters for color, but if everything else is dialed in, it shouldn't have any substantial impact on your score.
 
I've learned to never trust hopville. So many terribly inaccurate recipes on there. I'm not sure if they are user submissions or what but they need to clean it up a little. Used to be one of my go-to sites.
 
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