Color problem

Ok today I made a Pilsner and a Helles style. The srm is way off. Ingredients in the Pilsner is 9.5 lb of pilsner malt and.25 lb of carahell boiled for 60 min. Helles 9 lb of pilsner and .5 lb 60 min boil. Both 60 min mash here is the color 17 srm! Same water. Any ideas?

Sounds like the wrong grains to me

Im not sure whats going on in your case but i did dipa that was way darker than predicted (i dont remember numbers now but wort was similar in color to yours where it should be around 11 srm or so) but after fermentation it got to much lighter and i gues sits where its suppose to be. Interesting note, i was doing split fermentation with two different yeast strains and one yeast attenuated better than the other (1.012 vs 1.021) and lower attenuation correlates with darker color (that kind of make sense)

I wonder if your .25 of Cara was actually a crystal malt.

elleaughto said:

Sounds like the wrong grains to me

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Agreed. One or both of those malts are not what they were supposed to be.

Thanks guys. Mon I'll call Northern Brewer and see if it's possible. It's their kits for the all grain Helles and Czech Pilsner.

Passload said:

Thanks guys. Mon I'll call Northern Brewer and see if it's possible. It's their kits for the all grain Helles and Czech Pilsner.

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What does it taste like? Wort from a pilsner mash will be quite sweet. Also with pils and a bit of CaraHell there should be no noticeable roastiness, toffee or deep caramel flavors.

Maybe you got the Weyermans Boh. Pilsner dark floor malt. It's 5-8 L..