Russian Imperial Stout too light in color?

I brewed an Old Rasputin clone and it turned out way lighter than I was expecting. Tasted good from bottling sample but after being poured into a pint glass it looked more like a brown ale than an imperial stout. What happened? Should I be worried or is it a failing of the recipe? I did notice that only light malt extract is used as the base malt rather than dark which i thought was a bit strange.

Post the recipe from your brew day.

Oops. Thought I had it on here. This was the recipe I used:

3.75 lbs Briess Lt DME
6.6 lbs Coopers Lt LME (15 minutes)
1.0 lb Carastan Malt (35° L)
0.5 lb Brown Malt (60°L)
0.5 lb Chocolate Malt
1.0 lb Crystal Malt (120° L)
0.25 lb Roasted Black Barley
~3 oz. Culster - 60 min
~1 oz. Northern Brewer - 2 min
~ 0.75 oz. Centennial - 2 min
White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) - Though I'll likely use Notty or S-04.

It's a good idea to use light extract and get your color from the specialty grains, so I wouldn't say the light extract is the problem. If you're worried about the color, I would double the roasted barley and add a little black patent next time, maybe 8oz at most.

With the Carastan and the Crystal 120 that seems like an awful lot of crystal! Just curious how it tastes, and what was the FG?

I like to use debittered black malt in recipes like RIS for color with less astringency. About 1/4 pound of Debittered Black will really increase the color and roast without making it too tongue-puckering.

I brewed an all grain version of yours and also noticed it was a bit lighter than i was anticipating. That recipe is from a BYO clone FYI

+1 to the black pat. and more roast. But I like a black roast/burnt/coffee flavor to my stouts

I should mention that my LHBS did not have anything labeled as Roasted Black Barley. They had either roasted barley which was around 220 degrees L or black patent malt which was upwards of 500 degress L. I did elect to use 0.25lbs of black patent malt and no roasted barley. But isn't black patent malt technically roasted barley anyway? So i am wondering should i use some roasted barley as well and should I up the black patent malt. I was thinking of doing maybe 0.5lbs of roasted barley and 0.5-0.75lbs of black patent malt the next time I brew this. I've had it bottled for about 2 months and the taste is very good but is a bit mellower and less dark than Old Rasputin. It may change with age some more but I think its in need of a bit more darker roasted malt. I'm looking to get more of the big bitter dark chocolate and smooth bourbon taste that is so lovely in Old Rasputin. Do these changes sound decent?

Black pat. is mostly for color, roasted barley will add color and the burnt/nutty/coffee flavor as well. I would leave the black pat.at 1/4lb and add 1/2-1 lb of roasted, I regularly use 1 1/2-2lbs but I really enjoy the roasted flavor.