Why is my brew sooo dark? Should be 3.5 SRM instead it's Black...

So the gf was out of town yesterday, so of course I decided to brew up some beers.

I'm not new to All Grain, I'm on batch 17 or so. My processes are pretty locked in but I had a major issue last night.

The Wheat beer I brewed should have had an SRM of around 3.5 instead it looked like it was a black IPA. WTF>?

Recipe:
4.5 # Belgian Pilsner Malt
4.5 # White Wheat
.33# Carapils
1 oz willamette (30, 15 & 1 minutes)
1 oz Corriander
1 oz orange peel

Mash temp 152 60 minutes
Mash out at 168 10 minutes

OG 1.054

Again, instead of a nice straw color it's almost as dark as my Black IPA. I am relentless when it comes to cleaning and santization so that isn't the problem.

I ordered my grains from Northern Brewer as I always do, do you think they messed up somehow?

Dark malts are hard to miss so I think you would have noticed if roasted or heavily caramelized malt was mixed in. That's a light enough beer that it isn't going to look too dark in the carboy, but keep in mind beers always look darker in the carboy than in the glass.

Where did you notice the color, coming out of the mashtun or in the fermentor?

nothing in that recipe would make your beer black. Sure you didn't mistake a grain for something darker? It's possibly they sent you a dunkleweizen recipe... lol

it's going to look darker in your carboy. Trust me.

but what does it matter anyway unless u are going to enter a contest.

Mouse turds in the mash tun, their 18 srm.


_

put a sample in your hydro tube and take a pic. Lets see how dark is dark. I had the same thoughts when i brewed a #9 clone. It didnt look black, but it was waaaaaaaaaay darker thatn i thought it should be. Once it's in a glass it looks about right though.

I've only had that happen once to me. Final product in the glass was much darker than it was supposed to be. I know that my issue came from not vourlaufing (spelling?) Correctly and getting some grains and stuff that ended up burning on the bottom of my kettle the taste was noticble too. But it was still very drinkable after aging 8 months.

something got scorched

I believe you made the first certified evil beer....that or your order got screwed up!

I'm guessing your order got screwed up as well.

The color was this dark coming directly from the mash tun so I know it wasn't scorched. I know it's always going to look darker in the carboy but even when I ran the wort thru my plate chiller it came out this color. When I get home tonight I'll pour a tasting glass just to be sure but I'm sure it'll still be crazy dark for the grains that I ordered. Thanks everyone for the suggestions

Good news: write the company and say that they sent you the wrong order with pictures to prove it

Did you mill your own grain? There could have been some decent amount of black patent or roasted barley dust in your mill that got into your mash from milling a previous stout or porter. I've personally seen that happen before.

If there was some iodine in your mash tun (not sure why), that could turn deep purple when the starches touched it. That's kind of a stretch, though.

Otherwise, your order was screwed up.

TB

Are you sure you didn't order Carafa? Even if so I don't think the amount you used would make it black.

My bet is a bad order. I've got screwed up orders before. However, this could turn out to be one of those "it was an oops, but turned out great.

Call the company and have them replace your order. If they push back, show them a pic.

I'll take a pic tonight and post it.

I'll also be calling and asking for a credit.

Really I hope this turns out (It was 1am by the time I was done cleaning and forgot to taste it). If it's good I'm calling it a "BuckWheat".

Must be a bad order. No way that grain bill got dark enough to appear black, unless you boiled for 5 hours and have a half gallon of syrup

I had the opposite happen to me about four months ago. I was making Belgian Dubbel, but the dark grains got left out and I ended up with a rather out-of-balance wheaty light Belgian beer. It didn't taste too great so I just added some centennial in a muslin bag to the keg and fixed it right up. Weird beer, but it was okay. Good luck with yours.

My bet is you got something instead of carapils... carafa as has been suggested.

ChillWill said:

My bet is you got something instead of carapils... carafa as has been suggested.

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+1 on this. I think they swapped CaraPils for Carafa, and at .33lb, you're beer is gonna be very, very dark. (I use 2oz of the Carafa III to make amber-colored beers).

What yeast was this? Your recipe looked like a Wit beer. In which case you've made a "Michael Jackson" (ie, a Black White Beer). I'll be here all week folks, tip your waitress!

Tiber_Brew said:

Did you mill your own grain? There could have been some decent amount of black patent or roasted barley dust in your mill that got into your mash from milling a previous stout or porter. I've personally seen that happen before.

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A long time ago, I heard someone suggest milling half of your base malt, then all your specialty grains, and then the rest of the base malt. This process is supposed to flush out the remnants of any darker malts you may have used. I've always milled this way and never had a problem with darker grains getting into a lighter beer.

If you replace the Carapils with carafa:

1= 14 SRM
2= 17 SRM
3= 19 SRM

Unless this was a smaller than 5 gallon batch, even carafa wouldn't make it black. Must have had some dark malts left in the mill, or they accidentally snuck some in.