Color Question

This is my first brew. Brewer's Best Continental Pilsner. When I bought the kit two of the guys at the LHBS said that was their first kit and it was relatively easy and that it would turn out like an ale if you are unable to get the temps down for lagering (I think it says this in the directions as well). Anyway, the brew went well, I hit OG and FG, spent almost 3 weeks in the primary before I racked it (I wanted to start my second) where it spent another 2 weeks. Bottled it last weekend and today was day 7. I know it needs a few more days for conditioning but I was anxious to try one. It was good tasting, smelled good, the color just seems off. BB says it should be straw. The primary was in a closet and then I had to move it after about 10 days in which I just placed the carboy in the box out in my garage (temps were pretty cool during that time). Just wondering if it was something I did or if this is the color it should have been.

Without seeing recipe, we would have no way of knowing. But congrats... It looks delicious!

You will usually have a darker colored beer when using extract. Also if you didn't do a full boil you will have more caramelization, which causes a darker beer.

It was an extract and the LME was darker so I guess that could be it. I did have a nice rolling boil, unless you mean the whole 5 gallons?

jetmechG550 said:

It was an extract and the LME was darker so I guess that could be it. I did have a nice rolling boil, unless you mean the whole 5 gallons?

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I mean the whole 5 gallons. If you boiled around 2-3 gallons it will end up darker.

pstrohs said:

I mean the whole 5 gallons. If you boiled around 2-3 gallons it will end up darker.

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Gotcha, thanks. I just boiled 3 gallons. On a side note with extract kits can you do a 5 gallon boil if you have a pot capable of doing that much or do the recipes state to only do 2 1/2-3 gallons to make it easier to boil that much water?

I think you can do a full boil if you have a kettle big enough and a burner strong enough. You need to boil more than 5 gals because some will boil off.

jetmechG550 said:

Gotcha, thanks. I just boiled 3 gallons. On a side note with extract kits can you do a 5 gallon boil if you have a pot capable of doing that much or do the recipes state to only do 2 1/2-3 gallons to make it easier to boil that much water?

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You can do either or. It is better to do a full boil but you can get great tasting beers without doing so. If you do a full boil, you will need to adjust your hops since you will also get better hop utilization.

Thanks for the info